Cold Like Harbin
Hey! Remember me? I’m the guy who sometimes writes stuff about China. I didn’t forget about you. I’ve just been on vacation in Harbin for the past week. Harbin is famous for its annual Ice and Snow World Festival, which means it’s also a notoriously cold city. It seemed like everything was covered in ice. People were slipping and falling down everywhere. My bottle of hand sanitizer was frozen solid after my first day outside.
Harbin is a fascinating city, though. This is the kind of city that really feels like Christmas, that really feels like it embraces winter. Random ice sculptures and lights decorate the streets, and once the river freezes over, the city builds this gigantic wonderland out of ice and snow and lights it up Disney-style at night. Check it out:
The train ride from Changzhou to Harbin was 28 hours, and that’s pretty hard to stomach, especially when there aren’t any other foreigners to talk to. Going there wasn’t so bad; I kind of enjoyed busting out some tunes on the Korg DS-10 Synthesizer while watching the moisture on the windows turn to frost. On the way back, though, everything on that train started to irritate me, and I realized I could never again do this by myself. Traveling alone just isn’t very much fun. Even at the Ice and Snow World Festival, I felt foolish going down the ice slides without a friend there to egg me on or at least tell me to act my age.
Of course, ice slides aren’t the only attraction in Harbin. There is a Siberian tiger park where you can take a bus through a wildlife reserve, which I found to be a huge rip-off and a huge letdown. Future travelers beware. Some might consider the park to be a little barbaric, too, since you can purchase live animals to feed to the tigers. I know the tigers have to eat, anyway, but the fact that you can send a chicken to the slaughter for only 40 RMB (or a lamb for 600, or a cow for 1200) is inhumanely discouraging.
Harbin is also very close to Russia and has a lot of Russian influence in its architecture (among other things). St. Sophia’s Church was my favorite:
This isn’t the extent of my vacation, either. Oh, no, no, no, there’s more, but I’ll save that for another day. Stay tuned.
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Responses to “Cold Like Harbin”
Comments RSS Feed – All CommentsRachel — 13 January 2009 @ 9:49 am
Wow, I’m amazed at their awesome sculptures! I would love to see those.
Dad — 13 January 2009 @ 7:36 pm
Harbin looks like the Magic Kingdom at 20 degrees below zero. The sculptures and lighted ice buildings are amazing. The huge head with the giant squid eating its face looks just like Santa Claus. The music was nice. You should have blog music. What would it cost to feed the lions a mammoth?
Clark — 14 January 2009 @ 5:48 am
Yeah, that sounds about right. -11° F, -24° C.
Pollytorg — 15 January 2009 @ 6:34 am
Wow! Those photos are spectacular. I had seen some older photos of the ice festival on the internet, but yours are much better. Especially the one of you in the arctic parka. Nice and cool here today too. 8 degrees F, but at least we haven’t been below zero very often! BRRR.
Randy and Patricia — 22 January 2009 @ 5:01 pm
We too wanted to see Harbin but the sun, sand, scotch and serenity…of Sanya won out. We’re happy though to see Harbin through your eyes. Great blog Clark, enjoyed the music!
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