Harbin:: The Snow & Ice Festival

Welcome to 2014!

Ever since we moved to China we've been hearing about the famous Snow and Ice Festival in Harbin.  Mark got to visit it the first year we were here for business-related reasons.  We wanted to go see it last year but as it's a very popular destination hotels book up fast so you really have to plan in advance.

This winter we finally decided enough was enough!  We figured it was it either now or never…so let's "do" the festival, okay???  

And traveling is always more fun when you do it with friends…so we're going in a group with three families.  Agnes, Robert and their three children (Zoe, Max and Milla); Jen and Andy and their two kids (Anna and Lachlan); and us!  It's going to be a blast!!!!

Now… we tried and tried and tried to get overnight train tickets for Friday night to Harbin from Tianjin.  Guess what???  They SOLD OUT in hours!!!! So never mind that. Now what do we do?  We booked our hotel rooms a couple months ago and we've only got one night (Saturday night).  Thank goodness plane tickets are still available.  We all booked flights for Saturday morning/early afternoon.  Whew!  (there was a weee bit of panic before we managing to secure the plane tickets)

11 January 2014-

Off we go!!!! Agnes & Robert & their kids are on our flight this Saturday morning.  Jen & Andy will be joining us a littler …via the next flight.

PS.  Harbin is up North. Where it's cold.  Really cold.  Perhaps not interior Alaska cold…or Alaskan North Slope winter cold but really, really cold nevertheless.  

That means pulling out the Big Guns (no, I'm not referring to actual guns…I'm referring to our Extreme Cold Weather gear).  

We had friends help us select an inexpensive hotel located on the main street of Harbin.  That way we should be able to walk around and see some interesting sites before figuring out how to get to the Snow and Ice Festival.  

We heard from friends that we should try a few things while in Harbin: the sausages and the dark bread.  As Harbin is so close to Russia there is a distinct Russian influence here.  I'm hoping we'll get to eat some Russian food as well.

We've landed in Harbin and found our way to the hotel via a rather long taxi ride….we've regrouped and it's time to check out this main street:

 

Ah yes, have you heard of Harbin beer?  No????  Neither had I until we moved to China.  Don't worry, you're not missing anything if you never get to try it. 😉

What the heck are these ice sculptures supposed to be??????:

We found a sausage stand:

Yes, they're good!!!!  (a little fatty but definitely tasty and one is DEFINITELY enough!)

 Beautiful ice clock sculpture:

Ava and Milla standing next to the Coca Cola polar bear (made out of snow) sculpture:

 Jen & Andy and the kids are here and now we're going to attempt walking to the Festival over the frozen river.  

Check out these arctic foxes that you can pay to pet and photograph:

 

Now…the journey to the Festival didn't go quite as planned…it was a bit further away than we'd anticipated.  Luckily for us, a van pulled up next to us as we were walking on the road and offered to drive us ALL….All of us at once!!!!  Now, it was a van and we did manage to squeeze into it.  And when we got to the festival we all piled out of the van like clowns from a clown car.  It was a tight and cozy ride!

FYI – my iPhone is flat out of charge!  Did the cold zap it's energy??? LOL!

And here we are!!!!  First we have to get entrance tickets: they're only about 300RMB per person.  OUCH!  (that's about $50)

 

Got our tickets!  

Milla, Zoe, Ava (and her jacket that refuses to zip up) and Annika:

I think the thermometer is reading about -30C.  Yep.  That's cold!

Annika, Milla, Zoe, Ava and Anna:

 

I'm ready to check out the snow and ice sculptures (I've got my big ol' heavy duty Arctic gear on):

Jen, Andy & Astrid:

Ha!  Saying a prayer before heading into the ice temple:

Check out the gorgeous ice sculptures:

and more kids playing….

 

Until we saw this sign "Please don't stay here".  Okay…interesting way of putting it.  

We did try and warm up in some of the food buildings but those buildings were barely a notch warmer than the outside temp.  Hmph.

Check out this beautiful snow sculpture (what is it supposed to be?  One of the Hindu gods/goddesses? I'm not sure but it was BIG and it was beautiful):

You can probably guess we couldn't last for hours at these low temps:

Zoe , Ava and Annika playing around….

Well, it took a bit of time trying to leave the Festival.  We tried calling the van driver who took us there…he said he'd meet us at the entrance in 20 minutes but when that 20 minutes had passed by and Agnes tried calling him again she got the same reply.  20 minutes.  Oh dear.  The kids are getting REALLY cold now.  It's time to get out of here!  Jen and Andy were able to secure a taxi early on but the rest of us wound up in a taxi line that felt like it took forever.  The kids tried their best to hang in there but we know that they were really cold.  Just before we finally managed to get our taxi someone from a nearby warming shack invited the kids inside it to warm up.  Too bad we didn't know of this place about thirty minutes ago! 

We're heading back to the hotel now. Whew.  Back in the hotel and attempting to thaw our VERY FROZEN feet in a tub of hot water.  Owowowowow!!!!!!!!  Eeeeep!!!!  

Okay.  Sorry about that.  We're all good now.  

Time to go find dinner!  I think we're going to try and find a Russian restaurant ….

but sadly the one Russian restaurant we found can't seat all of us.

How does Chinese food sound to you?  Sounds pretty darn good to me!  Of course since we're in Harbin we might as well enjoy the local brew (Harbin beer):

 Let's just say it was adequate beer.  There are other words that would be aptly descriptive but I think I'll stick with adequate.  (wink, wink)

Good night everyone!  (I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow!  I hope you sleep just as well as we did)

Wakey, wakey!  Time to hit the hotel's breakfast bar:

Check out this chair: 

Chanel???  Do you suppose it's real Chanel????? (I'm laughing so hard now!!!!):

Our flight back to Tianjin is in a few hours so let's go and check out some more of the ice festivities (I'm particularly keen on trying chair skating).  But first, Jen, Robert and me are heading to Starbucks (yep, they've got a Starbucks here!) to pick up hot drinks for the group.  

 

 

I know there's Annika in this photo but I can't tell who the other two are as they're bundled beyond recognition (I think it might be Max and Lachlan): 

Were you wondering what I meant by chair skating???? This is what I was talking about: (you can rent the chairs along with poles by the hour) 

I talked Annika into scooting around with me:

 Check out this funky three-wheeled cycle with a bumper ball on the front:

Milla and Ava trying scooting (it's hard work!):

Awwwwwwww….. and you can also rent these "sled dogs" for a ride around the ice rink: 

 Here's the entrance to the outdoor fun (the ice rink and slides):

Here's the gang (minus me): 

I just had to take a photo of this interesting decor on the side of this building. Can you spot ET and his space ship???? (Whaaaat??????)

 Here's our cozy and more importantly WARM hotel room:

The *very obviously* fake cherry tree located in the hotel lobby:

And here's a "warm remind" from the hotel:

 Time to head to the airport!  We're ALL on the same flight back to Tianjin.

We've got enough time for a quick bite to eat before checking in for our flight:

 (I love the American smile, Jen!!!! LOL!!!)

All checked in…and waiting patiently for our flight.  Oh yes.  We do attract quite a bit of attention!  So many Westerners (and blondies to boot!) traveling together.  We do know how to have fun! (and I found the Russian bread for sale in the airport…along with some Russian chocolate bars.  I'm happy!):

 A trio of cutie pies: Anna, Milla and Ava.  Try to keep the giggling down girls…oh, never mind.  Do try to have fun, okay?

We're homeward bound!

Thank you to Jen, Andy, Agnes and Robert and their families for going on this blastingly cold adventure with us!!!!