Ligers in Haerbin

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We took a fast train from Beijing to Harbin (about 7 hours). The fast trains travel at 214 Kph top speed (fyi). Harbin was our first stop outside Beijing and it was a little intimidating at first. The train station is across from the Long Distance Bus Station and a large square contains countless taxis, two city bus stops an underground mall and hawkers everywhere selling everything from nuts, to shoe-shines, or guiding you to seedy hotels. It is a lot more chaotic a little dirty and at least as noisy as Beijing. The air in Harbin is also pretty thick and unpleasant. Apparently the northeast of China is a heavy industrial area as we were about to find out.

It's not all bad however, we eventually found our hotel after doing a full circle and realizing it was directly across from the train station. Our first night we found the Lonely Planet Recommended dumpling (or Jaozi) restaurant. These were mainly filled with pork and fresh veggies. My favourite was the Pork and Fennel.

We hoped to get rest in Harbin but instead Mazi got sick. So we ended up staying three nights. The first full day we went to the downtown area and walked the main drag where a cleaner more wealthy area catered to wealthy shoppers and visiting Russian tourists. We found a bakery that served Chinese and Russian style pastries. So we had to do some sampling. The downtown has some neat Russian style buildings from their colonial time. It also is laid out adjacent to the Songhua River with a park and walkway. There we caught a short but scenic ferry across to Sun Island park.

We didn't have long so we didn't actually make it into Sun Island Park but we walked along the river and tried our best to enjoy the polluted waterfront. It would really be a nice spot had it not been for the poor air quality. We took the ferry back to the downtown area and went to the recommended Russian Cafe 1914. Here we ordered several bowls of Borscht like soup and cabbage rolls. It was a nice change from Chinese food.

Mazi was sick this night after a suspect meat stick from the recommended market. But after a sleep in we treked over to the Siberian Tiger Park or should I say farm. It's hard to say what they do with the Tigers but there must have been a couple hundred of the animals. Sadly many are caged up and seemed bored pacing around, etc. The park guides toured us around the complex in a minivan retrofitted with caged windows (I guess to tempt the Tigers). Then we were allowed to walk around a caged walkway to view Tigers lazing around the afternoon meanwhile trying to avoid an annoying guy who liked barking and stamping around trying to incite the Tigers, we named him "Monkey Man". We ended our visit soon after, passing by the caged Leopards, Cheetahs, and Ligers (yes, apparently they aren't just a figment of Napolean's imagination).

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Photos

Harbin
Shopping Street

Harbin
Songhua River

Harbin
Train Bridge

Harbin
Returning from Sun Island Park

Harbin
Tiger Park

Harbin
Lion