Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai and China! As covid-19 continues to plague the US, and you are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside, avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world can look like after a recovery from covid-19 begins. Once things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable. In Shanghai, life has returned mostly to normal.
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Life in Shanghai
Happy New Year! I hope that this first entry of 2021 finds all of you continuing to stay safe and healthy. I know 2020 was a difficult year for many of you and while I know that turning the calendar to a new year won’t magically change anything, I hope that you, as I do, enter 2021 with optimism that things can and will improve! I hope that the first few days have been a good start to 2021 and that you all have a safe, happy, and most importantly healthy new year ahead!
As you can tell from the title, most of this post will highlight my photos from my amazing trip to Harbin! However, before I do that, I want to update you about my life in Shanghai. First for a covid-19 update. While the vaccines in the US are making headlines, China has also developed it’s own vaccine (the SinoPharm vaccine). Some of my colleagues at SJTU will be getting that vaccine (I will have the opportunity to during the next round of sign ups). So, I’ll keep you all up to date on that end. In terms of the number of cases, there have been a few small outbreaks in China (10s of cases). However, the government takes those cases very seriously, so people who traveled to those areas are required to quarantine for 14 days. This is the main benefit of the contact tracing. In terms of numbers (based on the numbers from SHINE News), there are currently 94 active cases in Shanghai (all imported) and the recovery rate sits at ~ 93.4%. For China as a whole, the recovery rate is at 94.2%. Hopefully the vaccines as well as following social distancing guidelines will yield similar results elsewhere as well!
In terms of Astronomy, this was a mildly productive week. I spent a lot of time putting together a virtual poster on my Dark Energy Survey (DES) Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation research for the upcoming AAS meeting (if any of my Astronomer friends are registered to participate, please check out my poster!). Other than that, I’ve spent most of my time getting adjusted to working with mock simulations and working to understand how to take “mock observations” using that data. Hopefully this week, I’ll have some more exciting updates to share!
Now for what you’ve all been waiting for, Harbin!!
Harbin!
For those of you who are unfamiliar, Harbin is a city in north east portion of China (north of Beijing) with over 11 million people. Harbin is located in the Heilongjiang Province, China’s northernmost province. Harbin is famous for its snow and ice festivals, which you’ll get to experience here! Moreover, Harbin is very cold! The temperatures had highs of -20 Celsius with lows of ~ -27 Celsius. In Fahrenheit, those temperatures are about a high of -4 and a low of -17. Keep in mind these are temperatures without windchill, so it is even colder there. It’s like a polar vortex, but for months. While I have experienced plenty of cold days in Saratoga and Ann Arbor, this was a new level of cold I had never felt before! Just to go outside, I wore ski socks, boots, two base layers, tights (sometimes 2), pants (or snowpants), a puffy jacket, my northface coat, gloves, a hat (sometimes 2) and a scarf. One of the things I was most looking forward to about this trip was seeing snow!! I haven’t seen any since spring of 2019, which was so long ago! So, I was very happy to see it upon arrival!
First off, I had an amazing adventure exploring Harbin and the snow and ice festivals! I had a fantastic time with my friends Hannah Maia, Anton, Lea, Yujin, and Cathie! It was a great travel group and I couldn’t have asked for better travel buddies!
Since Harbin is far from Shanghai, we had to fly. While under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be a big deal, this was actually the first time I’ve flown since arriving in China in October of 2019. So, since many of you have likely never been in an Airport in China, this is what it looks like (which is pretty similar to a US airport)!
We arrived at our lovely hotel in Harbin on Thursday afternoon. So, we only did a little bit of exploring on Thursday, but there was still a lot to see!
While we were out walking, we came across a group of older people who were dancing/exercising outside in the -22 C weather! So, Hannah Maia and I joined in!
And of course we spent the evening celebrating New Year’s back in our hotel! Just like in the US, there are New Year’s celebrations broadcast on TV. We watched one sponsored by TikTok live from Shanghai!
Sun Island: The Snow Festival
The first highlights of this trip was the snow sculpture festival on Sun Island! As you can see from the assortment of photos below, this is a massive festival with all kinds of different gigantic sculptures. There were castles, dragons, cats, and replicas of works of art all made out of snow!
As you can see these are massive sculptures! I was stunned by how large and detailed these all were! It was breathtaking!
While the sculptures were amazing. My favorite part was sledding! We got to slide down some of the slopes on our buts as well as on plastic slides! There was even a high speed ice slide that felt like you were on a luge track!
I haven’t gone sledding in years! This transported me back to childhood and sledding down the hill in high rock park. I had a huge grin on my face the entire time!
One interesting things about Harbin was that there were birch trees! I didn’t realize these grew in China, yet alone outside of the northeast! So, it was nice to see something that reminded me of home!
