My trip to Harbin

I teach in a university in Nanjing. During this winter vacation, a friend who lives in Harbin invited me to go there to watch snow scene. As a southerner, I was curious about snow. So I booked the air ticket and made good reparation to the trip of this cold city.

Preparations

My friend told me to wear warm for the temperature in Harbin was minus twenty degrees at that time. Wondering whether I could stand the terrible cold weather there, I was fully armed to the teeth before going there.

Head: Balaclava, ear protectors and scarf
Hand: Ski gloves
Upper outer garment: thermal underwear, woolen sweater, jacket, down coat
Trousers: thermal underwear, cotton wadded trousers, ski pants
Feet: thick socks, thick insole, snow boots

This was all my fit up. It finally proved that they were quite enough to keep hot!

Day 1

My friend picked me up at Taiping International Airport. We drove to Harbin Romantic Hotel where my friend already booked a room for me. The hotel was located facing Zhaolin Park, where I planed to see ice sculptures. After everything was done, my friend invited me for dinner. We came to the famous Huamei Restaurant. Being the dinner time, the seats were almost full. We ordered potato salad, red soup and fried shrimps (totally CNY 90). The red soup tasted very good. It is an appetizer with sour-sweet taste. After having a full stomach, we went back to my hotel and had a good rest.

Day 2

Today I went to Siberian Tigers Park. Both of us would like to see the real Siberian tigers. Having bought the entrance ticket (CNY 65 for each person), we waited for the working staff arranged a special bus for visit. Each bus could take about 30 visitors. The guide on the car told us that we could open the bus window to take pictures but we could not poke our hands and heads out of the window to avoid danger.

Visitors could buy live chickens, lambs, calves or a piece of meat to watch how tigers prey, of course the prices were different. A visitor spent 40 yuan for a live chicken. He threw the chicken from the skylight. The chicken, as if knowing the doom day has come, desperately crowed, which attracted the nearby tigers. They all swooped down for the chicken. Immediately the chicken feathers were blowing about in the wind. After a furious scramble, a tiger got the poor chicken. It jauntily carried the capture in a corner of his mouth, and other tigers just run away without making a snatch on the chicken. They were graceful losers.

One hour visit to the park was perfectly enough. Some animal rights activists strongly protest against using live prey for tigers’ catch. I agreed for it was too bloody, especially when I saw the tigers worry a calf, which has scared a kid to cry. I think we should stop our curiosity of seeing the fighting scenes to save the lives of these poor animals.

Day 3

We went to Zhaolin Park to take the pictures of the Disney Ice Festival. The animated cartoon figures are always to my liking. It was already at dark when we arrived there. But the ice lamps come best when at night, right? There were about 2,000 pieces ice sculptures. Walking in it is just like dreaming in a fairy-tale crystal world. We felt excited when seeing an ice slide. It was very high and had many turns. Visitors should sit in rings when slide down. The speed was terrifying and I had to grasp tightly the arm of my ring. We had a lot of fun there. After that, I took pictures with my favorite cartoon figures one by one: Mickey, Minnie, Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, Alice and Jessie. Certainly I would not miss any of them.

I went back to my hotel and packed my bags for departure. On the next day, I bought some specialties from nearby shops for my friends, which included Dalieba (super bread) and Russian chocolates. This was a wonderful trip. I would quick go back and shared it with my friends.