The Ice City of China and a popular winter destination, Harbin is famous for its very cold winters come with extreme temperature up to - 38 °C, ice and snow sculptures and exotic architecture. Every year from December to January of the next year is the annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival, and many parts of the city are turned into a wonderland of snow. Despite, we grew up at Malaysia which the normal temperature around 26 °C, it does not stop us, two brave Malaysian student whose study in Beijing to challenge themselves in surviving the very cold winter. When it comes to winter holidays, our brave adventure begins. Before I we start travel, we bought our high speed train ticket and booking hotel by using
CTrip application. It is a very convenient apps and comes in English.
DAY 1 (13-1-2018)
The journey to Harbin began at 5 AM in the morning, from our university close to
Wudaokou Beijing ,my friend and I took a subway to
Beijing South Railway Station. For foreigner who first time travel to China, I would like to recommend you guys to use
MetroMan application for subway. This app is very easy to use. Below is an example of how I use MetroMan to find route to the Huochezhan (train station). In the application, you guys can see the exchange line, fare, duration and others. We arrived at Huochezhan at 7.15 AM, and our bullet train going to leave at 7.50 AM. So its kinda rushing, because we bought our ticket online, and we need to print it out first at the station. Unfortunately, after we had printed the ticket, my friend's ticket had a problem because train employee carelessly printed the wrong ticket which return ticket from Harbin to Beijing. Thus, I had to take the train alone because bullet train departed sharply on the time while my friend had to go back to the train station office and explained the employee mistake about print out the wrong ticket. Because of the mistake, luckily my friend get replacement ticket which departed at 3 PM for free. I'm kinda respected my friend, because he can speak a little Chinese but he bravely can settle the problem. Here in China, you guys need to know that Chinese people hardly speak English, so if you guys want travel to China, make sure to download
Voice translation apps which helps a lot in having conversation with Chinese people. As word of advice, make sure you guys arrive early at the train station and check precisely on the ticket details. Now, I'm had to travel alone for 7 hours, while my friend need to wait for 7 hours at the train station. Along the course to Harbin, I admit it kinda bleak but I cherish myself by making friends with Chinese people inside the bullet train. Because of I learn a little of Chinese language, hence I able to having conversation with Chinese people. Haha, despite of I use broken Chinese, as long as you can speak Chinese, Chinese people kinda impress with me.
 |
| MetroMan Application |
 |
| Voice Translation Application |
Around 3 PM, I arrived at the destination
Harbin West Railway Station. The temperature was really cold around -15 °C, but fortunately I already prepared myself by wearing multi layer clothes. I walked to the place where I can get a taxi at the train station. As usual there a lot of black taxi drivers who try find customer at the station, if you guys take the offers, the fare price kinda triple to the original fare. So, just go ques to the legal taxi line that charge by meter, and you will be charged on the normal price. I just had to pay around 35 RMB from Harbin Railway Station to my hotel at
Guogeli Street. The hotel name was
Nanyuan Inn 4 star rated, among the cheapest and located at heart of Harbin City. This hotel suitable to the low budget traveler like me. For me, as long as the price for the room is reasonable, I have a place to sleep, strategic location and it being equipped with heater is good enough because of the travel aim is to visit places, not to stay there. Presently, I just have a rest and wait for my friend to arrive. At 10 PM, I being reunite back with my friend and I'm very happy because our challenging adventure can be carry on together.
DAY 2 (14-1-2018)
On this beautiful morning, my friend and I having a walk along Guogeli Dajie (Guogeli main street). Ahead of Guogeli Dajie, there is located a beautiful Russian style catholic church named
Saint Alekseyev Church. The exterior gray and red colour is a beautiful example of Russian Orthodox church architecture, then at night, when the lights light up plus with snow falling, the church become more beautiful. If you guys stayed around this street or have deep interest in church architecture, you guys can visit this place but if not you guys can visit other places and skip this place to save time and this place is look kinda similar to the famous
St. Sophia Cathedral.
 |
| Saint Alekseyev Church |
Apart of that, we visited Guogeli frozen river. That was my first time to feel the taste of snow, the very fact of snow is such an amazement. I really impress with the view of frozen lake therefore become excited and do a lot of stunts and activities at the river. One question that keep play in my mind, if the river frozen, how the aquatic creatures can survive beneath the ice? Are they migrate or froze together with the river.
