A while back
(actually virtually as soon as I arrived in China and discovered its
existence) I’d been super duper keen to visit the city of Harbin for it’s
annual Ice and Snow Festival. As you may have guessed by the title of this
post, I WENT! I decided to split this trip into two posts because of the amount
of photos I took, and the fact that I want to share all of them with you! So,
enjoy.
First,
before getting to the nitty-gritty and the oh-so-many photos from the two-day
trip, I want to say the whole experience was unforgettable. Partly because of
how amazing both the ice and snow sculptures were, but mainly because it was
the coldest I’ve ever been in my whole life.
So, let’s get to it! It began with an overnight
train - which arrived into Harbin at around 8am Monday morning, and after
eating a fast-food breakfast near the station we headed to our hotel to
check-in/shower/drop our stuff off before exploring the city. Now not to blow
my own trumpet, but I organized the details of this whole trip and the hotel I chose, Nanyuan
Inn, was very nice indeed! Not as cheap as a hostel obviously (there aren't actually any entries on the usual hostel websites so we didn't have a choice), but between five
of us we each paid around 200 kuai each (including deposit). Post-shower, we
headed to Saint Sophia Cathedral. According to guides, this cathedral is a former
Russian Orthodox church, turned museum in the late 90s. It was a very pretty
building to be sure, but I was kind of expecting something bigger.
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| Our room! |
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| St. Sophia |
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| Those pigeons went mad - just kept circling the cathedral | | | |
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| The interior |
After the cathedral, we went wandering and ended
up taking in a travelling art exhibition before ending up on Central Street –
the pedestrianized tourist centre of the city. We arrived on the first day of
the festival, so walking along this street we could see some preparations being
made, though we were able to see some small ice sculptures along the path!
Harbin, similarly to Dalian, was under Russian control in the past so this
street (being very touristy) preserved a lot of the old European architecture.
Lovely stroll it was. After making it to the end, we were just strolling along
when we ended up at the river. Obviously at temperatures between -10 and -15
degrees, it was completely iced over so it had become this massive play area
with ice/snow slides, sleds, snow mobile things, and much more. I did start to
get a little panicky about frost bite after I lost feeling in my toes though,
so decided to get out of there and wait in a nice cosy bank until the others
were ready to leave. We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for what we’d all
been waiting for: the Ice Festival! Some snaps from our day time stroll:
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| Cheeky chappy |
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| One of my favourite pictures from the art exhibition |
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| Entrance to Central Street |
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| Central Street! |
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| A woman playing the violin - hope you can see it! |
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| Not sure what this one is... |
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| Under construction! |
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| Mother swinging her child |
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| Spotted my first snow sculpture! |
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| Mini ice skating rink |
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| Great advertising Coca Cola |
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| Entrance to the river ice park place |
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| The river ice park! |
I’m pretty sure I have poor circulation or
something because I get cold VERY easily, and I did not want to risk it on that
night. So on departing the hotel, I was wearing eight layers on my torso, four
on my legs and 3 on my feet. I also had the heat pad things placed strategically
in my boots, on my back and in my pockets for my hands. It was intense – moving
my arms was a nightmare. But I was definitely not over-prepared! The Ice and
Snow Festival is divided into three parks: Ice and Snow World (for the
large-scale ice sculptures), Sun Island Scenic Area (for the snow sculptures)
and another park for the small-scale ice sculptures (but honestly, we weren’t
interested in visiting that one). Catching a taxi to the Ice Festival in the evening wasn’t too bad, and
only took about 20 minutes. After purchasing a ticket (no real queue – but
maybe because it was the first day of the festival) at 300 kuai a pop (expensive, but definitely worth it) we headed in, and I was just blown away. Though you can visit this
park during the day, night-time is definitely more worthwhile with all of the
sculptures lit up. It was beautiful! So cool how anyone can make those things!
But my words are failing me, so here are the photos. (I was worried all evening
that my camera battery wouldn’t last that long in the cold, but luckily it
did!)
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| READYYYYYYYY |
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| The entrance! |
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| A giant Harbin beer bottle made of ice! |
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| Igloo bar! |
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| Giant snow goat sculpture for the Year of the Goat |
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| One of my fave sculptures - I LOVE RAINBOWS |
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| Mini ice slide - which I had no intention of going on |
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| Giant Buddha snow sculpture |
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| SO BRIGHT |
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| Sprite! |
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| GIANT snow slide - DEFINITELY wasn't going to go on |
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| Damn woman in ma shot! |
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| The Rat - one of twelve zodiac-themed thrones |
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| Father Christmas and bunnies? Of course China, of course |
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| PENGUINS! |
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| Magical! One of a few castle looking sculptures you could enter |
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| Some very slippy, icy stairs! |
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| OH HEYYYY |
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| The view from the top |
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| Ice train! |
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| AMAZING fish sculpture! |
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| Another castle/fort-esque sculpture to climb! |
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| Ice and Snow World |
Surprisingly
despite the low temperatures, we stayed a good few hours – bobbing in and out
of sheltered/heated areas of course – and then grabbed a ride back to Central
Street for dindins. We went to a charming Russian restaurant and I thought the
food was pretty good, if a little strange. We also tried real Harbin beer (it’s
popular in China, and apparently not as good anywhere else as it is in Harbin)
which wasn’t bad! We were pretty cold/tired after this so just went back to the
hotel to chill out before Day 2!
Stay tuned for the rest readers
xoxo