The Harbin Snow and Ice Festival: A real Winter Wonderland
On Friday Evening, we had the pleasure of going to the 22nd Annual Harbin Snow and Ice Festival! As you’ll see below, this is such a magical place! All the castles, statues, and structures lit up (using LED lights embedded in the ice) truly brought the whole area to life!
As you can see the festival is amazingly magical! The way it was lit up made everything look gorgeous, like it was part of a fantasy land! Despite the cold, I couldn’t help but want to explore and see as much of it as possible! It was so much more amazing than I ever expected it to be.
We ended the ice festival by ringing the giant bell set up at the ice festival. It’s traditionally rung three times for good luck (which didn’t exactly happen)!
While the whole festival was amazing, One of my favorite parts was this series of concentric rings made of ice! It looked super futuristic and we had fun sliding around! Almost like we were in the space station!
Downtown Harbin!
Even though there was so much to see in the Ice and Snow Festivals, I’m really glad that we got to explore Downtown Harbin, particularly the large pedestrian street as well. We spent parts of Friday afternoon and Saturday exploring the area. The pedestrian street was lined with different ice sculptures, depicting mythic scenes, animals, and even advertisements! 🙂
On top of all the ice festivities, there was even another Ice Fair directly on the river that runs through Harbin! The ice is frozen 2 meters thick there, so it’s incredibly sturdy! Unlike the others which were artistic, this one was entirely games and activities. They had bumper cars, zorbs, and sleds!
We even went on the Crazy Octopus ride, which drove us around in circles on a giant inflatable octopus attached to a jeep!
In addition to exploring all the ice festivities, we went and saw the famous Saint Sophia Church. This is a Russian style church built in Harbin. Since Harbin is so close to Russia, the Russian influence is quite strong.
Food in Harbin
While I have an easy time finding vegan/vegetarian food in Shanghai, sadly, it was not quite as easy in Harbin. However, thanks to a lot of effort and help by my friends, especially Cathie and Hannah Maia, I was always able to eat something (and it was generally great)!
On Thursday night, we celebrated New Year’s Eve with a Hot Pot dinner! I enjoyed all different kinds of vegetables (mushrooms, spinach, cabbage, potato, bamboo,…) as well as a ton of different tofu!
On Friday, we enjoyed Russian food for lunch! I had vegetarian borscht for the first time!
After the ice festival on Friday, we enjoyed tons of Shao Kao (barbecue skewers)! I ate so much vegetables! The spicy and grilled veggies were great!
However, my favorite meal was on Saturday, when we had tofu bao buns (Thanks to Yujin for finding them)!! They were delicious!
One of my favorite food experiences was eating the frozen food outside! At the ice festival, they were selling frozen fruit, preserved in sugar. I got strawberries, which were great and reminded me of the strawberry smoothies I used to get growing up! I also even enjoyed a peach ice cream bar earlier in the day! Nothing quite like eating frozen food when you yourself are frozen! 🙂
Jewish Life in Harbin
Interestingly, Harbin has a long Jewish history. Following the Russian Revolution, many Russian Jews fled south to China and established a community in Harbin. They stayed in China until the early 1950s following the formation of Israel and the fall of Chang Kai-Shek. Harbin still has a synagogue, which today serves as a museum. Unfortunately, the museum was closed for renovation. However, we were still able to see the Synagogue and feel the Jewish presence within the city. If you zoom in on the center photo, you can see the star of David on top of the dome!
Beardcicles in Harbin!
Now perhaps the most funny (at least for my friends) part of the trip was the way that my beard would freeze each time I went outside! Although I tried to cover my face with a mask, that would cause moisture to build up and freeze on my classes, which was not ideal. However, beardcicles are nothing new (they happen when I run) and led to some very funny photos! Everyone (including our taxi drivers) thought my beard looked hilarious!
The Seven Stages of Beardcicles!
As you can all tell, this was a fantastic trip! I’m so glad that I was able to go and explore Harbin! This was my first time leaving Shanghai and its neighboring provinces, so I’m really excited that I was finally able to start exploring China! Hopefully this is the first of many exciting trips around China in 2021! I also am so glad that I got to experience Harbin with such great and wonderful friends! Thank you to Hannah Maia, Anton, Cathie, Yujin, and Lea for making this experience all the more memorable!
Next week will be a quieter, work focused week, but I’m sure I’ll have some new and interesting things to share with you all and to reflect upon.
I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week and experiencing my trip to Harbin through these photos! If there’s anything you would like to know about my life in Shanghai or my trip to Harbin, please let me know!
In peace,
Jesse
Trivia
Also, as promised, here are the answers to the trivia questions that I wrote!
