*SPECIAL EPISODE* Harbin, the city of ice

No Japan this time, I just got back to Italy (which I'm already tired of) but I've been to Harbin before coming home.

Harbin it's a city in deep north est China, close to the Russian border, famous for its Ice and Snow festival every winter.

It is in fact known as, The City of Ice!

I've been there 3 days but I'll write only an episode about it. 230 photos.

Enjoy!

Unusually, I wasn't travelling alone this time. A chinese friend came along. And if on a side it was definetly useful and fun to have her around, being used to travel by myself made me kind of a savage. I'm not used anymore to ask for opinions or deal with other people's problems when I travel. So I can't really say if I prefer solo or in company. I guess it's just different

The Cold

Harbin was cold. Like, real cold.

I've never been anywhere that cold in my life. I was wearing a very warm hat, 2 pair of gloves, 2 t-shirts, one jumper, one jacket, 2 pair of trousers, 2 socks, warming soles, and boots.

I was still freezing the all time. Expecially my feet. Keeping your hards out without protection meant to stop feeling them after less than 30 seconds.

Expecially because all the expoitions where either in the middle of a snow or ice field. 

It didn't help

It was crazy tho to see all the locals walking around as it was spring. Open shirts, short skirts. I have no idea how. I guess your body might even get used to minus 30 celsius degrees at some point. Or maybe you just lose sensitivity and that's it

The coldest it got was -30° at the Ice and Snow world at night.

It was so cold, my phone switched off and refused to get back on. For real. So I couldn't that take many pictures there...

The City

It didn't feel like China at all. The city's buildings are much more Soviet Union than anything else. If it wasn't for the Chinese writings on the walls and the chinese people walking around, you'd never say you are in China.

Also, all the heating was coal based. So...not the freshest air. At least it was warm inside...

Following is the main shopping street, called Zhong Yang Da Jie

And this is me eating an ice cream at -25°

It wasn't unsual to find Russian underground bars all over the place, some of them didn't even have Chinese writings

This instead is Saint Sophia square and Saint Sophia Church

Even the restaurants and cafes had a Russian feeling 

But let's talk about my room. Well, I am a young traveler. I need to stay cheap right? No hostel could be found in Harbin, so I had to go for a cheap hotel. From the pictures online it looked legit. It was cheap and right in the center of the city. 

Well, it was BAD. REALLY BAD. Luckily I had my room changed the second day (which wasn't that better, BTW) but my first room was definelty a prostitute-for-one.

 Let me explain.

First of all, it looked like the room has never been cleaned up. NEVER. There was dirt everywhere.

The bathroom had...glass doors. Which I can only have two explanations for. 

First is, the prostitute is taking a shower, and you can look at it. As well as the protitute is taking a piss, and you can look at it. 

The second is: I am taking a shit, and I don't want the prostitute to steal my stuff and run while I'm doing so.

In any case, big ew.

Bed cover had what looked like blood stains :(

While this couch was just...I don't even know how to describe the ammount of shit you could find on it

Cherry on the cake, neon violet lights!!!

The Snow

Ok enough with prostitution, let's get serious here. Fist stop, Sun Island and the snow sculpture exposition!

This was a river. You could get on the island by car, or you could take a walk over it!

Same here

Sun Island is a huge park, and what's following is a series of all the ice sculpures you could find in it. Some of them are just huge and impressive. Other are small, but no less impressive.

And yes, all you see it's just all and only snow

This was by far the biggest and most impressive one. Look at the size. Look at the details.

Next to the ice WC, the was a little cottage. Inside (it was SO warm!) there was 2 ladies providing some local delicious food and drinks!

I wanted that coat!

Some hunted animals 

Even the common Chinese bridges and pagodas had a snow feeling

Here instead a snow Micheal Jackson on the main street

The Tigers

Tigers. Yup. The biggest Siberian Tiger wild park in the world. More than 70 cubs of this endangered species are born every year and the tigers can walk around in a wide free space, not like a zoo. So I think it's a good thing. Despite the fact that China+animals is a story that doesn't usually end well. Check my Shanghai Zoo episode for a taste of waht I'm talking about.

Anyway, to see this huge animals just few metres from you (on a bus) was definetly a great experience that I'll never forget. Also, you could feed the tigers with alive animals like chickens, ducks, goats or even cows. Too bad I only saw a 3 tigers vs 1 chicken thing. You can guess how that ended. You can also see the video below. 

Also few lions we there

Only a few tigers were caged, apparently because they were sick, old, or pregnant

White tigers!

And this fucker is a Liger. What's a liger? It's a half lion half tiger thing, of couse. Only 10 in the whole world!

The Ice

Here we are. There where two sities for ice sculptures, first one is Zhaolin park. Despite smaller thn the second one, this is definetly my favorite. There was some kind of fairy feeling about it....

Again, all you see it's only ice....

This is where they make the sculptures

there were a few activities you could do there. Like ice bicycles and curling!

Second stop, and world famous, Ice and snow world. A all city made out of ice. But it was so cold that my phone refused to work, so I could tak that many pictures.

All the sculptures represent famous world heritage sites, like Rome's Colosseum, New York Empire State Building and the Beijing's Forbidden City.

I took my hat off for a second to take this pictures. I'm not smiling, I'm in pain.

The Eats

I had a few interesting eats in Harbin, definetly a different cousine from Shanghai's one

Here we have a few steamed dumplings with different filling: combination of fish, met and vegetables

This instead is a honey dew pork sandwitch in a peculiar bread bun similar to italian's tigelle. DELICIOUS

This is a sweet chicken pan friend breast with cheese filling <3

This is one of the most traditional dishes of Harbin, chicken and mushrooms stew. And by chicken, I mean an entire chicken, from head to toe. Literally.

Some delicious sweet and sour eggplants on the side...

Pork knees and krauti, another Harbin must

Kiss me!

We also went to a Russian restaurant. I wasn't impressed

Steamed sweet potato, a must in the cold!!!

There was a lot of peculiar fruits, and it was all frozen and delicious!!!

This instead is a corn wrap with local vegetables. The wrap was incredibly thin and the vegetables quite tasty

Apparently also these ice cream were quite famous. I wasn't impressed tho

And....hot Coca  Cola!

That's it folks. It was a magic adventure, but it was so cold 3 days were enough. I couldn't have endured more. But I believe is a thing verybody should see once in their life. If you happen to be in China in winter, get your ass up there.

Next episode, Japan again

Stay tuned!

ah, If you happen to have a favorite ice/snow sculpture, just write a comment below and let me know you opinion ;)