We had a fabulous weekend in Harbin. Friday January 18th, we collected the kids from school at noon ready to fly up to Harbin in the very north of China. In fact, any further north and we would have been in Russia! Evidence of this can be seen in the town centre:
Chinese and Russian signs above the shops in Harbin.
This was an “Emerald” weekend away as there would be 6 families staying in the same hotel and doing all the same site seeing! We had travelled up with John, Jenny and their 2 boys: Daniel and Luke, and the others were arriving at different times during Friday and Saturday morning. Once we had walked off the plane into the baggage claim area, we (along with every other person on the plane) immediately started to bundle up: ski gloves, scarves, additional layers. It was cold, cold, cold! We stepped out of the airport and felt the cold air on our faces. It was only minus 27 degrees centigrade that night! Luckily it was a short walk to the waiting car. It was funny to see the inside of the car windows frost up during our 45 minute drive to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel (Shangri-la – highly recommended in Harbin) it was time for dinner. We dropped bags off and decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. It was buffet style and the kids loved being able to help themselves. We also met up with Marie and Tim and their 3 children: Cai, Lia and Seren. They had arrived earlier this morning and had already done some sight-seeing.
We got up early on Saturday morning and began the long task of getting dressed. Layering up with thermals, long sleeves, 2 pairs of socks, sweaters and then ski coats. Then add ski gloves and liners, hats, ear muffs, face warmers and scarves!! Poor Isabelle and Oliver did not like wearing so many clothes and they weebled their way down the hotel corridor to the elevator! They both look the Michelin Man! We had arranged for a mini-bus to take us, John & Jenny + family and Tim & Marie + family to the Tiger breeding station first.
Tiger Breeding Organization
The Siberian Tiger Park covers an area of more than a million square meters (250 acres+) and it was set up as a place to breed and house Siberian tigers. The Siberian tiger is the largest of the big cats. The breeding program has been very successful, and there are now about 800 Siberian tigers (about 100 can be seen here) along with other large cats like lions and pumas. This is amazing, since it is estimated that there are only about 500 Siberian tigers left in the wild. Almost all of these wild ones are in Russia, and maybe 12 are in China. The facility includes a museum, breeding areas, and cages/pens for the other large cats. It is amazing to see a group of striped golden tigers walk and run together. You can also have the option to buy some live animals to feed the tigers with:
Tiger Menu
We were full of good intentions to buy a chicken but by the time we had walked through to the bus, we had lost our opportunity.
All of the kids waiting to go into the Tiger Park. Dan, Isabelle, Seren, Lia, Oliver, Cai and Luke.
Riding in the tiger cart
Once we moved into through the gift shop, we got into the bus that would drive us through the large open areas filled with the tigers. It was fantastic to be so close to these magnificent animals. They are beautiful.
Beautiful White Siberian Tiger. Quite Rare!
So many tigers here……
This tiger has just fed on a chicken! You can even see a feather hanging down near its mouth!
At the tiger feeding area – there must have been between 30-40 here.
Wow Mum, we saw a lot of tigers!
Owen and Oliver getting eaten by a Tiger!!
After spending a good few hours here, our feet and our faces were starting to get numb. The temperature was minus 35 degrees centigrade and you cannot stay out for too long! We all got back into our lovely warm bus and drove back to the Hotel for lunch and to warm through! After we were toastie again, it was back in the bus to check out the snow sculptures at Sun Island Park.
The Harbin Snow and Ice festival officially starts January 5th and usually lasts one month. Ice sculpture decoration technology ranges from the modern (using lasers) to traditional (with ice lanterns). Some of the most impressive ice sculptures are full size buildings made from blocks of 2–3 feet thick crystal clear ice directly taken from the Songhua River.
Sun Island Park Entrance
The first sculpture we saw was this one of the 7 dwarves.
Snoopy Snow sculpture
Oliver and me by a beautiful sculpture. This gives you an idea of the scale of a lot of the sculptures in this park.
Isabelle, Lia, me and Oliver posing by the greenery at the Snow sculptures at the Sun Island Park.
Getting ready for mass slide
Slide executed!
Isabelle and Oliver by a sculpture
Ludwig van Beethoven in Snow!
More music in snow
Amazing sculptures here in China
Snow egg
The sculptures are absolutely amazing. Many of them are huge – towering above us. They are all intricately carved with exquisite detail. There was even a building with a slide. We all rode down this on a rubber ring – it was thrilling!
Waiting to ride the slide
Harbin – Snow and Ice Capital!
The detail is amazing.
I loved this simple design.
More detail…….
Almost the same. Minor changes in these heads make you look twice!
Cinderella shall go to the ball. I laughed at the fact that Cinderella and Prince Charming cannot possibly get into this carriage! Still a fabulous sculpture though!
Another wonderful sculpture
Solider shooting in snow.
The magic flute
We spent all afternoon here and as the sun began to set, the light was amazing and the photos that we took later in the day were spectacular.
Such wonderful detail
And then the evening lights came on too!
Back to the beginning, this time this is all lit up.
We had been overwhelmed enough for 1 day! Tigers and snow sculptures and we had been outside for most of it. Our feet were cold and it was time for dinner. All the other families from Emerald had arrived earlier in the day so we were looking forward to a lovely meal with everyone!
We had booked several tables at the back of the restaurant in the hotel. All the boys gravitated towards one, while the girls took another and that left all the adults to enjoy an evening together at the main table! 🙂
The boys at Dinner – Ethan, Oliver, Luke, Cai, Daniel and Harry (Joseph is missing from the boys table).
