Harbin! (a.k.a. coldest place I've ever been)

Photos

My trip to Harbin was very spur of the moment, because we weren't sure we were going to be able to get tickets until the day before we left. As it was, we had to join a Chinese tour group (shudder) to get the tickets, and we consoled ourselves with the plan to ditch them as soon as we could. I'll leave out the details of the difficulties we had every step of the way with the tour company , but let's say that between making us pay for our freedom (to leave the organised tour), and telling us to be in the wrong place and making us wait two hours before telling us that, I realise now why everyone warned me on pain of death to avoid Chinese tours!

Harbin is a pretty special city. It was the birthplace of Jin (1115-1234) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties, and it's more recent history was a part of Russia until 1946 (and the occupied by the Japanese briefly too). Because it developed under the influence to two different cultures, Harbin is a beautiful juxtaposition of a city. The main street, Zhongyang Dajie, is a cobblestone lane lined with European style buildings, and you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Moscow (if you somehow didn't notice all the locals and signs in Chinese).

Tourist websites go on to say that "Harbin is favoured with beautiful natural scenery. Based on the meandering Songhua River and subject to severe low temperatures in winter, Harbin boasts a unique ice and snow culture. Each winter fantastic sculptures created from snow and ice, ice lanterns and exciting sporting events attract thousands of visitors from home and abroad."

And it does. The Ice Festival is famous (in China at the very least), and I think it is only the cold that stops it from one of the busiest tourist attractions in the country. We took the overnight train and when we looked out the window in the morning we got our first impression of what would be in store: the windows were so frosted up that we couldn't see anything. We stepped off the train and it actually hurt a little to breath. I had to make a phone call and the five minutes I had my glove off was enough for me to lose sensation in my pinkie (I had to keep squeezing it the rest of the day to ease the aching).

Now, I have to state right here that I'm no cold wuss. I love the cold, I'm the first person to take off my jacket when walking around, I happily walk home in minus 5 degrees, and I've been known to eat an ice cream while it's snowing around me. But this was COLD like I've never felt before. I was wearing four layers on top and bottom, a hat, gloves, two scarves and 3 pairs of socks. Thank god (and Cyril) for my Kazakh furry hat, it was a lifesaver. It was the only place on my body I didn't need more than one layer!

Anyway, the trip was well worth the cold. From the train we went to the main street and had breakfast in a gorgeous little Russian Cafe. There was a National Geographic film crew there so I couldn't get up and look at all the amazing memorabilia of Russian and Chinese history in Harbin. The show was being done by two brothers who grew up in China and had returned to document the changes it's gone through since opening up to the West. As we were "in the shot", we were asked to stay an extra few minutes after we'd eaten to keep continuity! So if anyone sees a doco called something like "Change in China" keep an eye out for four hungry looking Aussie girls in the background.

Exploring the main street, we looked at the ice sculptures running along it, checked out "Russian Products" tourist shop (p.s. Russian chocolate is nothing to write home about and please forgive the irony of that statement), looked at ads on billboards made entirely of ice, and bought more clothing to combat the cold.


We then went to the Songhua River which was so large and completely frozen I didn't actually realise it was a river at first. They had dog sledding (those poor poor puppies), ice skating, ice chairs (sounds odd, but good fun! Two people on stools with ski poles to propel you along was about where it's at), and a huge ice slide. The day progressed and we decided it was time to get to the Ice Festival on the other side of the river, and despite claims that we couldn't walk it ("So you must come and take our horse carriages!") we got the most amazing sunset views of Harbin as we trekked across. I've never been in real snow and now I see why everyone loves it. My Chinese name means "beautiful snow" so it was nice to actually have first hand experience with it!

We also pulled out "Frank" for a few photo opportunities. For my October trip to Ningxia I bought a down jacket and it came with a fur trim. At the time I figured it was fake so didn't think anything of it but upon Charlotte's inspection of said trim, I could no longer plead ignorance (I mean, it's China! The land of the fake merchandise!). She told me it was probably rabbit but I'd already bought it so what could I do? I called him Frank and he came out and played in the snow with us!

As the sun dropped so did the temperature and we now rather hurriedly got to the other side. As it turned out we were in the wrong place but a quick van ride rectified that, and we arrived at the Ice Festival at the perfect time. They were just turning on the lights in the "sculptures" and I got some gorgeous shots with the dusky backdrop. "Sculptures" isn't an adequate word by any means, these were ice buildings! It had an Olympic theme so among other things, there was a mini Acropolis and a nearly full sized train station (well, that's what it looked like). We literally had to jog between "sculptures" to keep warm and take shelter indoors fairly frequently but it was a stunning display and they even had ice bikes (again, sounds odd but not as deadly as you'd think).

We did really well I think, and managed to stay for an hour or two before the cold drove us away to a nice hot dinner. And we burst into that restaurant like ravenous wolves! A local speciality is a kind of crepe that you almost a burrito out of, with a variety of fillings and god I didn't know I could fit so much food into my body. That kind of cold burns calories like they're going out of fashion so we basically didn't stop eating the whole two days we were in Harbin.

After dinner we went back to "Ice Bar" for a drink. Like everything else in Harbin (construction must be so cheap there), the whole building was made of ice, right down to the shot glass I drank my Russian vodka out of. More disturbing was the dead animal motif, complete with dog skins on the ice walls and on each ice table. The ice benches had fur bits and pieces on them which barely stopped the cold and just made you feel horribly unnerved, like you were sitting on someone's pet rabbit.

Sunday we rejoined the tour to the snow fields of Yabuli for a few hours of skiing. Our tour guide was told we weren't joining them until the day after so we had to sit in the second most uncomfortable seat I've had to endure for the two and half hour trip. The most uncomfortable seat ever was on the way back, when I had the seat at the front that not only sloped left but completely lacked leg room. Well, whatever doesn't kill you, as they say. And I'm developing the very valuable talent of being able to snooze anywhere, even half falling off my chair into a large furred man, with my knees tucked under my chin.

Skiing was great fun, and considering it was the first time I've ever touched skis, I'm very proud that I didn't fall on my arse (not til later anyway). I only went a little way up the "bunny" slope and barely managed to maintain control while going over the large ice patches that littered the slope but it was enough of a taste to whet my appetite. There was also an ice slide which was great fun, even when I was ploughed into by a mum and her two boys on their snow tube cause I stopped halfway and couldn't get out of the way! I don't know who was laughing harder, them or me. But when I got up to give them a push and fell rather spectacularly (cartoon slipping-on-a-banana-skin kind of spectacular), I knew from the boys' screams of laughter that I had made their day!

And through my own laughter I looked up to see Charlotte and Marialice, not only laughing their arses off, but capturing the moment for prosperity. Compassion, that's what I love about those girls...