Harbin – HurricaneMaine

Harbin riverfront and central market

Harbin is the largest city in China that is the closest to Siberia.

The last day on Harbin! I’m actually excited to get back to Guangzhou and warmer temperatures. It is pretty here but the temperatures range from -15 C to – 20 C. At that temperature the air is very dry. Using lip balm and moisturizing often is a must. You also need several layers under a really good coat and insulating snowpants and boots.

We packed everything and put our luggage on the bus. We headed to the riverfront and walked to the flood control monument which intersects the riverfront and the road to the central market.

We first walked down the central market street to west 12th to see St. Sophia’s church. The architecture here is but Chinese but like any eastern european country.

St. Sophia’s is a Russian Orthodox church which is beautiful. Unfortunately they were renovating the inside so we could not enter.

From there we went in and out of shops in order to warm up a bit. Taking gloves off to take a picture left fingers numb!

Musicians took turns playing music or singing from this balcony. It was beautiful. This guy played beautiful old music on the saxophone.

One of the things people do here is buy ice cream to eat on the street. It is just ordinary ice cream, but something people do. It actually didn’t make me any colder.

We went in and out shops mostly to look for caviar. There was none to be found. I think it is banned due to covid-19. The virus had been found on fish products earlier in the year. I was disappointed in that.

I did find this bread flavored soda. I did try it. It tastes like that yummy taste you have in your mouth after you eat really good bread. It is a lingering bread taste and actually quite tasty. It is a favorite in Russia.

We found a Russian restaurant that had good food though I did not find the potato latkes I was looking for. I had a beetroot salad and potato mushroom soup.

Next we took the cable car across the river. The number of things you can do on this completely frozen river is amazing. Skating, sledding, pulled by dog teams, and other fun activities. If you love winter and outdoor activities, you will not be bored! The spaces they have created here is amazing. The ice is 1 meter thick.

A walk along the river back to the bus to look at smaller snow sculptures.

We also saw construction of the sculptures in this temperature. It was amazing.

A street food market for stinky tofu. It is just fermented tofu. Yummy but had to eat fast before it became cold.

Now back to Shanghai and then on to Guangzhou!

Sun Island, Siberian Tiger Park, and Volga Manor

Sun Island

It was cold. We started the tour at -20C and finished at -16C. There are a few coffee shops around to get out of the cold. Of course if you keep moving and don’t take your hands out of gloves to take pictures it is easier.

These sculptures are made by making artificial snow as that snow is wetter and sticker than the snows that falls on Harbin. They place the snow in big wooden boxes to pack then use the block to make these incredible sculptures that are the largest in the world. All of this is made from packed snow.

It started out at -20C and when the sun was shining warned up a bit.

You could ride this vehicle and soon around on the river ice.

This one is still under construction and looks like a little mushroom house village.

Siberian Tiger Park

The siberian tiger park was pretty cool. People move through the various paddocks in caged vehicles. Some tigers are in cages if they are not acclimated to weather, weak, pregnant, or young. They can get enough nutrition that way. There are over 1300 tigers and the park is very large.

You can pay to feed them by holding meat through the bars or even feed them a live chicken which is dropped through a chute.

Some of the buses also will be used to feed the tigers. You can always tell which bus.

They are such beautiful animals.

Volga Manor

This was a Russian village created by a wealthy entrepreneur in the turn of the century. It prospered until the cultural revolution when it was destroyed. Since then it has been rebuilt on the actual style of the original buildings.

We took a bus to the castle at the end where you took a freight lift to the 5th floor. There you could lay on an inner tube and hold on to each others legs to sled ride down this impressive ice chute. It was so fun we did it twice.

We looked at the Russian church.

There were many other buildings that were not open.

Of course there was a vodka chateau. We learned about vodka.

Sampling the vodka was fun. It was poured in ice cups. I sampled an amber colored vodka that had a definite spicy kick at the end. I also tried a dark colored vodka that had a really full flavor. You could buy your favorite vodka in the gift shop. I purchased the two I tried!

Walking back to the bus was beautiful to see the lit houses.

Afterwards some pedestrian street shopping and food at a Japanese restaurant. On the way back to the hotel we saw this sign which is so very covid-19. It is a little blurry as the bus started moving.

Harbin ice festival

Merry Christmas! An early morning start to catch the plane and I had some of the stollen bread that my dear friend Tricia and Dan bought me for my birthday! It was delicious. Not like the recipe I grew up with which is a yeast soft bread with candied fruits and nuts inside. This was somewhere between that and a fruitcake. It was yummy and will be good when I’m hungry on the trip.

The flight to Harbin was diverted due to weather and did not arrive on time. I still had enough time to change into multiple layers to visit the Ice Festival. On the way there you could see people on large snow mounds making it into something for the festival. Harbin is close to the Russian border with China.

We arrived at the festival around 3 in the afternoon. The sun sets just after 4 here. So far the weather is not bad. It is cold but tolerable with layers. If course when the sun goes down….

It is negative 16 Celsius. That is around negative 5 F.

It was great to see my friends Amber and Michael on this trip. I haven’t seen them in awhile. A core group of us met and took trips together this summer. Covid-19 wreaked havoc but did give us that.

Some of the ice houses were already starting to light up when we arrived.

We went ice bicycling. It was pretty fun around this frozen track that wound through a building and under a bridge. Hard to move legs in the bulky clothes but once you find a rhythm…

There were some restaurants to stop in and get warm. While we were there the sun went down and the ice buildings were lit up.

This snow sculpture of the Buddha is my favorite of the day. It is enormous.

As the festival officially opened in February, some buildings were still being constructed. Ice from the river is brought in and cut into smaller blocks. It is 1 meter deep there. Lights are put in on the top blocks. It takes a lot of orbison to hand cut all of these blocks.

The shows they usually have are with Russian acrobats. They unfortunately could not come back to China due to covid-19 restrictions. They had finishing and dancing which the audience participated in and warmed us up.

More nighttime pictures. Eventually my phone powered down from the cold but taking my hands out to take pictures left my fingers numb!

Afterwards we removed layers at the hotel and went to a nearby neighborhood for hotpot. Yummy and just what was needed after being in the cold. Finally I drank the Harbin beer manufactured here in the actual city.