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Posted On Monday, February 17, 2014 at
at
11:06 PM
by Alvin
We took advantage of the slightly warmer weather (yeh, at -30 Celsius !) in Harbin and braced ourselves for the world's largest ice and snow sculptures show (哈爾濱 冰雪節) a.k.a. 冰雪大世界. The sunny and dry weather turned out to be very agreeable although we still felt quite a bite from the well-below-zero temperatures especially when the wind came our way. The show was a feast to the eyes in the bright blue sky and blinding sunlight. The ice sculptures were constructed with attention and finesse as we admired the different structures on display - Roman amphitheatre, German cathedral, State Empire Building, post office and even toilets made from slabs and chunks of solid ice !
The setting sun played clever shadows and prisms through these man-made endeavours but the best was still to come - these structures would all be lit up after sun down as LEDs had been placed inside the slabs of ice. The site of the festival turned instantly into some sort of fantasy Disco land with spectacular blinking, toggling and gyrating color light sources. We stayed at the site for about 4 hours including a de-frosting break inside a well-insulated Costa Coffee Shop ! The event was well-worth the muscles stiffness and chilled bones we endured !
Harbin had and still has, a long history of Russian influence and we admired the smart Russian-origin department store (Churin 秋林公司), the stunning Saint Sophia Orthodox Church (聖索菲亞教堂), the pleasant Central Main Street (中央大街) and numerous shops selling Russian trinkets - vodka flasks, ballerina dolls, CCCP memorabilia etc. Yep, you got the idea ! We took frequent strolls along the frozen Song Hua River (松花江) with its many interesting parks such as Stalin Park (locally known as Sidalin Park 斯大林公園), Shang Zi Park (尚志公園) and Siu Lung Park (兆麟公園). Along these frozen shores, people were engaged in all sorts of half sports-half frolicking activities like snow-boarding with make shift chairs, playing an impromptu game of ice hockey with a coke can as the puck and of course sliding down the icy Song Hua River slopes with giant empty rice sacks.
Later on, we took the cable car to the opposite shore and visited Sun Island (太陽島) where we found a beer hall at every turn (not opened in this weather, of course !). We walked back on the solid ice of the frozen Song Hua River and visited other parts of Harbin which were equally interesting - we explored the older parts of Harbin (Hu Tongs 胡同) with an European twist, as there were many buildings constructed with Baroque and Byzantine facades. On our way back to the warmth of our hotel located near the end of the Central Main Street, by the land mark of the Harbin Flood Control Memorial Tower (防洪纪念塔) and amongst all these European constructions, we found the familiar sight of the Buddhist Temple of Ji Le Temple (極樂寺). After combating the freezing temperatures, we looked forwards to journeying back to the warmer south we called home. A very rewarding week in this cold but colorful part of China !
