visiting ice city

Went to Harbin this weekend. 3 days. Because it is so far north, Harbin is called BingCheng, or Ice City. They have an ice festival there every January and it’s world famous. It’s -30 degrees C at that time so go prepared. I wouldn’t be caught dead in weather that cold, pretty ice sculptures or not. October weather was brisk and tolerable.
Here’s a pic from the flight. You can see the Great Wall and the tiny (by Chinese standards) villages that lie in the mountains north of Beijing.


You can tell we’re going north. All of a sudden everything became snow-covered.


And there was this really cool snow-capped mountain that I thought looked like my Chinese horoscope animal. Can you see the animal?


It’s a horse. Can you see it? I’m really fascinated by the geography and topography from a plane’s view. The plane to Harbin was a good opportunity to get some good pictures because visibility was pretty good the entire flight. As we approached Harbin, I could see how the local populations of these “small” villages geometrically melt into the neighboring farmlands around the Songhua River.


In Harbin, I toured the commercial street ZhongYang DaJie both during the day and again at night. This street has many European styled buildings that house both local brands and haute couture. I bought sausage, some hearty bread and walnuts from the local markets and ate them for dinner. Topped it off with a hot toddy. Excellent seat-of-your-pants cold weather meal consisting of local specialties.


I visited St. Sophia Church (Russian Orthodox built in 1903), which I understand is now a museum.


The highlight for me was the Buddhist temple. Ji Le Si was built in the 1920s and is active today. It was beautiful and serene. I bought some souvenirs for friends & family and incense for me. I don’t take pictures inside the temples so you’ll have to use your imagination, if you haven’t been there already. Here’s the view of the front gate. The inside, like the outside, was immaculately groomed and clean.


While in a taxi on my way to town, I was also lucky enough to catch the first snowfall of the season. It was actually just a few scattered flurries but still nice. I’ll never forget it because the taxi driver had a gas leak in the car somewhere and I was as high as a kite. I didn’t take pictures.