Homeward Bound!

We spent the morning of our last day in Beijing visiting the Forbidden City. The huge park was completely different to everything else we’d seen. The circular temple was in the middle of a massive park full of groups of people singing and dancing. As we went through the gates we were greeted by different musicians and dancers every way we looked! It gave the place a really warm and lively atmosphere despite it being winter.

After this we walked back via the food market so Nana and Andreas could try some scorpions.

We then went on to visit the national art museum where there was some interesting calligraphy and Chinese landscape painting on display. In the evening we went to the acrobat show, which had rather a lot of juggling and balloon modelling at the start but got better as it went on!

We’re now all in Amsterdam airport waiting for our final flights back to the UK. Thanks NTU, HEU and everyone else involved for an amazing (if a little chilly) month! We’ve all thoroughly enjoyed it, feel privileged to have had the opportunity and have learnt a great deal! It has definitely been a trip we will never forget!

Zài jiàn (as they say in China)

Beijing so far...

Thought I’d update you all on what we’ve been up to since arriving in Beijing.

We’ve been trying to fit in all the things we wanted to do and see, so had a packed few days! On the first evening we went to see a Kung Fu show which told a story about a boy on his journey to becoming a Master. The next day we went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square and walked for miles! We went to a noodle place for dinner and still had no idea what we were ordering but it was enjoyed by us all.

Yesterday was an early start, off to see The Great Wall (part of it). Again it seemed like we walked for miles – 2,000 steps just up to it! We were really lucky with the weather though. The smog had cleared and we had a really good view! In the evening myself and Imy went out to find a duck restaurant and had a look around the City. We finished the night off with a quick scorpion at the night market!

Here are just a few of the many photos we’ve all taken! One more day left to explore then we start the long journey home!

More Photos from the Second Competition

After we finished our second sculpture myself and Imy spent a bit of time looking round the park to see what else was there.

It was massive with other competitions going on as well as sculptures, created by the organisers. Below are some of the photos.

The ones of sculptures with plaques on numbered 15, 26 and 28 were entries into the same competition as us. I really liked the structure of 15, how thin the lines are and how, by cutting away so much of the snow, it’s completely different to the other entries. It was clear that the way that light interacted with the snow and how it was cut away had been carefully thought about in all of the works. This was the main difference in the designs here compared to the University competition. This is apparent in the other two photos. I really liked 28 as it was so different to all the others, far more structural which was the complete opposite of all the other flowing designs with delicate detailing. 

We also really liked the ink paintings. They were on display in the art expo and something completely different to the rest of the sculptures. The other sculptures by the organisers were on a massive scale and just stunning.

Another Award for NTU!

Yesterday morning we finally finished our second sculpture. We were all pleased with it and relieved to have finally finished it! After this we wandered round to look at the other entries and the rest of the park. Some of the sculptures were incredible and on a massive scale! We then walked back to the hotel across the river. It was very pretty and a nice chance to catch up with some of the other competitors about how their sculptures turned out.

 In the evening there was the closing/awards ceremony. We ended up receiving the ‘Best Creativity’ prize and ¥3000 (about £300). This means we did better than at least 12 other teams and, considering they were mainly professionals, once again we were surprised and really happy with it! After the ceremony there was dinner and a chance to celebrate with everyone whilst some of the teams provided entertainment. The Latvian team won first prize with their sculpture of four women in front of each other. The way they cut away sections allowing you to look through it was really clever.

After a late night celebrating we all managed to get a few hours sleep before leaving the hotel at half 6 this morning. We got to our hostel in Beijing at about 12 noon. It’s a little cramped with all our luggage but the staff seem really friendly. We went to explore before going to the Red Theatre to see a Kung Fu performance. The commentary was in English and some of the acrobatics were pretty impressive! Afterwards, Nana went in search of ice cream which we found in the hostel bar.

All in all we’ve had a pretty good few days. We’re all really pleased with how we did in the competitions and now happy to have a few days exploring Beijing before heading home!

End of the Second Day

We’re now over half way through the second competition but we still have a lot to do!

When we got there this morning Mr Du’s class had got to their sculpture earlier and tried to help us by changing ours however this confused us a bit when we got there. It was a very frustrating morning redoing the fingers over and over, which we thought we’d finished yesterday, so that they were up to Anderson’s standard. Because of the design we have to work from the top down so we couldn’t do much else until they were finished.

The afternoon was more productive though! Unfortunately Imy has hurt her back so had to go back to the hotel early. The rest of us managed to make a good start on the power stations and smoke. There’s still a long way to go but we’re more confident about finishing it now than we were at lunchtime. Paul said it went as low as -24 degrees today, so still very cold! We’re all shattered and ready for a good night’s sleep before our penultimate day of carving tomorrow!

Here are photos of the front and back so far, the power stations are at the back:

Du to the Rescue!

When we got here this morning we carried on as we had been yesterday though we still weren’t convinced that certain parts would be right. Where the globe had been enlarged we had lost room to put the wrist in which also meant it didn’t look quite right from the sides either. We carried on the best we could though as the students from Harbin Uni seemed happy with it.

