Harbin!

Harbin gets an exclamation mark because it was something else.  I like to call it a once in a lifetime experience, because it’s well worth a visit but I most likely will not be going back.  No one should be that cold out of choice…

Alex and I had acclimatised somewhat in Beijing but nothing could really prepare us for temperatures around -25°C on arrival.  We were ridiculously excited though (and our toes hadn’t started to freeze yet).

Fortunately the hostel was warm (if somewhat unwashed), and inside an old synagogue, which was pretty interesting.

Harbin as a city didn’t seem so exciting, but there were ice and snow sculptures everywhere.  Just everywhere.

On the first night we walked down the main pedestrian street, Zhongyang Dajie (lined with ice and snow sculptures) to Zhaolin park to look at all the pretty ice lanterns.   

And of course some ice and snow sculptures.

Here we are at an ice table.

The next day we went to a Siberian tiger park.  We were driven around in a van safari-style looking at many tigers, lions and even a couple of ligers.  We were also treated to a bunch of tigers being fed a live goat.  

We then walked around the enclosures observing the sweet tigers and feeding them strips of beef (didn’t have the money to splurge on a chicken).

There were even a couple of white tigers, which were beautiful but not terribly happy.

In the afternoon we went to the main ice and snow festival.  There were a lot of ice and snow sculptures.

We went at the perfect time, about 3.30 pm, so we saw ice and snow sculptures in the light…

And we saw ice and snow sculptures lit up at night…

We also avoided the hoards of Chinese tourists who descended after nightfall.

And rode in a horse-drawn carriage, possibly the most exciting thing ever.   

Apart from all the ice and snow sculptures.

To keep warm we went on ice slides…

Cuddled snow foxes…

And jumped around a lot.

Also, we looked at the ice and snow sculptures.  All the looking at the ice and snow sculptures was exhausting.  I think we went to bed around 8.

On our final day we went to the Harbin snow world.  There were a lot of impressive snow sculptures.   

No surprises there.  Sadly no ice sculptures...but a pretty cool snowman army.

After lunch we visited St. Sofia’s church, a beautiful building in the city centre that is unfortunately a museum now.

And that was that.  We were only in Harbin 2 days and 2 nights but it was enough.  Undeniably beautiful and spectacularly unique.  But absolutely freezing.

Did I mention we saw ice and snow sculptures?

We then flew back to Xiamen, a temperature difference of close to 40°C, and I remembered why I chose this magical winterless city.  But my building was empty and the campus was full of tourists so after a day of drying laundry with a hairdryer I jumped on a plane to Kunming…

Beijing with Brett...and the year of the Dragon!

So about a month ago I set off to Beijing with a recently traumatised-from-the-Xiamen-night-clubs Brett.  We headed to the Happy Dragon Hostel, which now comes highly recommended by Tan tours.  There we met Liz, Pete and Will who are studying down in Hong Kong, and spent many a happy hour in the bar/Beijing haze with them.  Here we are in the hostel with Betty, the sweetest manager in the world.

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t fantastic but that didn’t stop us climbing (*cough* taking a ski lift) up the Great Wall…

Visiting the Lama Temple…

Seeing the Temple of Heaven…

And pointing at Mao.

We also visited the Pearl Market (where I bargained for some arguably real-ish Ugg boots and Brett got some jade), went to an acrobatics show (featuring cage biking) and had Beijing roast duck (amidst such classic puns as 'duck in', 'ducked out' and something involving the bill).

Later in the week some very lovely, mostly Dutch, people from Xiamen came up.  Here we are in their hostel.

And in a cat-filled reggae bar.

Now you might be fearing that with all the bars and white people Brett’s Chinese experience lacked sufficient culture, but here’s a tiny dragon riding a camel to prove otherwise.

And he made dumplings.

At least 2 of them.

All in all, it was a jolly good week.  By the end of it Brett could even take the subway on his own.  China will make a man out of you.

I was still in Beijing for Chinese New Year, when the city went crazy...

The fireworks/firecrackers started going off around 2pm and walking through the streets was like picking your way through a war zone.  For midnight, a few of us climbed up onto a hostel roof overlooking the Bell and Drum towers, Hou Hai and the whole city.  At 12 the city erupted.  The fireworks were everywhere and they continued for hours, literally.  It was incredible.  And, of course, impossible to capture on camera, so I took about a hundred photos.

So that was Beijing.  A rather more in-depth experience to my whistle-stop tour last April and it was good to properly familiarise myself with the city.  And practice the Beijing dialect that they force us to learn down south, where nobody can understand it.  Happy New Year of the Dragon to all!