I can see Russia from my hotel!

Here I am. Standing in front of a frozen (but thawing) river. That land behind me? Its not China, but Russia. This is the Heilongjiang River which separates Heilongjiang province, China (the capital of the province is Harbin) from the Russian Far East. This weekend I took a trip with some rice breeders from Harbin to the north of the province to plant some experimental seeds in a northern spot of the province.

Included in all the hard work we did (4 banquets in 2 days-ugh), we drove about 20 km north of the village we were working in to visit the river which separates China and Russia. Upon arrival, the officials we were with told me how poor that part of Russia is and how hard the Chinese have to control the border to not let any Russians come over to work. There is a lot of Russian discrimination in China and especially Heilongjiang. Everywhere we went and met new people this weekend, the hosts made sure to announce I was an American because they did not want people to treat me disrespectfully because I was Russian (so they said but perhaps they themselves did not want to be seen with a Russian?).

I know America is six months beyond Sarah Palin jokes, but I still found it amusing that I went to a place so close to Russia. I was at the Russian border last summer in Inner Mongolia, but it was not as funny then as it was now (post-Sarah Palin). I tried to explain Sarah Palin's absurd insinuation that she had foreign policy experience with Russia because of its geographic proximity to her state. But I don't think the car of Chinese people quite understood the humor in the story. Maybe its because most of them are government officials and don't see the humor in making fun of politicians. Or maybe its because they, too, have made similar statements about their own understanding of Russia based on geographical proximity to their province.

We stopped in a Russian store by the river to see what was being sold. Aside from all the binoculars one can buy to spy in Russia, this was my favorite-a selection of random figures on matryoshka dolls.
From Marilyn to Sadam, Mao to Clinton. (They are in front of a mirror, so yes just below the shelf is the reflection of me taking the picture).

Rice pictures to come soon...