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Published: March 10th 2008
Zhong Yang Da Jie Entrance
Gateway to Zhong Yang Da JieI'm going to preface this story with: So, my friends and I are sitting around on a Wednesday night discussing the following weekend (not the upcoming weekend, the one after that). We had planned on going to Harbin, in Northern China, to travel because we did not have anything to do and do not have tests approaching after it. However, a crutch was thrown into our plan because the Major League Baseball teams (Dodgers and Padres) are going to be playing 2 games in Beijing this weekend. It is the first time that the MLB will ever be in China. What do we do? Harbin or MLB history? We could not decide, so we decided to compromise: If we could find cheap tickets and work everything out for this weekend, we go to Harbin then and watch the MLB next weekend. As you can probably tell, that worked out. We bought our plane tickets around 11:00 pm Wednesday night to leave exactly 24 hours later. Within that time, we all needed to shower, finish our homework that was due the next day, finish our homework that was due on Friday, pack, attend 3 classes, and make it to the airport by
Food Stands
Line of Nuts and Candied Fruit Stands. 8:30 (so we could get through security and eat). It sounds frantic, and it was; but, the excitement and thrill of jumping on a plane to fly to Harbin with no where to stay and no idea what we're going to do there kept us going.
We made it to our flight armed with the Lonely Planet and Frommer's Guidebooks, the clothes that we were wearing, a toothbrush, tylenol, a towel, our dictionaries, and anything else that we could shove into our backpack. I've never travelled so lightly. (Interruption: when I say, "the clothes that we were wearing," I really mean, "the many layers of clothes that we were wearing because it's supposed to be freezing in Harbin") The plane was nice and I want to give out props to "China Southern Air." Their plane is pretty decent and more importantly, they gave me the best airplane sandwich that I've ever eaten in my life. It was 3 different mini sandwiches and it was the perfect snack for a flight at 11:00 at night. However, I will say that Chinese airplanes have much smaller seats and much smaller leg room...go figure.
Anyways, my trusty "Lonely Planet Guidebook" told
me that there was an international hostel in Harbin that is pretty decent. So, we felt that it was necessary to check that out for a cheap place. We knew that it was on the outskirts, but seeing as we would not be into Harbin until 1:45 am (about), it sounded like a good plan. When we got off the plane, we were either going to walk to the hostel, or get ripped off by the late-night cab drivers. If only we could have walked. We ended up paying 170 yuan per cab (we had 2 cabs for 6 people) which was about 50-70 yuan more than we should have paid. On top of that, the drivers had no idea where they were going until I told them the road and then called the hostel so they could explain where it was... Oh well, it was late at night and we did not expect much more. We checked into our $7 per night rooms at the hostel after waking the night manager up, who by the way, was one of the nicest, most accomodating people ever. The rooms were not bad. I would say that my first experience with a
hostel was a good one. The rooms are not the greatest, but for $7 a night, I'll do it again. We had linens, a bathroom, and a tv, so I'm not complaining.
Over the next 2 days, I am pretty positive that my friends and I saw more of the city than the people who live there have. I know this isn't modest, but I am impressed with us. We figured out the bus system as we went so we saved so much money on cabs by just taking the bus and walking everywhere. It was great. Also, as you can probably all agree, if you use the bus system, you see more of a city. We used Friday as our day to just walk around and see some different parts of the city. For those of you that do not know, Harbin is in the Northern Part of China and is well known for it's Russian and Traditional Chinese influence. There is a main street there called "Zhong Yang Da Jie." This area is sort of preserved by the city of Harbin because of the early-1900s buildings, the area, the old cobblestone street, and a few other things.
Street "Nook"
I didn't know what else to call this. I liked it though. Cars are not allowed on this street because it is also packed with people. Harbin, though it is a "tourist location," obviously does not see many foreigners. In a city of over 4 million, my friends and I were counted as 6 of the 15 white people that we saw; the other 9 white people were Russians who made the hour journey for a quick get-a-way. In the area of Zhong Yang Da Jie, you can find Stalin Park, the Church of St. Sophia, Sun Island, the Jewish Museum, multiple Russian goods stores, The Russian Cafe, and a few other very cool sites.
I have got to say that the Church of St. Sophia is one of those inspiring places that when you are looking at it, all that goes through your head is, "yes." I don't know if that makes sense. It is a Russian Orthodox church that was built in 1907. All I can say is that it is gorgeous. However, you can pay to go inside and that part is not worth it. It does not look like it used to on the inside because they have turned it into the Harbin Architecture Arts Center. So,
Flood Monument
The monument in Stalin Park. all that is on the inside is this big, empty space with a bunch of pictures on the walls and a fake painting of "The Last Supper." It kind of kills the moment. So, in my opinion, if you ever go see it, don't go in and keep the feeling that the outside gives you.
