Harbin - Ice and Snow World

Ever since I had an interest in aircraft, the planes of China and Russia always fascinated me, now however it’s all Airbus and Boeing, no doubt safer than what had gone before, but boring. That said the crew of the Air Sichuan Airbus 321, were the smartest with the most imaginative pre-flight briefing demonstration, complete with almost a dance routine. Great fun.

On arrival, the first thing you notice is how cold it is, as in your eyes hurt kind of cold. The three days we were there the temperature varied between -11 and -26 degrees with a hefty wind chill factor thrown in for good measure. We stayed at the Holiday Inn, right on the edge of the main pedestrian street (ZhongYang Street) of Harbin leading to the frozen river. So, first morning, we set off in search of the ice and snow magic.

We walked straight to the banks of the frozen river to be met with the sight of around 200 snowmen, all different, some characters you’d recognise, there was a very interesting Trump depiction, some just generic snowmen. I risked frostbite to take of my toon scarf and drape it round one for effect.

We had been told there was a picturesque cable car ride over the river to Sun Island, our first stop on our tour. Sadly, and you think we’d know better by now, the cable car wasn’t working, in fact, there were no cars on the cables. It looked like it hadn’t been in operation all season, so how to cross the river? We saw people skating on the ice, and generally using the river as another road, so off we went, making a surreal sight as we strode off over the river, which was frozen solid. Proving that Geordies can indeed walk on water.

The stroll took around 40 mins to get to the opposite bank, which led right to the door of the Sun Island snow sculptures. Even though we saw many photos before our trip, nothing can prepare you for the sight of these amazing creations, shown on a backdrop of crisp, clear deep blue sky, which showed the snow and ice off to its best effect. We spent a few hours just wandering the park, you can bike, ski or sled around the frozen pond, and some of the towers are built in such a way you can take a sledge and ride down to your hearts content. The cold does eventually start to eat away at you. We had been given a tip to take flasks of coffee with us, and they were very welcome indeed as we wandered around. As the sun began to set around 4pm, we set off and retraced our steps over the river to our side of the bank and the short walk back to the hotel.

Once we regained the use of our limbs, we set off once again to go view another display, this time of ice sculptures in Zhoalin Park. Though best viewed at night, seeing these impressive sculptures up close was quite a sight. The following evening we went back to see them illuminated, but typically for China, no notice was given when the exhibition would be turned off, and that’s what happened, as we walked around, one by one, section by section, the models were plunged into darkness, leaving us to make our way out of the park, only to return another night.

On the way to the main festival we dropped in on the Harbin Grand Theatre, a huge impressive building on the Songbei side of the river where you can actually walk around onto the roof from the outside of the building, an amazing piece of accessible, interactive artwork, available to all.

The main part of the trip was to visit the Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, which didn’t disappoint in any way, even though it was the coldest I have ever been in my life, surrounded by walls and walls of ice, walking on frozen snow-covered ground, which illuminated as dusk fell. The great constructions just looked like blocks of ice, it was only after dark when the park really comes to life.

We just wandered, tried to take it all in, and capture photos for keepsakes, which was extremely difficult under the conditions. Everything from replicas of the Great Wall of China, a church with ice pews and an ice lectern. Within a few minutes the whole park was illuminated, you really didn't know where to look next.

We had taken flasks of coffee which were very welcome, you really don't realise how quickly the cold can set in, finger and toe tips getting colder by the minute, even though we were very well wrapped up. After a couple of circuits around the park, making sure we had missed nothing, we found our way to our waiting driver and the thankfully warm car. Something else to do in Harbin is to go see the impressive St Sophia Cathedral, sadly closed when we were there.

Handy tips for you are to have a translation or screen shot of places you’d like to visit so the taxi can take you, prepare this information before you go, as google maps is not accessible from within China.

It was lovely to have people offer to help when they could see we were having difficulties, and only the taxi drivers tried it on, though to be fair it was peak season, the Chinese New Year holiday, with a few negotiating fares rather than use their meters, one funnily enough tried to say is wasn’t working, as he turned it off right in front of us, as if we wouldn’t notice.

That said, we had a great trip, it was everything we hoped it would be.