Famous Last Names
For each question, provide the last name in common between the two people described.
- Director of The Batman and War of the Planet of the Apes and the first actor to play Superman?
- Matt and George Reeves
- The creator of Doonsebury and the Prime Minister of Canada?
- Gary and Justin Trudeau
- Actor known for his roles in Whiplash and Spider-Man and the founder of The Ringer and former ESPN talking head?
- J.K. and Bill Simmons
- Senior Senator from New York and comedian known for her role in movies such as Trainwreck?
- Amy and Chuck Schumer
- Musician who was part of the Hollies and CSN and a former two-time NBA MVP?
- Graham and Steve Nash
- Secretary of State under President George W. Bush and retired Jamaican Olympian sprinter?
- Colin and Asafa Powell
- Formula One race car driver with the most wins of all time and the original actress who portrayed Sarah Connor in the Terminator Franchise?
- Lewis and Linda Hamilton
- The original actor who played Dumbledore and the vice-President elect of the United States?
- Richard and Kamala Harris
- Actress known for her work in Arrival, American Hustle, and Man of Steel and the Second first lady of the United States?
- Amy and Abigail Adams
- Actor known for his diversity of roles including Batman Begins, The Machinist, and The Fighter and a professional footballer for the Tottenham Hot Spurs?
- Christian and Gareth Bale
Characters from the Bible
- This father of Noah is described as having the longest lifespan of anyone in the Bible?
- Methuselah
- Who are the two sons of Joseph (adopted by Jacob)? — Corrected due to an error on my part.
- Ephraim and Menashe
- Who was the King of Israel who was succeeded by King David?
- King Saul
- Who was the third child of Adam and Eve?
- Seth
- Who is responsible for cutting Samson’s hair?
- Delilah
- Who is the mother of the prophet Samuel whose exultant hymn of thanksgiving is described in the Bible?
- Hannah
- This sister of Moses led the women in dancing and celebration after successfully crossing the Red Sea?
- Miriam
- The Talmud names only Four angels, they are Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and who?
- Uriel
- Who was the leader of the Israelites that sent spies into the city of Jericho?
- Joshua
- Who is the mother of Abraham’s other son, Ishmael?
- Hagar
Happy New Year, Jesse. Let’s hope that 2021 will be a better year for everyone than 2020 was for very many.
Those are incredible photos of the ice and snow festival in Harbin. I wonder how old this festival is. Hard to imagine that it would have been something favored by Mao back in the day. Those works of art are so delightfully constructed. They remind me of mandala sand images in that they are presumably not meant to have any permanence and yet they require so much skill to create.
Take care – and stay well.
Hi Bernard! Happy New Year! I’m so glad that you liked the photos. The first festival was in 1963, though the annual festival began in 1985. I completely agree about the level of artistry required for ice sculptures! Hope you have a safe and healthy start to the year.
Hi Jesse,
Wow! What an awesome trip! Thanks so much for sharing it all with us. This post really transported me to Harbin! I loved seeing all of the snow and ice carvings. Do you know, for the snow, do they import it and how long do the artists take to make the statues. I love how things were as fantastical as giant cats to as classical as castles and recreations of paintings! I also love the contrast between the bulky snow and the light and fantastical ice pieces you took pictures of. Especially some of the ones downtown look so whimsical and fantastic! For the main festival, the way all the ice is shown, it sort of looks like popsicles! All of the bright and vibrant colors, especially in the towers. I thought the pictures in the tunnel definitely gave off a Star Trek vibe! Very cool! I also loved seeing the rocket! Was that just there, or an ad for something! Everything looks so magical in your pictures and you all look like you’re having so much fun. Do you know, with the ad for Beijing 2022, are events happening in Harbin? I like seeing the contrast of physical and ice sculptures in downtown Harbin. Also, the giant cartoony warrior statue was great! I can definitely see the Russian influences in the architecture. I’m glad that even though you couldn’t go to the Jewish museum that you could at least see the synagogue. It looks like you all had a fantastic time! I’m so glad you have such a great group of friends! Also, I’m glad you were able to find some vegetarian food. The hot pots and frozen strawberries look wonderful! I remember when I went to Sesto a couple years ago, which has a lot of German influences, that some of the meals were great, while others were stinkers. How was the borscht? The skewers and bao buns also look amazing! I’m so glad you were able to explore and see a completely different part of China! I also love the beard-cicles! It hasn’t been that cold yet here. I hope you have another safe, healthy, and productive week. Get some rest, you earned it!
