Although we were not given any time off for Christmas, Maple Leaf was lovely enough to give us a day off for New Years. A long weekend was an easy excuse to jump on the overnight train to northern Harbin - the Ice City - for a weekend of winter adventures.
After a quick dinner in Dalian, a group of 11 of us hopped on the sleeper train to Harbin. We had a large group of bunks conveniently located by the toilet (a squatter onto the tracks of course). It was actually a great spot because when all the electricity was turned off at 10 we could still play cards by the light of the bathroom. The bunks are three high, with two sets facing each other. That means six people sleep in about 25 square feet. Since it was a holiday, our train was packed. The ride itself was actually really fun. I recommend it, as it was very easy to just go to sleep in one place, and wake up in another. It saved a night of accommodation, and expensive taxi rides back and forth from airports.
This is how many layers we needed to wear.
After arriving on Saturday morning, we quickly unloaded at the hotel, scrounged up some breakfast and set out to explore the city. The city is famous for ice sculptures with lights inside the ice. The average temperature all weekend was 20 below, so you can see how they gather their abundant ice supply. I wore a ridiculous amount of layers all weekend long. In fact I barely took snow pants off the entire time I was in Harbin. Saturday was spent skating on the river, eating warm soup and coffee, and enjoying a nice pre-dinner nap. The weekend on the whole was really relaxing, but much needed for a group of burned out first year teachers a mere two weeks away from the end of semester.
Skating on a frozen river
Saturday night was New Year's Eve. We went out for the best hotpot of my life at a super fancy restaurant. We were given a giant private room with a lounge area, our own bathroom, and a giant glass table with room for us all. We got to choose our own flavour of sauce, and the we could load up with as much individual hot pot as we wanted. It was a great meal, and only cost about 20 dollars. After our meal we headed out for a winter walk, and ended up walking all the way across the frozen river to explore. We rang in the New Year at a very strange American bar covered in Uncle Sam pictures, mixed with communist propaganda, mini Nazi figurines and photos of an owner with a penchant for dressing up like Elvis. It was a strange place, but a lovely crowd of people. The Harbin air quality was a bit much for me though, and I was off to bed at 12:30.
One of the many ice sculptures along the streets
My favourite China snack, glazed fruit on a stick.
On Sunday we headed to the Tiger park. It was pretty much set up like Jurassic park, except with Tigers, Ligers, Lions and various other felines. I was not aware that Ligers really existed, and was fairly certain that it was something Napoleon Dynamite had made up - but they do exist, and they are suberb. We took a bus tour through the reserve, and a Tiger peed on my through my window. It was equally awesome and disgusting. All of us Canadians were going crazy checking out these Tigers. I also just realized I have been instinctually capitalizing all the names of these animals, which is completely grammatically incorrect, but perfectly portrays my awe for them. Tigers are awesome. After going through the bus tour we could get off and go over walkways above the cages. It was here that we got to feed the Tigers live chickens! Although I initially was against this idea, it was a pretty incredible thing to see. It was like a nature show, only a few feet below me. It was also a good wake up call to show that these adorable creatures were actually vicious killers. Mighty good awakening for those of us wanting to go cuddle up to them!
A giant Tiger
A very excited group of Canadians
The lazy tigers, right before we started throwing live chickens at them.
After the Tiger park we headed to the Ice City. Although pictures are included it really doesn't do it justice. These ice buildings were enormous. Each block of ice was a foot squared, and each building was made of thousands of blocks. All the ice sculptures created a lovely winter village. Despite the freezing cold we spent a few hours wandering through, ripping down the ice slides, and racing on the ice bicycles. It was a really unique evening and - despite my hate for winter and cold - I loved it. We headed back to our hotel for warm BBQ and bed. At BBQ we attempted to order some grilled mushrooms and ended up getting tripe soup....but all in all it was a good night.
The ice city below
On Monday we were supposed to go to the Germ Warfare museum, but it was closed. Instead we spent a relaxing day shopping, drinking coffee, and wandering about the city. At the end of the day we loaded back onto the train and headed home to Dalian. When we arrived in Dalian it had snowed, and so our ride to school was very late. It was not a good start of the day for our admin when all of us had to call in late - but we did eventually make it there. Teaching all day after sleeping on a train and not showering was not the best experience, but it was an experience. All in all it was a great weekend in Harbin, and I really recommend it to any China traveller.
My camera was not functioning in the cold weather, but this is a shot of one of the ice slides.
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