Harbin's annual Ice festival is very famous. People make the biggest ice sculptures that you have ever seen that include lights inside and it is supposed to be a very cool event. Unfortunately, we missed it by 3 days. Harbin was having some unusually warm weather, so they closed the festival. We had to look at it from outside this huge, grid-iron gate with a bunch of signs all over it. The few that we could see were cool though.
Stalin Park has statues and playgrounds along the river. It also has the Flood Control Monument that was built in 1958 because there was a huge flood.
I like to call Day 2, "Discovery Channel Day." My guidebook says that Harbin has a Siberian Tiger Park...and they do. So, naturally, my friends and I wanted to do this on Day 2 because
Balloon Vendors
Balloon Vendors on the River it is going to be awesome seeing tigers and probably one of the highlights of the trip. If we had known how awesome it would be, then I would have bought a great video camera for it rather than just carrying my digital camera with a video option. The Siberian Tiger Park attempts to, "study, breed, release, and ultimately save the Manchurian Tiger from extinction" (Lonely Planet). You drive "safari-like" on a bus/van through the park: picture Jurassic Park...yes, I know, amazing. Yes, their main goal is to save the Manchurian Tiger, but to do this, they also need money, right? Well, here's how they make it: *Graphic visual approaching*
YOU CAN BUY LIVE ANIMALS TO FEED TO THE TIGERS AND LIONS! You can either buy a LIVE chicken, duck, pheasant, lamb, or some cattle to throw to the tigers and lions. Let me just say before you all start criticizing me, how many times in your life do you get to see a REAL Lion eat a LIVE lamb IN PERSON?! It is not like I was sitting at home watching it on TV; no, I was 15 feet away from it! It was awesome! I don't like to
Hostel at Night
what a homey place... think that I killed a lamb. I like to think of it as, I fed 7 lions. See, just as in Jurassic Park, the jeep with bars on it drives through the park. We see the jeep approaching and the lions know exactly what's about to happen. So, the jeep pulls away from them a little bit, shoves the lamb out of the moving vehicle and the poor guy didn't even have time to stand up before the lions overtook him. 7 lions savagely attacked the lamb and honestly, it kind of reminded me of rugby for a while. In Rugby, the players are in the "scrum" (aka: the pile up when they all push against each other) and you can't see the ball for a while until it spits out somewhere. Well, picture that, but with lions and a lamb. All of the lions surrounded the lamb butting heads and we lost sight of that lamb for a while. But, then all of a sudden the lamb was thrown into the air a little and that's when the tearing began........I'm going to stop there........you get the idea. I have a video and pictures of it and you can email
me if you want more information. Also, we shared our bus with a group of Chinese businessmen touring around with their own personal tour guide. They were more fascinated by us than they were the tigers. They did not stop talking to us and taking pictures of us because we could speak Chinese and sort of understand what they were saying. At one point, their tour guide turned around and told them to watch the tigers because they weren't paying to watch the white people. It was pretty funny.
Well, it's hard to top that story, so we ended day 2 with a long trip over to "Dragon Tower." Essentially, it's Harbin's version of the Eiffel Tower - you know, really cool, tall structure that also doubles as a radio tower. Granted, I'm sure that it doesn't compare to the Eiffel Tower, ok, I know that it doesn't compare, but it was still pretty cool. Anyways, we took some buses back to the airport after this and called it a trip.
All in all, Harbin is pretty cool. I think that two full days was the appropriate amount of time to see the essentials of Harbin and see
Hostel Bedroom
Part of our bedroom a lot more of the city by walking and taking buses. The Harbin people are very nice. They will help you if they can and they are probably too impressed when they find out that you speak a little Chinese. My friends and I were relieved to find that the Beijing dialect really is only in Beijing. It's very hard to understand Beijingers compared to the rest of China and we were able to realize that we are not as bad as we think; it's just Beijing. I'm sure that we will adapt to Beijing soon, but at least I know now that I actually can speak/understand a some Chinese.
Well, that's all from Harbin. Now, I'm back in Beijing and back in class.
Really quick, I would like to give a shout-out to the following people:
Aunt Sharon: for you impeccable taste and idea for the "Dream Sleeper" Sleeping Sack. It's a little sleeping bag-like-sack that rolls up into a 3x4 inch bag and you can travel with so you don't have to touch the sheets. (Sanitation is key)
Aunt Pat and Uncle Pete: for your astounding performance in "Under Armor Buying" (I hear it's the new
Broadway hit!)
Ralph, Paula, etc: For the Frommer's Guidebook - without you, there would be no trip
My parents: without you, there would REALLY be no trip (also, thanks for the fur, American Eagle, Russian-looking hat)
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Aunt Donna
non-member comment
Adventure!
I admire your adventurous spirt!