Harbin Snow Fair, Heilongjiang, China

5kev a 5:00 PM Sep 6, 2015

Harbin Snow World
This is one of them lifetime events, a lot of people have heard about the ice festyival but few hear of the Snow World. The workmanship and scale as well as the imagination of these works of art are breathtaking. Yes it is cold -27 when we were there, but they have areas in the exhibition which are heated to give you respite. Go on the snow slide there too, great fun

4Lynn L 5:00 PM Jan 14, 2013

I Left My Heart in Harbin
It was a boiling summer day. My brain stopped thinking. My whole body was telling me not to work anymore. So the best thing to do was escaping from Beijing once adorable in Spring, now unbearable to stay. I ran downstairs to a ticket booking office. “Where to go?” the agent asked me. “Anywhere in the north, tomorrow.” I gave a shrug. “All tickets are sold out except for D-train to Harbin”. “That’s fine.” I nodded eagerly. The next day I was on the 2nd class soft-seat direct train from Beijing to Harbin. It was a 9 hour journey and the train ran like an arrow all the way up to the north. I arrived in same day afternoon. The wind is soft and chilly. The air is a bit sweet. Harbin people are welcoming. All hints a good start of a wonderful trip. Harbin had been a small fishing village before the construction of Chinese Eastern Railway in 1898. Russian empire financed the project. In 1910s’ Harbin became an international metropolis of hosting 45,000 foreigners, twice the number of Chinese residents at that time. Harbin was the main centre of white Russian immigrants and there was a big Jewish community. Walking around in St Sofia Orthodox Church, you can imagine how magnificent it was. Inside of the church, I visited an exhibition consisting of more than 10,000 black and white pictures telling the history of old Harbin, all types of churches and the expats life in early 1900s. Of course Harbin is famed for its’ annually held Ice and Snow Festival which has attracted tens of thousands visitors and competitors to come. The festival site Sun Island itself is very charming. As the largest wetland protection area, Sun Island is a paradise for people to visit in summer. Trees flourishing, flowers blooming and local people were swimming “wildly” means they swim in open water of Songhua River—the Mother River of Harbin city. It was lovely to take a walk there. Harbin people relax themselves in Sun Island just like Londoners in Hyde Park. When the departing time came, I felt I had left my heart in Harbin. I can’t forget the piano sounds in Central Street, a cruise trip on Songhua River and such friendly and civilized people who never refused to help when a stranger was asking the way.