It was ominous that in our conversations with friends who had previously visited Harbin, neither Henry, Lottie nor I could find anyone who had been twice, or had any wish to do so! The infamous cold surely has something to do with that; Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang, the northernmost province in China and less than 300 miles from the border with Siberia. It was certainly a chilly place - more than 25 degrees below zero. The large river that runs through the town was frozen solid and transformed into a totally different natural resource - a quarry for the countless blocks of ice used to build the many palaces, arches and statues that adorn this city during the winter.
Many of these structures (most notably those at the Ice Festival on the west side of the river) are pierced through with colorful halogen strip-lights - all very jolly!
While Lottie watched from a telescope in the hotel lounge, Henry and I took a stroll from their hotel out over the frozen Songhua river; staring past frozen bubbles and ghostly trails in the ice into the pitch-black depths beneath was a rather unnerving experience.
The ice-bar at the Shangri-La.
A big old tiger lopes past our vehicle at Harbin's bizarre, impressive yet somewhat morally disquieting tiger park.
Some interesting buildings throughout the city - the building above lay on Gogol street, the cathedral of St Sophia below (now a charming photographic museum to the development of Harbin).
Though we spent just a couple of days there, it is our joint and considered opinion that this northern city has far more it than meets the eye - a jumble of cultures with a real liveliness about it.
Wow it feels like you are in net week old Russia and china...! Must have been very interesting despite the cold
ReplyDeleteIt was fantastic fun - unlike any other Chinese city I've visited.
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