The Frozen City: Harbin.

So I've traveled a good many places in my life, I'd say. But I can say, literally, that I've never seen things like I had seen in the city of Harbin, China.

We heard that there was a Snow and Ice festival (xue bing jie) in Harbin every year, and that since we live so close to the place, it would be an absolute travesty if we don't make it there this winter. At this, we decided 'hell, it'll be a good way to kick off our giant Chinese new years vacation, why not?'. So we bought some tickets to the place, packed up a small bag, and jumped on the train to Harbin on January 5th.

Now, the train situation was a bit funny. We bought 'standing' tickets. Now let me explain the Train system in China a bit in depth to show you what this means. (I may have done this before, alas.) There are two forms of traveling by train in China. They are Sitters and Sleepers. Sitters are what they sound like: couch-like chairs that can fit about 3 people on each side that line the cars of the train. Sleepers are bunk-style beds that you can rent out for your journey so that you can get a rest. You can buy two versions of these two forms. Soft and hard. A soft-sitter is a cushy, single serving version of a hard sitter. Very superfluous in my opinion. I've yet to experience a soft sleeper, but I'm sure it's very comfortable (I think it's a personal cab in the train with beds). A hard sleeper is just a bunk style bed that you share with 4-5 other people on the train.

For the trip to Harbin, we secured none of these. We were able to purchase 'standers'. A stander is a ticket you buy for the hard-sitter cars, and you literally stand in the aisle of the train until someone gets off the train, and you can pounce on the seat that they leave behind. We didn't really know we had this kind of ticket 'til we made it onto the train. Go figure. We also didn't really know that the trip to Harbin was about 10 hours long. Hoo boy. However, with a little luck, and with the Chinese's curiosity for foreign people, we managed to make a few friends on the train that invited us to sit with them or their family for parts of the ride. I myself made friends with a young girl who spoke some English, this fellow who spoke no English that I named 'Jim' (the english speaking girl said he was the most famous man on the train because he was very humorous. She wasn't lying. Every 15 minutes he'd say something I didn't understand to the entire train car, and the place would roar with laughter!) and another student going to Harbin who spoke some English named 'Johnson'. The trip went by quickly with so many people to get to know, and we made it to the Frozen city itself.

Harbin is famous for three things. It's snow and ice festival. It's below zero temperatures. And it's beer. Harbin beer is one of what I like to call, 'the big four' Chinese beers. Yanjing (from Beijing), Tsingtao (from Qingdao), Snow, and Harbin. The stuff was ridiculously cheap to buy in town, but that's a different story for a different day.

After getting off the train, our friend Johnson that we made brought us to the ticket office to buy tickets for our ride home to Tongliao. Unfortunately, we were forced to buy tickets for a day later than we wanted to stay in Harbin, but it turned out to be perfect later on. Johnson then also was kind enough to direct us to the proper bus that would bring us to our Hostel which we had 'booked' the night before. Johnson then had to take his leave from us since he was a student, and needed to return to his University to begin preparing for exams. But don't worry, he'll return to the story later on.

We get to the Hostel, but quite unfortunately, no one at the Hostel spoke any English. We probably would have had to leave if it weren't for the help of a group of students from Hong Kong that spoke perfect English and helped save our lives. They were hilarious, but were on their way into checking into their own rooms so we parted ways. However, they will also return to the story, so stay tuned. However, we DID make friends with another fellow from Hong Kong, a student named Dennis. Dennis was a great guy. Mild mannered, intelligent, funny, and innocent are a few words to describe the fella. He came with us on our adventures for the next day and a half, including Zhongyang street.

That night we decided to check out the city a bit, and found our way by bus to Zhongyang da jie, the most beautiful street in town. It had ice sculptures lining the streets, was blocked off from car traffic (only human) and had a series of wonderful shops and stores to look in and admire. Also, it had MCDONALDS!! Always the enthusiast, I got myself a quick burger. After checking out a few Russian Goods shops, we made our way to the end of the street, which runs right into the Harbin river (the city is situated right next to a large, beautiful river). Since the thing had frozen over, we were able to jump down on it and skate a bit. It was a hoot. Dennis loved it. He had never seen snow or ice in his life, and was taking it all in. Ultimately, we got tired and headed back to the Hostel for the night. We had a few Harbin's in Harbin, and hit the sack.

The next day, we had signed ourselves up for a Chinese tour of Harbin. We were excited, but kind of nervous due to the fact that none of us actually spoke Chinese. Luckily, Dennis was able to translate a little bit for us. Either way, we got picked up by some insidious van that drove us through Harbin to the beginning point of our tour. Oh, and by the way, I've found that I'm completely adjusted to the ridiculous driving style of the Chinese. We were barreling full speed at another car coming the opposite direction just to swerve at the last moment, and I yawned. Glad to know I don't live in fear any longer!

