Harbin Ice Festival and Tiger Park (Pics, tl;dr)
01-17-2012
, 03:57 AM
Got into harbin late Friday night. I’ve done this trip 3 times but this the first time I got in when it was dark. I was really worried that they diverted the plane to north korea, because everything is pitch black. Turns out I was actually in harbin.
A few notes for those who want to go see the ice festival.
Its cold. Not like a “suck it up 40 degrees F” were talking frostbite and ****. Im from los angeles so I own no actual winter clothes besides my ski clothes, which were still not enough to keep me warm. Buy some boots because I forgot mine in LA and my toes were freezing, despite having a foot warmer taped to my bare skin. I think the highest temperature throughout the trip was like -10 Degrees F or -30 Centigrade or something like that.
Cabs in Harbin are really annoying. If you go with a group of people (3-4) you will not be able to hail a cab during rush hour. If you are buy yourself, they will most likely stop and ask you where you are going even if they already have somebody else in the cab. Basically they like to double up on the fare. The subway is in the process of being built. I recommend waiting till it’s completed before you make a trip there.
There are 3 places to see ice/snow sculptures. The one I went to “Sunny Island (太阳岛)” is the biggest and most of the things there are big buildings made of ice. The other ice one is art stuff, like people making a intriquite dragon out of ice. The 3rd one is just snow sculptures. Ive done the other ice and snow one and found them wastes of money. Didn’t do it this time.
Its not wise to start fights in china at all because you will be ganged up on by every Chinese person around you. This is especially true in Northeastern china and harbin. Don’t go to clubs alone.
Enough about that. GF picked the hotel, huge mistake. Place was a ****hole with dirty carpets and no breakfast. It was close to the ice festival which is about its only redeeming quality. Whatever went to bed cause it was around 11 by the time we got checked in.
(note: bring your own condoms because there was a distinct lack of them in most 7-11 type stores).
Got up at around 10 and went to see the Jewish cultural museum. Im a jew and I had put off doing this the first 2 times I went. Turns out there were like 20,000 jews that came to harbin in the 30’s and left before ’49. Not a very good museum. Only cost like 25 RMB. Something to do during the day.
Then we went to a place I have gone every time ive been to harbin. The place is called 无记. Fantastic food. Their famous dish are these pig bones with a little bit of meat and they give you a straw to drink the marrow, which I happen to love eating.
Bones
Me drinking Bones
Potato Panckakes
Mashed potatoes (really buttery)
Some bun thing my gf ordered, it was like beef and sourkraut.
We ate ourselves stupid and went back to the hotel to rest until it got dark.
Its Saturday at around 4:30 when we decide to leave. There are no empty cabs because there is no subway. Nobody takes the bus because its ridiculously cold outside and nobody wants to wait. Luckily our hotel was able to call us a cab who even helped us buy tickets at a cheaper price (its 330 RMB for non-harbin residents, like 150 RMB for harbin residents.) He sold us 2 tickets for 400 RMB, which we were both fine with.
Around 6 we arrive and get into the park. As soon as you enter the actual park there are a bunch of horse cars there. Don’t take them, waste of money.
Here are a bunch of pics from the ice festival.
^^Snow Fox
A few notes for those who want to go see the ice festival.
Its cold. Not like a “suck it up 40 degrees F” were talking frostbite and ****. Im from los angeles so I own no actual winter clothes besides my ski clothes, which were still not enough to keep me warm. Buy some boots because I forgot mine in LA and my toes were freezing, despite having a foot warmer taped to my bare skin. I think the highest temperature throughout the trip was like -10 Degrees F or -30 Centigrade or something like that.
Cabs in Harbin are really annoying. If you go with a group of people (3-4) you will not be able to hail a cab during rush hour. If you are buy yourself, they will most likely stop and ask you where you are going even if they already have somebody else in the cab. Basically they like to double up on the fare. The subway is in the process of being built. I recommend waiting till it’s completed before you make a trip there.
There are 3 places to see ice/snow sculptures. The one I went to “Sunny Island (太阳岛)” is the biggest and most of the things there are big buildings made of ice. The other ice one is art stuff, like people making a intriquite dragon out of ice. The 3rd one is just snow sculptures. Ive done the other ice and snow one and found them wastes of money. Didn’t do it this time.
Its not wise to start fights in china at all because you will be ganged up on by every Chinese person around you. This is especially true in Northeastern china and harbin. Don’t go to clubs alone.