The Girls table – Maddie, Lia, Isabelle and Ava. Seren and Amelie are missing from this photo. Isabelle is getting quite good with chopsticks!
A selection of the adults: Nick, Owen, Marie, Lin, Tim, Kevin, Jenny and Emma
Obviously towards the end of the evening……Kevin, Jenny, Emma, John and Jane
Oliver, Seren and Ethan. Oliver and Ethan both love Seren and she knows exactly how to make this work to her advantage! All 3 play so well together and they are wonderful to watch. They had a great weekend!
Isabelle, Ava, Maddie, Lia and Amelie chilling out after dinner!
We had another early morning on Sunday so that we could go down to the Songhua River. We wanted to walk on water!! The kids laughed at this!
The ice sculpted entrance to the river slides.
The view from the top. So many activities on the frozen river.
Time to slide down to the River so we can ride in a tank!
And down we all went……
Time for a ride in the Tank!
Owen and Isabelle on the left, with Oliver and me to the right. This was HUGE FUN!!!!! Of course, with Owen’s Army background he drove it perfectly. I had to be rescued off the center divides several times!!!!!
Isabelle cheering a perfect round!
Oliver and I cheering the fact that it was a straight run!
So. Much. Fun.
The ice is so clear. It is taken from the river and carved into wonderful sculptures. This block is almost 2 feet thick. You can clearly see my victory salute through this.
We spent hours on this slide. The only downside was pulling the tires back up to the top each time! Eventually Isabelle had been down enough times with Owen or John, that she decided she was brave enough to do it herself. There was no stopping her then.
Oliver posing! So many layers on him!
After all the fun on the river, it was time to warm up before going to the Ice Festival. We saw this fruit on a stick display and the kids immediately wanted to try one.
Oliver’s choice was huge. He ate it all!!
Just cherries for Isabelle.
Tourist attractions again in Harbin. They are getting used to all the photos that the locals want to take of them!
We had found a Costa coffee shop and warmed up with coffee and hot chocolate. After that, we needed to get from downtown to the Ice Festival and so jumped in a couple of taxis. This was a very interesting experience as Owen watched our driver signing the driver of the other taxi (where John, Jenny, Luke and Daniel were) and then both taxis pulled over into a side road. The drivers were trying to negotiate an exorbitant fee to take us. Thank goodness for iPhone’s with maps as John saw that our hotel was right around the corner so we just got out the taxis and started walking. A little bit scary and I was sad that we were targetted for a rip off (especially with young children with us). Once back at the hotel, we (hotel concierge!) negotiated taxis to take us to the Ice Festival at Zhaolin Park and then wait to bring us back to the hotel when we were done! A much better solution.
Ice Time!
We took so many photos of the fantastic ice sculptures. It is amazing what is built and how beautifully lit up they all are. This was truly a fantastic experience.
We tried the Harbin beer! A little too much like Bud Lite for us!
Ice, ice and more ice.
A lot of the buildings had ice slides incorporated into them. Everyone enjoyed these – “big kids” and little kids!
A mass tumble down this slide!
Oliver trying different moves down the slides
Some of the ice buildings are HUGE.
Lots of different themes this year.
Quite the view from the top of this one.
A slightly different angle.
You can just see the top of Oliver’s hat on this slide. The kids had sooooo much fun here. We stayed until quite late and they had not even started moaning about being cold! It was us adults that had had enough of the cold for one day!
The Temperate reads minus 26 degrees centigrade
Harbin is a very popular destination in January and February. Even so, it does not feel too crowded as you walk around.
Spectacular architecture surrounded us.
There was a ski lift and ski slope at the back of the park. There were also some cool rides down. What I especially liked here is that this slope was just for children 16 and under. There was a slightly steeper slope for the adults. You can just see me escorting Isabelle and Oliver up (dragging their tyres to sit in). I then had to run down as I was too old to ride!!!
Not just ice sculptures, some snow ones too!
Even the transportation around the park was lit up!
Owen and John propping up an Ice Bar.
Movie entertainment inside the park.
The kids liked the detail of the Ice Age animals. Oliver immediately named Diego, Manny and Sid!
More Ice
And more ice…..
And even more ice (with some snow!)
Isabelle and Oliver playing peek-a-boo at the Angry Birds sculpture.
I had to join in too!
The Angry Birds sculpture.
The Angry Birds catapult! This was a very clever sculpture. There were people dressed up as the birds putting on a show every 15 minutes.
The lights in all the sculptures are very cool.
Lots of very cool lights in very cool sculptures
Amazing…….
It was all so wonderful. So much effort for such spectacular results that last such a short time.
The scale of everything was over-whelming.
Me and my little chicks….
John playing with Oliver in the Ice Bar. Oliver won that arm wrestle!
Family Jones – proof that we were there! Only if you can tell who those people are underneath all the layers!
We safely returned to the hotel (not to be under-estimated, given our earlier experience with the taxi ride!) It was hot chocolate all round before we all crashed into our beds. An exhausting day with so much walking and the biting cold. I definitely could not live in this climate! We had decided to get up early again to take advantage of a couple more hours on the frozen river. Our flight back to Shanghai was early afternoon on Monday January 21st and we wanted to make the most of our final hours. Isabelle and Oliver both wanted to ride in the tanks again, do the tyre slide down a few more times and try out the ice bumper cars:
Bumper cars on ice! Isabelle and Owen having fun.
This was a fantastic, fabulous, wonderful weekend. It would not have been on our “must see” list if it were not for Jane Steele, lovely Emerald friend. She organised all the families, researched transportation, hotels, things to do and gave us the inspiration to go! If you come to China in the Winter, Harbin should not be missed!
osiochina 