Simple Things - Ice Chairs (Nihao, Cupcake!)

This is about as simple as it gets! An ice chair that has seen better days, but it sure makes for a fun afternoon!

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Two friends and I go out once a week to take photographs around the city. This day we picked Houhai Lake which has been frozen over for the winter. We decided to rent ourselves some ice chairs and picks (used like ski poles) and explore the frozen lake.

These are my photography friends and an Australian friend visiting from Germany.

When you need a break from your ice chair, you can stop here and play ring toss. Perhaps you could win a prize. While I was taking photos, the money collecter came over and told me I couldn't take photos. Since living in China, my personality has completely changed. In English, I asked him why? Why not? I took another picture or two and he left. I then decided I wasn't getting very good pics anyway so I moved on. In China, if someone can't give me a good reason why I should or shouldn't do something, I just go forward with it (within reason). It's just the way you have to be here. So many people are uninformed and insist they have correct information when in fact, they do not. So, you learn more and more to trust your gut, and do what you want or need to do until you find otherwise.

These boys were amused by us. They followed us around the ice and loved when I took photos of them. The boy on the left could speak some English. In Chinese he told me the ring toss game wasn't any good. Later on he caught up with me again and told me in English that he was going to be in New York and DC over Spring Festival (next week) to play the flute with his school! Good for him!

Who knew? A Cloakroom on ice! I'd never seen one of these before. Have you? Those white things are racks for your shoes. And you can see people sitting on benches in front of them putting on their ice skates.

Alright, so if you were unimpressed with the cloakroom on ice because you have seen them one too many times, I bet you have never seen a sheep robot that carries children in a rickshaw! Have you? I'd only wished that I caught a photo of one of these lovely things actually carrying a child. They seemed to be more popular over in the child section of the frozen lake. When I bring my kids back this week, I'll have to find one with a child in it or see if my youngest is small enough to take a ride! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity if ever there was one!

You do agree that these robots look like they should have a starring role in a horror film, don't you? We were pretty creeped out so we decided to take care of this one before she came back to haunt us in our dreams. Think Twighlight Zone where this thing keeps turning up in your hometown and follows you around Target, Walmart, the supermarket. Maybe she shows up at your son's soccer game, your daughter's basketball game, your husband's weekend cricket match. No matter where you go, she is there, coming towards you. You....CAN'T...GET...AWAY....

And then she invites her friends.....(that first one is Bono in Chinese ice robot form).

I'm not exactly sure what these guys were supposed to be doing. They just sat in the middle of the ice the whole time we were there. They each had a metal square can at their feet. Perhaps they were meant to go around the ice and collect trash? Either way, they didn't seem to mind our shenanigans. My friend slid me by them more than one time so I could get some closer up pictures.

Here's a pretty good one. This is the guy on the right.

Here's the guy on the left.

Here's a chain of ice chairs that passed us by. See how they place their feet on the ice chair in front of them to stay connected. This one had an ice bicycle in the front to propel them faster forward. This group looks as if they won a prize at the Ring Toss on Ice game.

Ah, back to our security guard/trash collector. He wasn't fazed at all when our friend posed with his imaginary friend, Bluce. Frankly, I think they are so bored that we added a little novelty to their day. I'm sure they were thinking, 'Those crazy waiguo ren (outside country people)!'

Here's a good shot of a guy having a great time on an ice bike.

Here's the poor person in charge of checking in and out the ice chairs. Notice the handheld computer used to swipe the card we had to purchase at the small wooden ticket booth at the entrance of the ice. So old fashioned, yet so modern.
It is very cold standing on ice all day. My toes took several hours to thaw. I wonder how long it takes his (her?) toes to thaw at the end of a long day of checking out ice chairs? What do you think?

OLW BLOG HOP - Feb 1

Don't forget to come back on February 1st. The ONE LITTLE WORD Blog Hop starts right here. We have 34 participants who will be sharing their One Little Word project for January.

ONE LITTLE WORD is a class over at BigPictureClasses.com and is taught by Ali Edwards.

11 Comments

Wow! That looks like fun!

Posted by: Beth | January 30, 2011 at 07:07

Thank you for sharing this. It looks like that would be fun. What an amazing thing to see.

Posted by: Linda | January 30, 2011 at 07:23

Your pictures are amazing and what a fun experience. I think the picture of the ring toss was my favorite.

Posted by: Barb Martin | January 30, 2011 at 08:41

Amazing! My husband and I are traveling to China in 2010. We're vegan (no meat or dairy products), so we're researching ways to eat. We may just pack massive amounts of protein bars. I am going to be following your blog and catch up on why you're in China. :)

Posted by: Shannon | January 30, 2011 at 10:25

Looks Like fun!

Posted by: Natalie Pozniak | January 30, 2011 at 16:58

Margie,

These are AMAZING photos -- wow! And, thank you so much for orchestrating the blog hop around OLW, what a great idea. I'm at CHA, but I'm definitely going to check it out as soon as I can.

Posted by: stacyj | January 30, 2011 at 22:26

how fun! again, love seeing these little glimpses into life there! :) thanks for sharing!

Posted by: Rebecca Cooper | January 31, 2011 at 09:41