Enough about that. GF picked the hotel, huge mistake. Place was a ****hole with dirty carpets and no breakfast. It was close to the ice festival which is about its only redeeming quality. Whatever went to bed cause it was around 11 by the time we got checked in.
(note: bring your own condoms because there was a distinct lack of them in most 7-11 type stores).
Got up at around 10 and went to see the Jewish cultural museum. Im a jew and I had put off doing this the first 2 times I went. Turns out there were like 20,000 jews that came to harbin in the 30’s and left before ’49. Not a very good museum. Only cost like 25 RMB. Something to do during the day.
Then we went to a place I have gone every time ive been to harbin. The place is called 无记. Fantastic food. Their famous dish are these pig bones with a little bit of meat and they give you a straw to drink the marrow, which I happen to love eating.
Bones
Me drinking Bones
Potato Panckakes
Mashed potatoes (really buttery)
Some bun thing my gf ordered, it was like beef and sourkraut.
We ate ourselves stupid and went back to the hotel to rest until it got dark.
Its Saturday at around 4:30 when we decide to leave. There are no empty cabs because there is no subway. Nobody takes the bus because its ridiculously cold outside and nobody wants to wait. Luckily our hotel was able to call us a cab who even helped us buy tickets at a cheaper price (its 330 RMB for non-harbin residents, like 150 RMB for harbin residents.) He sold us 2 tickets for 400 RMB, which we were both fine with.
Around 6 we arrive and get into the park. As soon as you enter the actual park there are a bunch of horse cars there. Don’t take them, waste of money.
Here are a bunch of pics from the ice festival.
^^Snow Fox
01-17-2012
, 03:59 AM
They also had a few snow sculptures
We did it in 2 hours and went up most sculptures. About 30 mintues of that was sitting in random warming huts they have around there trying to defrost. Note: if you go keep your camera close to your body as it will lose most of its battery life from being so cold. Got out of there at around 8, ate some really bad noodles at a place across from our hotel and went to bed.
Sunday our flight was around 6 o’clock and we woke up around 9. We decided to check out tiger park, which is the cheapest thing you can do here in harbin, also something I’ve never done. Its located not to far beyond sunny island so we got there at around 10 and bought our tickets (90 RMB/person).
They also give you the option to purchase live animals to feed to tigers. Basically it’s a safari like thing. You are on a bus and there are tigers all around and stuff. While you’re watching a feed truck comes around and throws out a live animal and the tigers chase it and eat it. They have stuff ranging from a domestic duck for 20 RMB (3.5 USD) to a cow for 2800 RMB (about 400 USD). I opted for the chicken which was 60 RMB (little less than 10 USD). It was really cool and I will upload the video when I get a chance. My parents called me a monster for doing that. They are probably right.
Afterwards went to another terrible restaurant that was recommended by somebody on the plane. It was packed as hell but of the 10 things we ordered only 3 were edible. 2 were very good.
Walked around and bought some harbin sausage for friends at home (basically THE food of harbin) and head to the airport. Pretty fun weekend.
We did it in 2 hours and went up most sculptures. About 30 mintues of that was sitting in random warming huts they have around there trying to defrost. Note: if you go keep your camera close to your body as it will lose most of its battery life from being so cold. Got out of there at around 8, ate some really bad noodles at a place across from our hotel and went to bed.
Sunday our flight was around 6 o’clock and we woke up around 9. We decided to check out tiger park, which is the cheapest thing you can do here in harbin, also something I’ve never done. Its located not to far beyond sunny island so we got there at around 10 and bought our tickets (90 RMB/person).
They also give you the option to purchase live animals to feed to tigers. Basically it’s a safari like thing. You are on a bus and there are tigers all around and stuff. While you’re watching a feed truck comes around and throws out a live animal and the tigers chase it and eat it. They have stuff ranging from a domestic duck for 20 RMB (3.5 USD) to a cow for 2800 RMB (about 400 USD). I opted for the chicken which was 60 RMB (little less than 10 USD). It was really cool and I will upload the video when I get a chance. My parents called me a monster for doing that. They are probably right.
Afterwards went to another terrible restaurant that was recommended by somebody on the plane. It was packed as hell but of the 10 things we ordered only 3 were edible. 2 were very good.
Walked around and bought some harbin sausage for friends at home (basically THE food of harbin) and head to the airport. Pretty fun weekend.
, awsome pics.
01-17-2012
, 07:55 PM
It pretty much does, cept for that one resturant i posted pics of.
01-18-2012
, 08:38 AM
01-23-2012
, 04:21 AM
01-24-2012
, 04:50 AM
