Nothing eventful happened to me on my way to the airport (minus the usual missed bus, hiring of gypsy cabs, running late all the time stuff). The airplane ride was pretty uneventful as well, except I met a woman named Ying on the plane. She was returning to Harbin to for the upcoming spring festival holiday. I talked with her for the couple hours that we were on the plane together. She was quite cool. Her brother and her husband met us at the airport and they gave me a ride into Harbin when we arrived (around midnight or so) and even dropped me off right in front my hostel. Then she gave me her phone number and she emailed me a bunch of stuff to do in Harbin (restaurants to visit, important bus stops, etc etc). Very cool of her. Especially cause all I did was meet her on a plane and talk with her.
So I went into my room, settled in, and eventually went to sleep.
Next day was my wandering day. The day where I just kind of walk around and see where I’m living. One odd thing I noticed was probably this big old pipe:
In New York they have big pipes like that to keep the pressure of all the subways and sewers and stuff to keep it under control. I don’t know what they’re for here.
The first time I noticed a distinct difference from Shenzhen however, was when I wanted to eat lunch. I looked around and realized I had no idea what was a restaurant and what wasn’t. There was no English whatsoever (the usual white people in this area are Russian) but that’s not even a big deal to me at this point. The problem is that in Shenzhen it’s still reasonably warm, even in winter, so there’s people outside cooking and that’s how I know it’s a restaurant. There also might be pictures in the windows that show food on plates or a menu outside. They don’t do any of that in Harbin. It’s too cold (same temperature as Minneapolis really).
So I suddenly realized I couldn’t read any signs and I couldn’t figure out what was a restaurant or grocery store or a tea shop without walking inside, looking like and idiot, then walking outside again. It was hard to look in windows as well because a lot of it was down below street level and the windows would be covered in ads and cardboard and stuff in order to keep the cold out (because it wasn’t well insulated). The store fronts didn’t really have a lot in the way of windows anyway because they wouldn’t be able to keep the heat in, so the only places there were windows were the doors.
In the middle of me trying to figure out how to not look like an idiot, I remembered that there’s something I had read about restaurants in Harbin: they put lanterns outside to show the quality of food they have. It’s like how we have 3 or 4 star restaurants. They do the same with lanterns and they show them off out front. So I just started looking for lanterns, found some, went in, and I was right. I was so proud of myself.
I found that in Harbin they add oil to their food as a condiment? What? Why do people say Americans eat unhealthy food? I brought this up to people I met there and they were still convinced that Americans eat worse food. It’s exactly the same. At least we hide our oil in the food somewhere:
It was hard to capture a picture of this, but that was 2.54cm/1 inch (seriously) of oil and fat and grease in the bottom of my plate. Americans eat unhealthy food though, not Chinese people:
Harbin reminds me very much of Minneapolis. It’s just like it. I kept laughing because I was having these random big “home” feelings (even though it was all Russian influence, not early American architecture).
If I were to be a famous king, I would probably want to be this one:
Especially if the nearest rival kingdom was ruled by this guy:
Ah ha! So! Finally a taste of what I really came to Harbin for: The Ice Festival:
Kickass.
When I saw those Pacman ice sculptures I felt like I was definitely someplace that I should be. When I found out that those Pacman ice sculptures were spread out all over the city and were apparently some kind of city-wide theme this year, I felt even more assured.
I would have cautioned these ladies about the dangers of dealing with Ice Pacmen, but I’m sure they recognized the perilous situation they were nearly in:
I don’t know what it was about this ferris wheel that just screamed “RUSSIAAAAA!!!!!” at me, but it did:
“Look we can’t just make a clone of Starbucks, we’re better than that you guys, we have to be more creative. What’s something else we can do that’s really cool but also gives us that edgy, foreign, yet lived-in feel of Starbucks?”
Old Russian style housing architecture, a Christmas tree, Chinese lanterns hanging outside, and “Hey Jude” blasting from a set of speakers screwed into the wood. This is one of those little epitome of China moments I get to experience occasionally:
I like these things. The facemasks here are a fashion statement. In Shenzhen when people wear them it’s kind of unnecessary. There’s not a lot of point to it because it’s not actually all that polluted here. In Xi’an you need them because of the pollution (which made them into a fashionable accessory). You also need them in Harbin, but they can duplicate as just something to keep your face warm in place of a scarf. If I knew where to get them I would have grabbed one, but I didn’t want to walk into like a lingerie store cause I couldn’t read the signs:
Wow, I’ve never actually seen a mannequin that looked like a specific nationality of people. Lol Russians:
Down an alleyway. I don’t know what that sign says. I’ll assume it says something like “Free pie and fruit smoothies this way! Also cute girls and sweet motorcycles with fireworks attached to them! Bring all your friends!” instead of like… “Clothing store”:
I love these boards I see all over the place in this country. They’re so ugly and fun to look at. I can easily see a Duchampion out there being all like “This is art.” Man I don’t like Duchamp:
This is my hostel by the way; it’s a renovated synagogue. I met a couple there that went to a Jewish museum nearby and they found out from reading all the plaques and stuff that our hostel was actually the first synagogue in Harbin (and let’s face it, probably all of China). Then all the revolution stuff happened and the synagogues were burned save for a few. It’s so strange cause it’s not even mentioned in any of the guidebooks or anything, it was just an aside at the museum they happened to be at that day. Pretty cool.
