No roller coasters, but Harbin still rocks

Theme parks have been a part of our family for decades. My first date with my lovely wife Catherine over 38 years ago was at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida. Since then, we've gone hundreds of times to Walt Disney World and Busch Gardens, Universal Studios, SeaWorld and countless others up and down the East Coast of the United States and in the Los Angeles, California, area.

We even took a summer vacation up to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, because of its vast number of roller coasters. We are roller coaster junkies.

So I approached our recent weekend in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, as visits to two new theme parks - the 19th Harbin Ice and Snow World and 30th International Snow Sculpture Art Expo, which make up the 34th Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival on Sun Island.