Harbin 2008

We've survived... i won't say we came back in 1 piece. My fingers suffered some minor frostbites, and Mountain man's toes are still numb. But now that we've gone through what they call north pole weather, beijing is just chilly.

Here's a not so brief recap of the holiday...

Day 1:
First meal was at the Russian Cafe, a very popular eatery recommended by every taxi driver, guide book, tour guide. (After this meal, we ate jiao zi all the way, every meal.)

I know i look super unfriendly here, but i believe i was hungry.

After lunch we headed to Zhong Yang Da Jie, the Orchard Rd of Harbin.Followed by Church of St Sophia...


We end every night with a visit to the local pubs. Play chor dai dee and drink and drink.
We found some student pub and the drinks were dirt cheap. 3 drinks for 35rmb!


Day 2:
Yabuli is where the Winter Olympics will be held. It's quite a well-known landscape in HeiLongJiang. It's the Whistler of China, or dare i say a more scenic version of Whistler.
The bus ride took us 6 over hours in total (back and forth). We were not told beforehand that we'd be experiencing temperatures below -30 degrees, we were quite ill prepared. After sitting in an open gondola for 10 minutes with the wind was howling at the same time, i won't say that my fingers were numb. in fact, the hurt so much that i thought the skin was splitting. It was cold enough to freeze a dead cow. We really thought we were going to die. I didn't manage to take alot of pictures. But i wish i had cos the view was really really really breathtaking.
Day 3:
I think day 3 was the most fun. cos we got used to the temperature, and we did lots. First stop was to the Siberian Tiger Park. its safari style- u sit in a van and it goes round the different cages. U can even buy live chicken and live goats to feed the tigers. of course we could only afford the cheapest animal...this was wht's left of one of the chickens. Can u see the paw?

There are 2 key sculpting events in Harbin. The snow sculpture, and the ice sculpture.I ce scultpure is more of a night thing, but even during the day it's impressive. Blocks of ice will be taken from the nearby rivers to build the ice city. it's just amazing.



Harbin Count:
Layers of top worn: 3 (thin thermal, fleece/wool jacket, down jacket)
Layers of bottom worn: 2 (thick thermal, Jeans or skii pants)
Head gear: 2 (Beanie and jacket hood)
Gloves: inner and outer gloves (which is useless at temp below -30)
Coldest temperature: -30 degrees up on Yabuli's peak (not including windchill)
AVG Number of Jiaozi per person: 60 (each plate has average 20 jiaozis, and we ate almost every meal, 3 to 4 plates each time)
Number of live chicken sacrificed at the siberian tiger zoo: 4
Number of falls: 2 (Mountain man and Jack fell once each)


Click here to see the rest of our pictures.