HarbinIceFestival - Blogabond

Words cannot explain the temperature that was Harbin, China. I would compare it only to the tundra. The warmest it was was -5 and the lowest were -20's or so with a wind chill because some days it was so windy. It did not matter how many layers you were wearing, what kind of fur your coat was made of, how warm blooded you are... you would be freezing your ass off. I was wearing - 4 pairs of wool socks,leather boots, fleece lined thermals, thick jeans, two shirts, a flannel, a sweatshirt, a jacket, and another jacket. two scarves -- one for my neck and one to cover up my face, a hat, and two hoods overtop that. Now that you can picture the gravity of the situation we can move on.

me tryin to be like goofy

tom sliding

sooooo cold

harbin

Harbin was b-e-a-utiful! They had ice sculptures and things everywhere. The architecture in the city was different than the other cities I have seen in China. The city has a lot of Russian influence because it is so far north. There so many good places to eat, but one of the best was a quaint but very elegant Russian restaurant.

We tried some traditional food and it was very hearty and good for the cold weather. The city is also famous for the best dumplings so we had many different kinds at The Dumpling King restaurant. Walking around the city as painful as it was was probably my favorite part. We stumbled upon a nice church and paid a few yuan to go inside. They had photos of the city being constructed and they also had a random chorus performance that we watched some of. Have I mentioned that Chinese (girls in particular) are all very good singers and not shy at all! who knew?

harbin ice festival

Now about the ice festival -- best thing and worst thing I've experienced. I literally thought my body was shutting down from the cold. About every 30 min my feet would lose all feeling to the point of panic and you had to pile into one of the small cafes and defrost. However, it is hands down the best winter wonderland EVER! One of the benefits of having ridiculous temperatures is that they can build huge buildings and entire towns made of just ice. It's hard to describe how amazing the sight is and its strange because it doesn't look like its just ice, but it is. The buildings have lights in them, so it is best to see it at night. The first ice town we went to was a disney one. Lots of fun small slides and rides for the kiddies. The boys had their fun attacking eachother with snowballs, but I was nice and safe because I am the photographer. The second and main bit of the ice destival is across a lake that is completely frozen over. You can walk across it if you like, I chose not to because I am already accident prone as it is, I dont need any more variables thrown in. The ice festival had castles and famous buildings made of ice like the empire state building. They also had lots of giant ice slides and tubing. There was also ice skating and this ice bike -- it had a blade on the front and you were like on a lake and it was really hard to peddle, but good fun. About midway through the ice festival my camera either ran out of battery or froze, idk it just stopped working unfortunately sooo I didn't get as many pics as I would have liked.

harbin snow and ice festival

harbin ice festival

ice festival

USA was not as impressive as other countries with this ice sculpture

china's sculpture

Local problem: UMMM they are really racist against Russians! The Chinese people around Harbin cannot tell the difference between any westerner and a Russian. We could not get a taxi because they would just shake their head at us.We occasionally got dirty looks from people in like restaurants, but as soon as we were like uh, we speak English, we are from England, America, and Ireland they warmed up. It was a pain in the ass really.

We found a nice pub to go to and they had some skanky Russian dancers.

Also at the club they had lasers around the dance floor. Me, being the retard that I am thought it was a rope and walked under one green line and then ducked under another. Right after I had manuevered my body around the "rope" I turned around and a girl was laughing at me so I realized it was a freakin laser. Top five dumbest things I have done.

We found a buffet that is apparently pretty common here in China that is an all you can eat buffet with lots of good food and FREE BEER. I about had a heart attack. That would not fly in any other country.We seemed to be one of the few people drinking the beer. The cost of the buffet which includes: pizza, american food, chinese food, desert ect. and all the beer you can drink was 50 yuan aka like 7 dollars. WOW thats a deal! I had a hay day in there

One day we also went to see the siberian tigers. Again, it was very cold and we got on a bus that took us around to different cages and there were lions and tigers. I dont understand what the lions were doing there? he looked really cold, poor thing. Lions don't belong in the tundra. Anyways I loved the tigers and they were huge! I really wanted to ride one but I guess that will just have to be another day, haha.

toit like a tiger. tom and I

then we got up soo very early to catch a flight out to the big city of Beijing. So ready to leave because it was so cold, but it really was a very cool place. Highly recommend you do it once in your life.

Ice Ice baby Harbin：the good， the cold， and the russian

Harbin, China

Heading South?