Apparently Harbin had a pretty large Jewish population at one point (like 25-30%). There also wasn’t a lot in the way of racial tensions or anything. Apparently the Chinese and the Jews got along really well (When I think about it, traditional Chinese values and traditional Jewish values aren’t that far apart on their core issues). That same couple I was talking to earlier also found out that after WWII Harbin was a possible relocation option for all the Jews.
Just imagine what a different (better?) world it would be if the outcome of that decision had been made a little differently:
My room. My bed was the top bunk in the corner back there. When I first arrived the guy who slept below me was very large and wheezed a lot. As soon as I saw him I thought “This guy is going to be snorer.” Turns out I was right. The guy snored like crazy. Soooo loud. He actually put earplugs in before he went to sleep because he was so loud. Personally I think if you have to put earplugs in to go to sleep at night you might want to think about trying to separate yourself from other sleeping people. I figured out a trick though, since I had the top bunk that meant I had control over the stability of the entire bed. Every time it got really really bad I just made it seem like I was rolling over in bed and readjusting. It shook the bed enough that he would briefly stop snoring for a minute or two. I relayed this trick to my other roommates and they thanked me for it.
The Hostel is only on the first floor, there’s still two more floors above and a third I couldn’t get to. 2nd floor I think is a day care. Except I don’t remember seeing many kids coming in and out of there so who knows? Could be a massage place:
I’m going to say that the 3rd floor is a… photography studio? I don’t know. I’m waiting for my Chinese friends to read this and then correct me with the right answers:
I’m 90% confident there’s a secret passage behind that mirror. There are some blocked off stairs at the other end of the hostel’s hallway that I couldn’t get to to find out where they led. I think they went to the back of this mirror. The mirror has a really hollow sound behind it too so that only makes me feel even more like I’m a super sleuth:
Internet area:
God I LOVED these things. I took a picture of like every other one of these that I ate. It’s fruit on stick that is then covered in candy glass (which then freezes into a sweet ice). It was great. I ate them constantly. I tried to get a different one every time. This one has some kind of sour plum (I think they’re called haws?) with another kind of plum filling and peanuts. Put the sweet crunchy candy glass coating on the outside and it’s just perfection. I’m going to post like every picture I have of these over the course of the next couple blog posts cause I loved them so much. So here’s to the first one (and worst picture of one) I had ever had:
1.
Here’s a little ice slide for kids. I wanted to try it but I felt like everyone would have been annoyed with me:
A big cool fish with dyed ice (which seems to be pretty unusual at the festival). It was cool because as the days went on and there were more sunny days it would melt and look like it was bleeding blue or red or yellow blood:
Hahaha eeeeeegh:
60th anniversary of China:
Oddly enough this movie theatre immediately made me think “Could I live here?” I could definitely live someplace with a theatre that looks like this:
At the end of the main street near my hostel there’s a big memorial statue, then some fun activities, then the river. The river is all frozen over so you can walk across it to the ice festival on the other side. However I wasn’t doing that today. Many people come to this area to do things like ice skate and buy frozen fruits, hats, and other fun winter activities:
This thing is pretty sweet. I didn’t quite understand what it was at first. Extremely James Bond hideout looking:
This sign says whatever it is costs 10 RMB to go up there:
Oh… oh yes… I’m paying for this:
This was insanely fun. Nothing like hopping onto a piece of wood with runners and going at ludicrous speeds down an ice slide without a helmet:
Only about midway down did I suddenly think “Wait, how do I stop it when I get to the bottom?” They had a big pile of sand that the sled ran into and just slowed down. It was pretty nifty:
Lol Russia:
A section of ice festival in a park nearby. It was cool to see it like this. A teaser on what was waiting for me:
The Pac-men light up at night. I guess green is a cool color to choose:
I got lost on the way back to my hostel, so I stopped in at a place that had a big street fighter character on the front door. Turns out it was a real arcade! So cool. I love arcades. No one has them in the US anymore outside of movie theatres. I was very happy. I played for awhile in there. They also had gambling machines? I thought that was only legal in some specially designated cities and I highly doubt Harbin was one of them:
Last thing I got to see as I tried to get back to the hostel was a park full of old people walking in circles backwards. It’s some sort of health thing. There are a lot of really strange things that people do here and then say “it’s for health.” I’ve never been told how they physically help or any of the science behind any of it;“it just helps.” With this one the only thing I can think of is that it stretches your tendons and calf muscles? I’m assuming that must be what it is. Why everyone would want to walk around backwards in a park as a big group is beyond me though. I guess it makes you look slightly less ridiculous when everyone else is doing it too:
In my next post I go to the snow and ice festival. There will be too many pictures to count and it was so amazingly awesome and fun. I would have included it in this post, but it’s just too immense to get it in (that’s what she said). The next post will come faster I think seeing as how I’m on vacation with nothing to do right now. So stay tuned!
