WTF Wednesday- Seals the Deal

This past weekend was spent on the border of China and Russia- in a little city (4 million) called Harbin. It is famous because of its ice festival.

Imagine an entire village built entirely of ice. That's Harbin's ice festival.

For the month of December, locals collect, carve and light blocks of ice from the nearby river. When we went, it was -6 degrees (Brrr) and our guide said that was the warmest its been all winter.

Besides ice tunnels, you can see the Sphinx...

...their version of the Taj Mahal (which you can slide down),

...skyscrapers like this one, which chances colors,

...and of course Michael Bolton. "Can I touch you there?"

What ice festival isn't complete without a replica of Michael Bolton? Certainly not this one.

We found this bad boy in the "Hollywood" section of the festival. There were a bunch of "famous" people carved in ice, but of them, this is the only one we recognized the name of. Awesome.

Even more famous than the man with the mullet and jazz saxophone is Harbin Beer. It is one of the oldest beers in China and is now owned by Anheuser-Busch. Nothing like a giant, ice-cold beer... ahh.

But for all the beauty that was the festival, there were also some WTF moments in Harbin.

For instance- seals. We went to eat at a local restaurant and what do we find in the lobby? Seals. Three of them in fact. For less than a dollar you can feed them what the people in the restaurant don't finish.

Don't believe me? Watch this video:

All I can say is WTF? Who puts seals in a seafood restaurant?! Sure it draws in customers but these are seals! For some reason this really gets me. Can't be sanitary. Can't be just for the animals. Can't be real. Just can't be real. And yet, it was. Only in China.