Harbin's International Ice Festival

It’s been 3 months already since my last blog post. I’m not particularly proud of it but, as I often pointed it out, no matter where you settle down, routines sneak up on you whether you want it or not. I no longer have an impression of exotic travels anymore; it’s simply daily life now. On the other hand, I still feel that life here is a bit more stimulating or at least entertaining. I don’t know if it’s the general effervescence of the city or the jovial expat community, but there’s no time for boredom. Thus the last few months could be summarised by dinner with friends followed by drinks in town, organised events and of course parties, and all that sprinkled with photo contracts and other little jobs. There would be many little stories and adventures to tell but all that now falls in the ordinary category and therefore not destined for this blog… However, my last little trip is most suited.

Each year since 1985, with the exception of a few editions dating back from before the Cultural Revolution, there’s The International Ice Festival of Harbin, in the North-East part of China. It attracts people from a bit of everywhere including my friend Jeff and I from Beijing. The only problem is that we decide to leave just before the most important Chinese Holiday, The Chinese New Year, also called The Spring Festival. That implies the world’s largest annual human migration. Everyone is on the move, leaving the big cities to go back to their respective hometown to visit their family during their long holiday. So obviously, all the trains are packed and of course we don’t prepare too much in advance. As one would expect, there are no available tickets from Beijing to Harbin but only to Shenyang, a city half way to Harbin. We decide to take a chance nonetheless, hoping that there would be more availability from there on. Luckily, Jeff has some friends, Alex and his wife Jessica, living in Shenyang and offer us to stay a night at the place if needs be.

We arrive in Shenyang in the early evening. First thing we do, check for train tickets to Harbin and thankfully, there are some available. The train leaves the next morning so we happily accept Jeff’s friends’ invitation to stay the night. They received us very well indeed and we each had our own room and double bed.


We arrive in Harbin the next afternoon. We find ourselves a small hotel room near the train station. After a little break, we dress up with warm clothes to brave the cold weather, snack on some dumplings, and embark on our quest of finding the first of 3 ice sculptures sites. As we walk around, I quickly realise that Harbin is a much bigger city than I had anticipated and even wished for, as I was hoping for some quiet small town. We also notice the architecture has a definite European and Russian influence to it which is interesting.

We eventually find the site in question. As soon as we arrive, it’s pretty clear that the theme revolves around Disney and that they definitively paid the bill. The statues, or maybe it’d be more appropriate to call them structure, castles, boats, big slides and so on, are nonetheless quite impressive. They are all illuminated from within and magically gorgeous.

The following day, ready once again to brave the intense cold, we take the road towards the biggest and most famous of the 3 sites. It’s a little bit out of town but we make it there no problem by public bus. We get there in the middle afternoon which is a bit too early since the real magic comes along with the night. It’s at that time that all the ice buildings brighten up with all the colors of the rainbow. So meanwhile we walk stroll around, it’s still quite impressive, and we eventually stumble upon a skating rig. The traditional skates that we are used too don’t seem to be very popular here, as far as I’ve seen so far anyway. Instead they use some modified bicycles with blades. They work rather well, until you want to turn or break, which explains why they are so much fun, but still, they are also much easier to operate than skates. At dusk, the real beauty of the plain unveils. It suddenly feels completely different and full of live.


























































After the whole spent outside in Harbin’s cold air, we decide to spend the night in a Chinese spa. It’s a new experience for me, even though they are very popular and everywhere in China. In my view, these are somewhat weird in concept. In fact they simply are public baths, with segregated sexes of course, with showers, saunas, hot pools and all the stuff to clean and relax yourself. After you are done with that part, they provide you with a pyjama and you can then move on to the commune dining / buffet area, the game room, or television and couches area. It seems to be a rather popular family activity where everyone is walking around in pyjamas in what could resemble or feel like a hotel. One of the stranger sides of it all is that, despite their familial dimension, pretty much all these places offer “special ending” massages and other “services” for an extra fee of course. In other words, there are activities for all family members… As far as we are concerned, we are more than satisfied with the most basic package, which is cheaper than a hotel room and offers us 3 meal buffets and the possibility to stay and enjoy the facilities for a whole 24 hours. We thus sleep the night on some comfy couches. For those whom are interested while traveling in China, it’s a real bargain.


Twenty-four hours of intense relaxation later, we slowly take the way back towards the train station. We decide to make a stop in Shenyang, take advantage of Alex’s and Jessica’s generous hospitality to visit the city a bit more. The first day, we go check out the local Forbidden City. It was built before the current and much bigger Beijing one. China’s capital has not always been Beijing. In fact, it moved several times through the ages. The rest of the city appears to us as being very similar to many other “mi-size” (half a dozen million habitants) industrial cities in China. Unimpressed, we take our last train ride back to Beijing the following evening.













































Since my return to Beijing, it’s pretty much the same routine that continues. We are presently towards the end of the Spring Festival festivities (check the blog entry “The Spring Festival!” from February 2008). I restarted to take Mandarin lessons. It’s slowly sinking in… I’m also preparing to give photography classes throughout the month. So life continues and I hope to post more blog entries before too too long this time… ;-)

All thanks to Jeff Levinson and http://www.lunetours.com/ for the great planning and helpful guiding of this trip.