Advertisement
Published: April 13th 2010
Our holiday started on the 13th of February, the last day of the year of the ox in the Chinese calendar.
Our afternoon flight landed at terminal 3, from where we took the underground to the city.
After dropping our bags in the hostel, we set out to do some much needed book shopping on Wanfujing street. Very much missed in Baotou...
For dinner Kerstin took me to this well known American brand of fast food restaurant she knew, where we had the best bloody burger I've had for a long time. Ooh.. it was so good!!! We washed the food down with lime cocktails... Mmmmm
The evening we spent drinking local Beijing beers in the hostel chatting to other travellers. Hoping for a spectacular government organised fireworks display on Tiannanmen Square, we set out at 11-ish, initially on foot with no taxi's around. When we arrived around half past the hour by taxi which we found later on, we soon realised that that wasn't going to happen. We stayed on anyway, and congratulated each other into the year of the of the tiger right under Mao's watchful eyes. There was some fireworks going on around the city, and with
the square being so big, we were able to see it far away in the distance. We had to walk all the way back with this time really no available taxi's driving. Another final beer and a (appropriately named) head butt, we made it into bed at around 2 in the morning. With our flight going to Harbin departing at 08:00 o'clock, our phones rang at 05:30. Being everything but sober, I was surprised it was actually me waking up Kerstin and not the other way around. A quick shower to wake us up later, we hopped into a taxi to local Nanyuan airport. Both still intoxicated (at different levels) we had good fun waiting for boarding...
After a one and a half hour flight across mostly flat, snowy land, the plane descended to Harbin airport, to the south west of the city. We were welcomed by a huge ice building right in front of the terminal building, a nice promise of what was waiting for us. After checking into our lovely little fashionable hotel, we walked to the centre of the city; Zhongyang street. Although being used to freezing temperatures in Inner Mongolia, the cold in Haerbin was
Waiting room nr. 5
@ the Haerbin train station... it always creeps me out a little...of a very different kind; not the dry cold like in Hohhot or Baotou, but the 'close to sea level' kinda humid cold that bites into your face, and makes it impossible to speak without sounding like an old man without teeth... Funny enough, we didn't need to say anything to each other. After having walked I think for 30 minutes or so, we dove straight into the first 'coffee bar' we saw. From there onwards, it was a criss-cross walk through Zhongyang street. After warming up again, we would walk for 5 to 10 minutes, then there would be a sideways glance to each other, and without a word it was back inside into the first bar or shop on hand... ha ha,what a bunch of pussies we were that first day...
On our first full day in the city we walked around, eat good food (tried the local speciality; sweet & sour chicken wings), did some sightseeing within the city, and looked at all the Russian made goods in the shops. At the very end of Zhongyang street, down by the river side where the
Fanghong Shengli Jinianta or flood control monument stands, a mini-ice amusement park
had been built, with ice-slides, ice-buggy racing, horse and carriage riding right on the frozen river and dog sleds. I wasn't particularly interested in spending 30 Yuan on sitting in a freezing carriage being driven on the Songhua river, but kerstin had the idea that it was a very romantic thing to do, and therefore compulsory. So there we went, blowing breath into our numb hands sitting in the back. It must've taken a whole 5 minutes before the driver stopped his horse and ushered us out. No idea why we had to get out, we followed his orders and took pictures like he told us to. Then we were asked to pay another 20 Yuan or so to sit on a dog sled that would very likely take us on a circumnavigation of the horse carriage lasting no more than a minute, so we thanked the guy and hopped back inside instead. Another 5 minutes later we were back where we started... Wow!
The second full day we had in Harbin, we got up fairly early and walked a different route this time, again heading to the river. Walking along Stalin park, the park-like promenade, we got onto
the massive frozen Songhua river. At the other side you could make up the ice and snow sculptures that we were going to visit that day. We watched and learned from the fishermen on the river whom were fishing from huge holes cut in the ice. After a good and hearty lunch we set off to the other side of the river by local bus.
Please read my other blog on the 11th Haerbin Ice and Snow Festival on how we nearly froze our balls of (well, I did anyway)....
Every single evening we had in Harbin, we stayed inside the hotel.... we told ourselves we should go out and explore the night life, but hey ho, as soon as we had arrived back at the hotel from having been outside exploring all day, we couldn't be asked any more to face the cold again, so instead we would get into our comfortable clothes and watch the winter Olympics on flat screen TV...ha ha
On our fourth day, we went outside the city to take a look at an old germ warfare base. According to the guide book, more than 4000 people were killed here, by experimenting on their
Sweet & Sour Chicken wings
Apparently a Haerbin dish... bodies. Set up by the Japanese in 1939, some were frozen to death, injected with bubonic plague and other gruesome experiments.... Interesting and eerie at the same time, we walked through the museum for an hour or so, until we were asked to leave because it was staff's lunchtime... (Don't go between 11:30 and 13:00)
We checked out of the hotel early afternoon and got into a taxi to the incredibly huge Haerbin train station where out 29-hour train back to Baotou would leave from. Having more than 5 huge waiting rooms,each of them packed with hundreds of people all dressed in the same three basic colours, dark-blue, black and brown, there is something scary about Chinese train stations. I'm always happy to be inside the safety of my cabin (a soft sleeper that is!). The train moved mostly through flat snowy land, with here and there a village consisting of mud brick buildings. I slept soundly for most of the night, and spent the next day until evening late reading, dozing off, chatting and looking at the world pass by, taking dozens of pictures.
Fantastic, train travel! One day I'd love to do the Trans Siberian with a
Ice slide
With the frozen Songhua river behind it. few friends, occupying a soft sleeper compartment, that way eliminating any chances of having to share it with snoring men that reek of Bai jiu and garlic...
Well, that was our trip to Harbin really.... Great fun, and despite the freezing bitterly cold, a great experience I wouldn't have liked to miss...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.294s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 29; qc: 93; dbt: 0.1954s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