 |
| Guogeli frozen river |
After tired of playing with the snow, we went to halal restaurant to eat a lots of different Chuan (kibab). If you are Muslim, and hardly to find a halal restaurant during travel, you guys can use
Muslim pro application. This app will show you guys the nearest halal restaurant near you guys, then you guys can use google maps or
Baidu map to get to the place. It easy right, but how to order the food? If you learned Chinese, you can order as usual, however the problem comes when you can't speak Chinese. But do not worry because you guys can ask menu that come with picture and say "Wo yao zhege", it mean, I want this. However, if the restaurant dont have pictorial menu, you guys can use
waygo or
Baidu translator which functioning by translating the picture of Hanzi (Chinese writting) you take into English. But keep in you mind that, if you guys wish to travel to China, make sure to download all the apps and Virtual Private Network apps before travel to China because a lot these apps cannot be use due to China policies. However, by using VPN you guys can use them. Below, I list some of the halal restaurant located at Harbin and you guys can show these addresses to the taxi drivers:
1. Laorenyi 老仁义
Add: 243 Taigu Street, Daowai District, Harbin 哈尔滨道外区太古街243号
Tel: 0451-88977949
2. Liushunyuan Muslim Hotel 六顺园回族饭店(友谊路店)
Add: 8 Gongcheng Street, Daoli District, Harbin 道里区道里区工程街8号
Tel: 0451-84655180
3. Baijiaguan 白家馆(红旗路店)
Add: 196 Hongqi Street, Nangang District, Harbin 哈尔滨南岗区红旗大街196号(近闽江路)
Tel: 0451-82343712
4. Muslim Dahongmei 清真大红梅(北新街)
Add；74 Beixin Street, Harbin 哈尔滨道外区北新街74号
Tel: 0451-88949977
5. Muslim Huihui Restaurant 清真回回头酒店(黄河路店)
Add:188-13, Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 南岗区黄河路188-13号
Tel: 0451-87115011
6. Baijiaguan 白家馆(哈成路店)
Add: 328 Hacheng Road, Xiangfang District, Harbin 哈尔滨香坊区哈成路328号(近城高子)
Tel: 0451-55112212
7. Muslim Restaurant 清真楼(黄河路店)
Add: 88 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Hrbin 哈尔滨南岗区黄河路88号
Tel: 0451-82292046
After our stomach was full, we continue our brave adventure to the
Harbin Ice and Snow World. To go there, we order kochi taxi through
DiDi app. The steps to order the kochi is kinda simple and in English if you guys download English version, just put location where you at and the location you want to go hence wait for the kochi to come. On the other hand, if you guys first time here in China, better just hold any random taxi. By the way, the local taxi at Harbin comes with cheap fares and this make you guys can moving easily but make sure they use the meter. Around 4 PM, we arrived at Harbin Ice and Snow World, the weather was lightly snowing and the temperature was around -20 °C. This place is absolutely amazing, most amazing display of ice and snow sculptures, its a complete fun park and and whole family from elders to kids have plenty to enjoy. We were impressed by the size of the ice buildings and the skill needed to create them, and the fact that all the ice was cut from the nearby
Songhua River. While some people thought the coloured lights were a bit garish we felt that they added to the splendor of the place. The entry price was rather steep at 330 RMB but worth it, and it didn’t seem to prevent thousands of people attending. For the ticket, if you're undergraduate student, you can get half price by showing your student ID and passport while for graduate student and post graduate, unfortunately we need to pay with full price. Besides, there a lot of places inside this place that can be used as stopover to warm our body up. Make sure to bring heat pad from your country because heat pad at Harbin not as good as you think because it can only withstand for 2 hours. In addition, due to the extreme temperature, our phone battery were easily drained out. Ascertain to bring power bank, and apart of that, I had to put a heat pad at the back of my phone to allow power bank to charge the phone back. After around 5 hours we enjoyed the beauty of Harbin Ice and Snow World, we went back to our hotel to defrost. Here I share some of our memories at Harbin Ice and Snow World.
