{"id":21213,"date":"2018-09-03T08:46:06","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T12:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/?p=21213"},"modified":"2021-04-19T11:18:45","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T16:18:45","slug":"ice-palaces-and-jungle-tribes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/ice-palaces-and-jungle-tribes\/","title":{"rendered":"Ice Palaces and Jungle Tribes"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Ice<\/p>\n

No one lives in this fabulous palace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ice<\/p>\n

Nor is this a city at night. Both are phantasmagorical sculptures of translucent ice. There are scores more like it here, each competing to be more creatively beautiful and spectacular than the other. There\u2019s nothing like it on earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where are we? In <\/span>Harbin<\/span><\/i>, in China\u2019s far, far north (top right corner of the map):<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IceSo far north that in terms of geography and climate, Harbin is in Siberia with winters of Siberian cold. People would come here to enjoy pleasant 70-degree summers, but it was unthinkable to visit in winter. So, with a classic \u201cwith-lemons-make-lemonade\u201d attitude, the city decided to convert the unthinkable into irresistible enchantment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, they created <\/span>The Harbin International Snow and Ice Festival<\/span><\/i><\/a>, with the world\u2019s biggest snow sculptures by day\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IceAnd a vast Ice City filled with palaces, castles, pagodas, and cathedrals lit at night from within, shimmering in brilliant colors changing every minute \u2013 breathtakingly beautiful, so entrancing it\u2019s like \u201cWalt Disney on LSD.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IceOh, yes, Harbin also has the <\/span>world\u2019s largest tiger preserve<\/span><\/i>. The Siberian tiger is the world\u2019s biggest cat, and there are over 800 wild Siberian tigers here in their natural (albeit safely enclosed) habitat. Watching them being fed live game close up is a memorable sight:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IceAfter two nights of this Siberian mind-blow, you\u2019re ready for warmth, so let\u2019s head for the Land of Eternal Spring, Yunnan in China\u2019s far south\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IceHere we\u2019ll discover one of the greatest man-made wonders on our planet. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For 13 centuries, the Hani people have been growing rice on countless terraces cascading down the steep slopes of their mountains. The light reflecting off the water-filled terraces create an unearthly beauty.\u00a0The <\/span>World Heritage Site of\u00a0the Hani Rice Terraces<\/span><\/a> is one of the true photographic paradises of our planet. The Hani people call their terrace system The Ladder of the Sky.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ice\"IceThe Hani are not Chinese. They are wonderfully friendly tribal people who love to dress colorfully \u2013 especially the young ladies:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IceVenturing to the very bottom of Yunnan near the border with Burma and Laos is a warm tropical land of wild elephants and exotic rainforest tribes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here we\u2019ll find <\/span>Wild Elephant Valley<\/span><\/i>, where private viewing treehouses allow you to watch wild Asian elephants in their native habitat:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IceIn the jungle rainforest hills surrounding the valley live a welter of ancient tribal peoples such as the Dai, Aini, and Jinuo. We\u2019ll visit villages like this of the Aini\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IceTo be welcomed by people who still live their colorfully traditional way of life\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IceYou\u2019d do this in deep winter, of course \u2013 the best time would be right after the New Year, when we can slip away and not be missed until business gets serious again by mid-January.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Upcoming Wheeler Expeditions \u2013 click for details on each:<\/b><\/p>\n

September 13-October 2: \u00a0Hidden Central Asia<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Lost
\nOctober 8-October 18: Hidden Holy Land<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Lost<\/p>\n

November 3-November 10 & November 10-November 17: Himalaya Helicopter Expedition<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"LostClick here to get advance notice of expeditions you can join & stunning photos of Once-in-a-Lifetime Adventures<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Jack Wheeler is the founder of\u00a0<\/b>Wheeler Expeditions<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  No one lives in this fabulous palace. Nor is this a city at night. Both are phantasmagorical sculptures of translucent ice. There are scores more like it here, each competing to be more creatively beautiful and spectacular than the other. There\u2019s nothing like it on earth. Where are we? In Harbin, in China\u2019s far, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":366,"featured_media":21214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[20,233,235],"yst_prominent_words":[1721,10308,10706,10710,10705,10707,10711,6351,1738,5128,1793,3379,10713,10708,10712,10714,2191,3778,10709],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/image1-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21213"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44631,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21213\/revisions\/44631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21213"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}