At lunch Daizhong said that Du was coming this afternoon – we think he was worried we wouldn’t finish without him! Within half an hour of him being here he had completely changed the sculpture and it was back to looking a lot more like our model. We’re all pretty sure that we made more progress in the following two hours with his help than the last two days! Unfortunately, Imy’s back is no better so she had to leave early again but we are now all a whole lot more confident about finishing on time – perhaps even a little early! We can work until 2pm tomorrow but all we have to do is level off the base and check that everything is looking right. Just proves how much things can change in a day!

The first photos are how we left it at lunch, the next is Du starting work on it and the last how it looks this evening!

Time for the Second Round!

Today saw us start the second competition. It was a bit harder to go about starting this one as we had to work from the top down and there's only so many people you can safely fit on the top of the snow block! This competition is based in a park so there's less shelter from the wind, however there are some stunning views!

Comfy Beds All Round!

Yesterday we moved into the hotel ready for the second competition which means comfy beds, nice food, working WiFi and a shower that doesn’t flood the whole bathroom! So we’re all pretty pleased about this. There were even chips, bread and jam at lunch and dinner so something for everyone!

  After the excitement of being able to have chips and breaded prawns for lunch we attended the preliminary meeting where we were assigned block 17. We were also given extra coats and a toy squirrel. All the other competitors seem to be professionals except for Mr Du’s class but they were very friendly and keen to know if we’d done this type of thing before.

After the meeting, Andreas, Nana and I went to Central Street as we’re now staying quite close to it. We found a very sweet Russian cafe that was filled to the brim with little trinkets and ornaments, it felt more like we were at home than in China! As we walked back the City was all lit up and some of the buildings looked rather spectacular!

We had to modify some measurements slightly as the block was 4 metres high when we’d previously been told it was 3.5. After doing this we were all prepared and able to get an early night and plenty of rest, making the most of our nice comfy beds!

Other Entries for the Uni Comp

After we’d finished the first sculpture we looked around at the other entries to see what the competition was like. Many of them were amazing, though a few were a little less impressive…

Here are some of them:

 

The boy holding a book was my favourite, they managed to get so much detail into it, including a tiny snowflake on the little finger!

 

The one with the fish and water was Harbin’s entry and won one of the first prizes.

We had seen the original design for the one that looks like two blocks with lines connecting them and weren’t sure how it would look in snow but I really liked the final result. It wasn’t clear from the designs that they would be cutting all the way through, it’s so clever how they’ve got detail inside too, it must have taken ages to do! It was clear that they had thought about the lights effect on it and used the sunlight to their advantage.

The one of the coffee cup looked really good too, it captured the movement of the liquid successfully and flowed really nicely.

We were a little underwhelmed by Southampton’s attempt at the Titanic and thought it looked a bit like a potato waffle. We decided that we were the better UK entry, though obviously we’re a little biased!

We weren’t too sure about the ‘Ivon Fish’ either, though they had finished by the end of the second day!

These were just a few but the standard was generally very high and we’re all still very pleased with our second place award!

Second Prize for NTU!!

We’ve had no WiFi so weren’t able to update you on yesterday until now but… our sculpture was awarded a second place prize in the International University Snow Sculpture Competition!! We all thought the standard was really high, so we’re chuffed to bits!

Yesterday morning we went out to add the finishing touches which only took about half an hour. We then went back to the studio to discuss the plan of action for our next design – we have a meeting with Mr Du about this later. 

Whilst the judging was taking place we went into the city again. We went back to Central street as Imy hadn’t seen it with us last time. As a celebratory treat for finishing we went to KFC for lunch! Imy and I were quite impressed we’d got over half way through without going there! It was much the same as back home except they serve rice too, however we all decided we’d give that a miss for a change! Afterwards we walked down to the Flood Monument and to see the frozen river again. It was sheet ice this time and a whole lot more slippery than the last time we visited.

At 4pm the closing ceremony started. Our seats were right at the front behind the judging committee so we had a good view! Lots of it was translated into English but the speeches weren’t, so we weren’t quite sure what was going on the whole time. It kicked of with some music played on traditional Chinese string instruments which was quite impressive. This was followed by some less impressive Russian hip hop dancing that involved a lot of hair shaking. Daizhong had a quick nap during this and we caught one of the judging panel on his phone so it looked like the music was more popular all round!

When we were told to go and stand at the back because we’d won an award, we weren’t really sure what was being said on stage and we’d heard them say they were giving out third place prizes so we were delighted when this changed to second just before getting to us! Mr Du’s team received a first place award and another for being one of the top three favourites between the competitors. They received 12 votes for this (and the other winning ones 9 and 11), we got 5 so didn’t do too badly!

We finished the day by going for dinner at the hotel on campus with Daizhong, Anderson (another tutor that has helped us), Professor Su (the Head of Industrial Design here), two of Mr Du’s students that helped with our sculpture and our two volunteers, Warren and Fisher. It was a lovely meal and a nice way to end a successful day and our time at the University. There were even pancakes for pudding which, considering the Chinese don’t really do puddings, was a pretty good end to the meal!