DAY 3 (15-1-2018)
Our adventure to
Sun Island Snow Sculpture Park begin at 12 PM. As word of advice you guys should visit this place when the sun is upright on the head because it is freaking beautiful to enjoy the art of ice sculptures under the sun. This place open as early 8.30 AM and closed at 7 PM. The ticket price was 330 RMB and the it work the same as Harbin Ice and Snow World, you're can get half price if you are undergraduate who study at local university. There was a shutter bus used to take us from the entrance to the venue, and you didn't need to pay because it was included with the tickets. Here, the sculpture comes with mega sizes and small sizes and being carved in vary details. The artwork that they make out of the blocks of snow is amazing. It was truly inspiring to walk through all the great works of art. I really enjoyed myself. Besides, if you guys loves to do some winter sport, there is an ice slide where you can go down on a rubber ring (100 RMB returnable deposit needed). Also lots of slipping and sliding opportunities on the frozen lake. The view of sculpture during sunset, was really beautiful. At Harbin, sunset was around 4.30 PM and quite early that make ones of the reason why you guys need to depart early if you guys wish to visit this place. During evening, this place being equipped with colorful light that shine on the ice sculptures. It was really dazzling to enjoy such a exquisite view of sculpture plus lighting effect. The temperature during night was around -25 °C, but it didn't stop my friend and I to take a lot of pictures by using tongue to click on the phone because when you take out the glove your hand will be numb. Besides, there were several restaurant inside the venue that we stop by to warm up. We spent around 7 hours at that place and start to take off from Sun Island Snow Sculpture Park at 7 PM. Some of the peoples said this place is overpriced and waste of time, but for me, I think it really worth it. Hopefully, one day China will change the rules in giving the same privilege to graduate and post graduate student to enjoy half price of the entrance ticket. Here, I share some of the pictures at Sun Island Snow Sculpture Park.
DAY 4 (16-1-2018)
Today is the last day of our crazy adventure, and we decide to go to
Saint Sophia Cathedral and
Harbin Zhongyang Street to buy some souvenirs for our families and friends. The famous St.Sofia Orthodox Church is the largest Orthodox Church building in the Far East. It was built early in the 20th century, for the Russians and other Orthodox people living around Harbin.The style of the building is Neo-Byzantine. The main structure is laid out in the shape of a cross with the main hall topped with a huge green tipped dome. There are smaller steeples, and the domes and steeples are topped with gold colored crosses. The entrance fee to get into the church was 15 RMB per person. Now, this church work as a museum that show pictures about how Harbin being develop from the scratch into a big Russian style city. The details of every pictures were explained in Chinese writing, and because of I cannot read it, I just translated through my understanding. It not much to show here, so if you're not a fans of church architecture, just take the pictures outside the church and go to other place to save time.
 |
| Inside St. Sophia Cathedral |
Within 30 minutes, we started leave the church and went to Harbin Zhongyang Street to buy souvenirs. Along the road to Zhonyang Street, we stopped in halal restaurant for lunch. The menu in the restaurant kinda same as Beijing halal restaurant, so i just ordered my favorite dish niuroumian (pull noodles with beef meat) to taste the different between dissimilar chef. It was good, the meat were juicy, the soup got a taste and come with good aroma. The price for one bowl of niuromian was 18 RMB and quite cheaper as compared to Beijing price. After lunch, we bought the souvenirs like Russian dolls, Russian chocolate, key-chain and others. As word of advice, the price for the souvenirs kinda expensive at the big or fancy shop, better you guys buy the souvenirs at small or not good looking shop to get cheaper price and its not bargain-able. Believe me, we tried. Actually, at Zhongyang Street there is located
Zhaolin Park . Zhaolin Park is the first park in the city, built in memory of the General Li Zhaolin. Set up in 1900, it was originally named "Daoli Park" and changed to present name "Zhaolin Park" in 1946. Zhaolin Park is one of the three top tourist attraction place in Harbin. But due to the same concept of as Sun Island Snow Sculpture Park, which is smaller in size and the entrance ticket quite expensive around 240 RMB, so we skipped it. But if you guys have much time to spend and big fan of ice sculptures, you guys can give a visit to Zhaolin Park. After, spend enough time at Zhongyang Street, we returned back to our hotel. Then we start packing and wait until 5 AM. Because of our mistake before coming to Harbin, we didn't sleep because we afraid of miss the train. At 7 AM, we departed to Beijing, and I slept all the way to Beijing.
 |
| Halal restaurant at Zhongyang Street |
 |
| Sculptures at Zhongyang Street |
That the ending of our brave adventure to Harbin City of Ice. Overall, I enjoyed along the trip,with the snow, the extreme coldness, the beauty of ice sculptures, the Russian style architectures and others. In addition, I think this is my first and last time trip to Harbin, and it's worth the experience once in a life. Here I share my total expense at Harbin, hopefully it might help you guys in organize trip to Harbin.
 |
| My Harbin Trip Planning & Expenses |