So the tour began and it brought us to our first destination: The Dragon Tower. I guess it's the 2nd biggest Tower in the world. But we didn't want to pay the fee to go in, so we left the tour for an hour to grab a bite to eat and explore the city ourselves. Oh, I forgot to mention that the tour was by bus, and they toted us to different sites around the city. After the tower, we shot off towards St. Sophia's church, which is a Russian style architectural beauty of a building in the middle of Harbin. There were doves flying around, and it was quite a sight. Hao mei (pretty) if you ask me. After this, we made our way to 'lunch' which we were a little wary of. Turned out to be a standard Chinese meal in a little restaurant that hosted all 20-30 of our tour group people. It was pretty fun actually - fast paced and a good chance to show off our kuai zi (chopstick) skills to the locals. After lunch we were carted off to what the Chinese affectionately called 'Snow World'. It was really a park, 'Sunny Island Park', that was FILLED with giant snow sculptures of every shape, size, genre, interest, and detail you could dream of. It was amazing. The main attraction was a MOUNTAIN sized sculpture of Santa Claus and a dream like landscape. It was unbelieveable, to say the least. Unfortunately, it was so absurdly cold in Harbin that my camera and it's batteries literally froze, and would not work. It's a shame because some of the things I saw were unaudiably gorgeous. Alas. Some of the artwork included different interpretations of Santa, of Greek Gods, of Spanish dancers, some abstract arts about Chinese culture, a life scale version of St. Sophia's church, beautiful renditions of Ocean life scenes, birds, children at play, elder people, halloween, angels, and everything in between. It was truly fantastic.

After our bout at the Snow world, we made our way (quite a short bus ride away) to Ice world. Now this here is actually the main attraction involved with the Harbin Ice Festival, so we were pretty psyched. The temperature was dangerously cold by this time, but did not, in any way, hinder our excitement. When I say that the Harbin Ice Festival was one of the most unexplainable, dreamlike, gorgeous wonders that I have ever experienced, I'm not over exaggerating by any means. The pictures can't do it justice. From full sized, explorable castles, to Chinese Pagodas, to a giant buddha, to never-ending slides, even a gigantic Chess board - EVERYTHING was made PURELY of ice and lights. It was breathtaking. I couldn't believe that people actually crafted this frozen town with their bare hands, just to let it melt every year. My eyes were HUNGRY to look at more of what was around me. If I can steal a line from Harry Potter: I felt like I wish I had 8 more eyes to take in everything that I was looking at. I was sorely sad to leave such a beautiful place, but it had to be. We soon after left the tour and made our way back to our little hostel to warm up and relax from our long day. We met up with a few Australian girls, as well as the four traveling students from Hong Kong! Edith, Jeff, Ken and Pauly. They were so fun to speak with and learn from that night, that we all decided to spend the next afternoon together before they left that next day for Jilin, a small mountain town south of Harbin. We also met up with a new friend named Jens, a dapper fella from Sweden. He was a great guy, and ended up traveling with us from that night into the next day, and until we left back to Tongliao!

The next day, I split away from the 4 other guys I came to Harbin with. They went off with Jens to explore a Tiger zoo in Harbin, while I went down town with the Hong Kong crew to explore some more of town. They were a blast to be around - especially since they spoke Cantonese, rather than Mandarin (which is what I've been learning). We taught each other a lot about language throughout the day, including a children's song, each. I learned the Cantonese version of 'twinkle twinkle little star', and I taught them 'The itsy bitsy spider' in English. It was a solid trade off. After a great, long day (I bought some Russian chocolate for a great price. Huzzah.) we all met up back at a quick dinner at a 'ma la tang' restaurant (super spicy noodle soup). It was wonderful, and we tucked it in for the night!

The next day, our day of departure, we made our way to the Harbin Walmart (American to the bone) and bought some provisions for our journey home. We had a coffee in a McDonalds, and waited for our friend Johnson (remember him??). We had called him the night before and asked if he wanted to grab some lunch before we left his city of Harbin. He was delighted to meet up, and he dragged us to this Traditional Chinese food restaurant that served 'chun bing', or 'Spring Bread'. It was basically like taking different kinds of fresh vegetables and chinese meat, putting it into a SUPER thin taco tortilla, wrapping it up, and eatin' good. It was very delicious, to say the least. After lunch we made our way to the train station and said some final goodbyes to our friends Jens and Johnson. Very sad to say goodbye to friends, new or old. We sighed a bit, and got onto the train. We unfortunately had standing seats once more, but luck prevailed, and we made friends again! I myself managed to situate myself inside a family of 6 that was traveling from Harbin to Batou (small city near Hohhot). They didn't speak really any English whatsoever, but were very friendly and a good time. They taught me a LOT of Chinese on the ride, and it was wonderful. They also had an adorable child that I managed to make friends with after awhile. Once the people on the train got wind of a bunch of foreign kids being on it, we immediately became famous, and kept making friends the whole way home. The 10 hour ride was quick because of all the talking and learning (I played chinese card games for a solid hour of it, too!) and before we knew it, we were back in good old Tongliao and grabbing a Taxi to get home and fall into bed. Happily.

All in all, a wonderful trip. .... BUT MORE TO COME!!!! STARTING TOMORROW!!!

*gasp* Let me explain.