Harbin Snow & Ice Festival

Arriving in Harbin was bittersweet. We were happy to be there but Marina was still very worried about what she was going to do about her missing ID card. How was she going to stay in a hotel, how was she going to do anything, how was she going to get back to Beijing? Not only that, but we didn’t actually have train tickets to go back to Taiyuan and Xi’an for Spring Festival yet. Of course I tried to comfort her, telling her that, no matter what, we’d be okay and I’d make sure she got home for Spring Festival either by train or plane. Of course, my word only means so much, considering I can’t really speak Chinese. She must have felt pretty stressed, since she’s practically babysitting two foreigners.

The weather in Harbin wasn’t too bad, a bit colder than it had been in Beijing. But it was still the middle of the day. We stayed a decent hotel, nothing fancy, but it had good heat and that was important. The first night there we took a stroll down through the old district with its European and Russian architecture, a striking difference from typical Chinese architecture. The street was lined with many small ice sculptures, in fact, there were ice sculptures all over the city. Along the roads were a lot of “pac-man” ice sculptures, it struck a chord with a geeky person like myself. St. Sophia’s church was another interesting place in Harbin, it was designed and built in a Russian Orthodox style, something you don’t see in China.

St. Sophia's Church

The second day in Harbin we took a train to Yabuli, only a 3 hour train ride away. It was a kinda long 3 hours though since the train we were on was packed. We were only able to get standing room tickets for the train. Fortunately we were able to find places to sit and rest, but standing for a good portion of the trip wasn’t much fun. The Yabuli Ski resort was quite impressive, at least it looked quite impressive. Unfortunately for whatever reason, despite having 20+ ski runs, there was only 2 of them open. I was a little upset that I paid so much money (a foreigner discount premium I might add) and there was only 2 runs open! If I had known that, we probably wouldn’t have bothered coming or at least negotiated a hefty discount. Either way, we made the best of it, spent the first hour giving Marina a little ski lesson; one crash into the fence was enough. Even though I’m nothing but an average skier I felt like I was top-notch at this place. Apparently Chinese people don’t go skiing very much.

Skiing at Yabuli

Later that night, after another 3 hour train ride back to Harbin, we went to the Harbin Snow & Ice Festival. This was the main attraction that drew me to traveling to Harbin. I was a little distraught at the 200 yuan entrance fee, but after going inside I decided that 200 yuan was totally worth it. The snow & ice fest was not only beautiful, but simply impressive, and fun! There were so many humongous snow and ice sculptures, all lit up by neon or cold cathode lights embedded in the ice. The lights danced in harmony and the buildings glowed, shifting color and pattern periodically. There was also a huge ice slide that was crazy fast, it looked pretty dangerous, but it was literally awesome. Marina was pretty afraid to go on the ice slide, but I practically forced her to go down once. When I met her at the bottom she could only tell me how she had been a little scared but it turned out to be a lot of fun, she wanted to do it again!

Harbin that night was very cold, but it felt like North Dakota, the bitter cold felt so… comfortable. It brought back a feeling that I recognized, it was the kind of cold that my winter is usually like. It was so cold that I had to hold my camera battery in my mitten the entire time because otherwise my camera would think it was dead. There was of course sufficient opportunities to warm up with a cup of cocoa or, seemingly ironic, a cold Harbin beer. The park shut down at 10:30 PM, but nothing we were easily able to stay and look around until 11:00 PM, so we were able to take some good pictures without a lot of other people in the way. A nice DSLR camera would have been great at this place, so many beautiful pictures to be had. The ice & snow festival is without a doubt a good enough to reason to visit Harbin, even if it’s the only thing you do.

The night before we were going out seperate ways we had a nice dinner at a Russian restaurant. Surprisingly, when looking at the menu, I realized these were dishes I knew! I actually ate “pigs-in-a-blanket”, though they weren’t called that, it was nearly the same only without the tomato sauce bath. We also had what was basically “fleischkuchle”, despite not being called that either. I had never realized that my grandparents “Germans from Russia” heritage had been so Russian influenced. I had just assumed all these things were actually German. That or the Russians really like German food.

The next morning we flew from Harbin to Beijing. Marina had to go to the security office to get a temporary ID card, allowing her to board the plane. Fortunately she hadn’t lost her student ID, which is so important and official that it acts as a secondary ID card for Chinese students in many situations. After landing and acquiring our bags at the airport we took the shuttle to Terminal 3 where Marina had lost her ID. Tyler stayed with the bags, while I found an ATM and Marina inquired at the lost and found. Five minutes later she emerged from the office, big smile on her face, immediately giving me a big hug. They had found her ID! Apparently many people lose their IDs at the airport as there was a big box full of hundreds of ID cards.

After the airport, and the acquisition of our scalper-bought train tickets, we finally parted ways in the subway station. Marina’s train to Taiyuan would leave from Beijing Railway Station, whereas our train to Xi’an would leave from Beijing West Railway Station. I wished her a happy new year, as well as a happy Valentine’s day, and she left for another 2 weeks. Tyler and I set out for the railway station, I’d be back in Xi’an in 10 hours.

Check out all the photos from the Harbin Snow & Ice Festival here.

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