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The Harbin Ice Festival happens each year between December and February. We went the weekend before we were departing to Cambodia for Chinese New Year holiday. If you "google" this festival you will likely get to see better photos than I took, but I won't be in them... So I know you all prefer my pictures to Google's. Many of them I am hardly recognizable as I am wearing so many layers and face coverings, it could be anyone in there, but I promise it was me. Anyway, Harbin is located way up North in China, directly above North Korea, about 200 miles south of the Russian border. There is not much in China above this city. Here is how we began our trip.
It was a three hour flight from Shanghai to Harbin that we took on a Friday evening. When we got ff the airplane in Harbin, there were locker rooms to change in. By change, I mean add layers. The only problem there, is we had to take all of our top layers off and add layers underneath. The rest of the evening was uneventful. We got a cab to our hotel and had some dinner at a restaurant next door. It was cold.
The next morning we woke up and had plans to go to the Snow Sculpture Garden for the day time. We also planned to stay out all day and go to the Ice Sculpture "city" at night, as it is lit up with neon and supposed to be super cool. After we had the worst free Chinese "continental" breakfast ever -- the only edible thing was hard boiled eggs-- everything else was unidentifiable, we began to get dressed. This process was nothing short of a process. It took us close to 30 minutes to layer-up. I recall having 3 layers of pants under my snow pants. I had only one pair of wool socks under my boots, but had foot warmers in there to keep my piggies from falling off. The top of me had several long sleeved layers starting with a thermal layer. Finally I got to a fleece jacket and a wind-proof shell on top. I had double gloves with hand warmers for that variety of piggies well-being. My face was covered by a ski-mask that left only my eyes and the bridge of my nose exposed. I had a scarf around my neck, then a beanie-like hat, and a fleece hood and the wind proof hood over that. I was sweating before I even stepped out the door.
However, all of this layering was NECESSARY. In the daylight, the temperature got up to a whopping -15 degrees Celsius. I said NEGATIVE. Lets convert that to Fahrenheit. 5 degrees Fahrenheit. That doesn't sound as bad. Just because it is not negative. After we were all ready and had the courage to step outside, we found the correct bus route and walked along the river for a bit. We stopped to get a roasted sweet potato from a street vendor (mostly because it was something warm to eat) and decided to make a quick stop at a convenience store for some liquids. We decided on a few 8 RMB ($1.50) 16 oz bottles of rice liquor to" keep us warm" throughout the day and night. We boarded the bus and continued to get lost, but eventually got to our snow sculpture park destination. We walked the park for several hours seeing lots of sculptures done by artists of varying skill levels. The one in the picture here was several stories tall and quite amazing to see in person. Throughout these several hours of hiking around in the snow we stopped at several "warm-up huts" that were placed all throughout the parks. At each hut we bought a warm food or beverage alternating cup-o-noodles with coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.
As the sun began to sink, we made our way to get a cab and head over to the ice city. It was about 4pm when we arrived, and it was dark. Very dark. Which was good for seeing the ice city, but also meant that the temperature dropped as the sun went away. They had strategically placed a giant thermometer in the ice city to broadcast the torture we were inflicting upon ourselves. It was in Celsius as it is in China, but Ill convert it to Fahrenheit for you. The thermometer read -35 degrees Celsius. That translates to about -31 degrees Fahrenheit. NEGATIVE. THIRTY. ONE. DEGREES. FAHRENHEIT. It was beyond cold. It was windy too, so with the wind chill I'm saying it was probably close to -40F. After we were able to handle (drink rice wine) the cold, we could stay outside for about 15-25 minutes before having to go into a warm-up hut and gain feeling back in our small appendages. Each journey back outside was a tough one, but took us to different parts of the ice city to explore. Many of the buildings we were able to go up to the top or inside and explore. It was one of the coolest, no pun intended, things I have seen. After a good hour and a half of in-and-out of warm huts and icy buildings, we decided to find a ride home. We found a taxi, and got a ride back to our hotel, where we proceeded to eat dinner at the same restaurant as the night before. We were in bed before 10 with a soon to be rice wine hangover.
The next day had a rough start, as you would expect with out decision to use alcohol to stay warm. We went to a hole-in-the-wall noodle shop for "breakfast", but I personally couldn't stomach the food or the smell. I sat on the step outside the restaurant with my jacket open exposing my core to the -15C daytime air. Believe it or not, my hangover resolved pretty quickly in that weather. We took a risk and went to a Siberian Tiger park, which ended up being a low budget zoo with only one kind of animal. Not worth it. After our cheap safari we made our way back to the city and got to the airport by way of being ripped of by several cab drivers. On the flight home the person next to me *wink* attempted to sleep their residual nausea off for 3 hours without success. We made it home. Back to school in the morning.
This trip was once in a lifetime, and I highly recommend attending one of the few festivals like this around the world at some point. It was the most cold I have ever been. Also the closest I have been to crying about being cold. However, looking back, it was well worth the suffering. I doubt I will ever expose myself to this kind of weather again voluntarily. For the skeptics, the pictures don't do it justice. You will only be cold walking to the next warm-up hut. The people that put these parks together are professionals, and they cater to the weak, warm-blooded species that we are. They don't want to deal with whiny, cold, or frostbitten people, and they know how to help you prevent doing that to yourself. JUST DO IT. I think Nike should pay me too.
Ill try to pick up with spring 2014 next time.
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