Blogs from Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, Asia - page 5

Chapter one of our five weeks of travel started with the boarding of train number T159 in Taizhou, a city 43 miles east of Yangzhou and then traveling almost due north, into the dark and cold hinterlands of China; a land only a stone’s throw from Siberia. Traveling some 1,500 miles via train makes for more than one story and coupling long travel time with tight quarters guarantees extra cultural-exchanging fun. A few observations: * Everyone, including the manliest of men, immediately changes into slippers and long underwear; save the street clothing for the streets - its train time now... * Along the way, train employees push carts down the aisles selling all sorts of treats, drinks, and toys. We had the opportunity to nearly anything under the sun - ice cream, cucumbers, strawberries, beer, noodles, ... read more

Here are the pictures from Day 2 in Harbin the first place is a city park on an island. The second is a natural preserve/zoo for tigers. Sun Island Snow Art Park With so much snow and so many freezing days, someone came up with the idea to make the snow into something warm and cozy. Cozy as in cement that is painted white. Not cozy compared to a warm fire in the fireplace, but compared to the -18 temperature it is nice. So they start by making huge blocks of snow on the frozen river around the island. Then they move these blocks by truck into stacks and carve them into some awesome sculptures. Check out the pictures. Tiger Park Load all the tourists into small buses, where half of the windows are covered with ... read more

The Korea trip has been trying for two dates still not has enough people sign up. Harbin is the final choice after some serious thinking; because that is the only place I did not go in China yet. I do not want to stay in Beijing for that long. Good practice for my Chinese too. It is off season and before the annual ice festival, train ticket is not that hard to get a soft sleeper. The school just finished yesterday, it is a little rush to pack for the cold weather. I thought it will be empty at the train, surprised it is packed. I took the “Z” train. The whole train is soft sleeper, so less people in the train and free up the restroom. I have the upper bunk as usual; I like ... read more

H1N1 flu is serious and dangerous and very very scary. At least, that is how most of the Chinese think of it. Where you already could see people with a mask a few months ago, nowadays they are everywhere. Since a week, even the ladies at the desk of the dormitory are wearing the mask. Sometimes they put it off, but when you approach them, they put it back on immediately. Like you have a deadly disease! When I was in Hong Kong, there were everywhere antibacterial soap dispensers and the elevators where disinfected every hour. I didn't see this in mainland China. However, since two weeks Harbin is very scared of the flu, since in the Heilongjiang University 7 students were diagnosed with the flu. Immediately they stopped teaching in that university and people could ... read more

Erlongshan - Two Dragon Mountain 20th-21st July We went on a trip with all of the Joy school staff from all of the school's in Daqing - completely paid for by our boss! So altogether there was about 70 people who went along. On Monday morning, the 20th we got up at around 3am and were at the train station by about 10 past 4. It was a rainy and miserable morning but it soon lightened when we arrived at the train station to some very excited and happy people! The train departed at 4.49am to Harbin. Unfortunately there were no seats left when we boarded so we stood up in very cramped conditions for the 2 hour train ride. When we arrived in Harbin we were met by Jason and soon enough we were ... read more