Love,
Emmet
Thanks Emmet! I’m so glad you felt like you were transported to Harbin! I hope that you get to go as well! I believe that the snow all comes from the surrounding area. The ice is mined from the river that runs through Harbin (we could see them doing it). Our taxi driver told us that people start building the sculptures in October/November, so it’s a long process. I agree that it did remind me of popsicles (like the rocket pops we used to eat!). The rocket was a replica of the one China just sent to the moon! I know that the Olympic Games will do skiing in Beidahu (where Hannah Maia went skiing, which isn’t far away, plus the ice festival will be up then, so there will likely be some synergy). The borscht was good, although apparently this one was more tomato based than beet based. I hope you also have a safe, healthy, and productive week!
Jesse,
I really feel as if I traveled along to Harbin with you and your friends. I loved seeing the snow sculptures, which were so enormous. I have never seen anything of that scale before. It is hard to say which is my favorite, but of course and predictably, I am drawn to the cat. And I agree with you that the ice sculptures all lit up in vibrant colors look like a fantasy land. With the snow and ice festivals, riding an octopus on ice, eating frozen strawberries in frigid weather, sliding down hills, and enjoying your time with a great group of friends–this was a trip to remember!
Thank you, too, for sharing the Jewish history of Harbin. It makes sense that Russian Jews would cross into China, and the buildings and cuisine with the borscht seem to have a real Russian influence.
I checked my answers for the trivia questions, and I did alright!
Life has been quiet here for us. Cases are rising in our area, and we are really laying low. I received sourdough bread starter, and I made my first loaf of sourdough bread. It turned out well, I think. I finished my essay on a Victorian ornithologist, Jemima Blackburn, and now I will turn my attention to getting my classes in shape for the new semester.
Your blog is one of your best. I loved seeing you dancing and smiling and sledding and more. And your beard!!! Although I was concerned when you decided to move to China for your postdoc, now I am so glad you are there and enjoying life as you pursue your research. Share this one on Facebook.
Love,
Mom
Hi Mom! I’m so glad you enjoyed this entry! I knew you would love the cat when I saw it! And yes, this will definitely be a very memorable trip! I’m glad you found the Jewish history interesting as well.
I’m glad that you, Dad, and Emmet are smartly staying safe and not leaving the house much. Though the situation in Saratoga is concerning. I’m glad that you can experience some joy through me and wish that you could all come and join me in Shanghai.
Wowie!!!
What a grand time you had!!
Loved seeing all the ice sculptures…
Please print that picture of all of you in front of those gigantic ice buildings!
You almost look like silhouettes!
(That’s some wisdom passed on from Bompa.., to choose one or two special pictures to enlarge from a great adventure!… and then hang up on your wall!)
Happy New Year!!
🌹🌺♥️
Hi Aunt Pam! I thought you’ld like seeing the sculptures! That’s a great suggestion. I’ll have to see where I can print them out in color and on good paper (my office printer wouldn’t be good)! Glad you enjoyed this post!
Jesse, I enjoyed your post and all of the amazing pictures that you shared of Harbin! I’m so glad that you are able to explore and have met so many wonderful friends!
Thanks Peg! It was really great to get to share this experience with friends! I’m glad that you enjoyed seeing all the photos! I hope that you, Art, and the rest of your family are staying safe!
Hey Jesse,
It’s awesome you had such a great time in Harbin! The pictures of the snow sculptures were really magnificent! I hope the beardcicles didn’t hurt too much. Also the panda backpack in the airport looked cool. Do you think you’ll get one? And have you started thinking about what your next trip will be?
Happy New Year!
Hi Ryan! Thanks! The snow and ice festivals were breathtaking. Thankfully beardcicles don’t actually hurt at all, it just stiffens up my face a bit! I’ll definitely get more panda things, I even got a little panda matroyshka doll! I’m actually going to Xi’an with some different friends in about 1.5 weeks to see the Terra Cotta warriors, but after that, I’m not sure what’s next! Hope you have a safe and healthy start to the new year!
Happy New Year, Jesse! Wonderful post as usual! I can’t get over how beautiful (and cold) Harbin looks. The snow sculptures are just incredible. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us over the past year. We miss you! Wishing you a very happy and healthy New Year! – Peri and Crew
Thanks Peri! I’m glad that you enjoyed seeing the Harbin snow and ice festivals! It is such an amazing thing to experience. I miss you all, too. I hope that you have a safe and healthy new year!
Jesse,
Your pictures were AMAZING and your experiences double
amazing! So glad we are part of your travels and adventures.
Makes we want to return to Shanghai .
Happy New Year from your envious U.S. friends.
Jay & Georgia
Thanks Jay and Georgia! I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed seeing the photos from the Harbin Ice Festival! It was amazing to experience. I hope that you’re able to return to Shanghai as well. It’s an amazing city and I’ve loved living here. Happy New Year to you both as well!