Harbin - Pretty Sure My Nose is Frozen

On one of the colder days we were in Harbin, the day I couldn't feel my nose at all, we visited the largest working Confucian temple in the city. More than a temple it was an entire complex filled with small temples and monuments, surrounded by gift shops, and bordered by the Harbin amusement park. Really-I totally wanted to go but it was closed. The complex was, even amidst the barren trees and frozen ground, beautiful. I continuously find the details and embellishments in Chinese architecture are what draw my eye and attention.














While the buildings were beautiful:









It was more the various statues and incense burners were what really caught my attention here.











We also made friends with a very lovely kitty at the temple. One of the monks tried to convince us to take him home with us. Pity that we couldn’t. He was the first friendly stray we saw and he was very pretty.

Harbin...Why?!?!

The second day in Harbin we were still trying to decide why anyone would willingly live somewhere that cold all the time. We were unable to think of a single viable reason. However, I did find the best thing ever in the park along the frozen river...this vendor:



Yes that's right. That woman is standing alonside a frozen river, selling cotton candy, and unabashadly blowing cigarette smoke into the candy. Needless to say we declined to partake in the treat but I do think that is my favorite picture from Harbin.

Despite the freezing cold, Harbin does have some nice pedestrian areas. The pictures from the previous post are part of a pedestrian area filled with shops, dubious restauarants, a movie theater, WalMart, and about a dozen (seriously) KFCs. Running perpendicular to that street and along the river is another pedestrian area flanked by docs on one side and a park on the other. If I lived in Harbin I would probably spend October through May huddled in my house wrapped in multiple electric blankets. Natives however, don't seem to mind the cold. Lots of people, mostly old people, were out and about exercising, socializing (which seemed pretty much the same thing), participating in some sort of televised run the point of which we couldn't figure out, etc. I particularly liked these gentlemen.







This park also included a lot of adult playground equipment! I'd heard that adult playgrounds were starting in Europe with people sized versions of kids toys; the one here was more like actual gym equipment but built to withstand the elements and painted in bright happy colors. There were parallel bars, mock elypticals, and some other things I don't remember. Lauren had fun trying out one of the elyptical contraptions. Also along the park were I think the best street lamps I've ever seen.





Some interesting topiary



And nifty boats





One of the (few) sights to see in Harbin is the Saint Sophia Russian Orthodox Church...which is no longer a church. Many of the Christian churches and the one synagog are now museums of some sort. The Saint Sophia is sadly crumbling on both the outside and inside...but for all its faded glory it is still beautiful. It took us for bloody ever to find it and like pretty much everywhere else I had a hard time taking pictures because my fingers, even inside my gloves, were so frozen.











Inside the church is a museum featuring a brief history of Harbin consisting of pictoral timelines. Annd a ridiculously expensive gift shop.

Harbin - Dude It's Cold

Ranked as the 10th largest city in China, Harbin is located in the far Northeast corner of China. During the construction of the China far East Railway in 1898, and extension of the Trans-Siberian, the Russians got a sweet deal out of the failing Chinese emperors allowing them to use Harbin as an outpost to house their workers, store materials, etc. Tsarist Russia encouraged Russian settlement in their important Trans-Siberian-Railway outpost by waiving the then 25 year long military service. For Jews who settled there, the restrictions applying in Russia were also waived. Russians being Russians they kind of didn’t give it back until 1932 when the Japanese invaded. However, the Chinese slowly regained ownership of Harbin (but why they wanted to I'm not sure) and whereas a visitor used to see a city full of fur-clad Russians with the occasional Chinese, it is now quite firmly the other way around.

In our Harbin research we came to expect that temperatures in November would be a freezing 10F (-12C) but we were pleasantly surprised to find it a balmy 37F (3C). Despite the unexpected gift of warmth we were still happy to have brought our Cuddle Duds and sweaters, winter coats, gloves, scarves, and hats. I'm still not quite sure whether or not Harbin was aware that it was unexpectedly balmy. The river there sure as heck didn't know.



If you ever go to Harbin, or even to China, again, do not buy the Frommer's guide. Supposedly updated in 2008, the book was full of misinformation and outright mistakes, particularly for Harbin. Our first night there we took a cab to a place called India Street to try an Indian restaurant lauded in Frommer's...only to get there and find that the place had been closed for some time. So there we were, freezing freaking cold, approaching dark, in a neighborhood it didn't look like we wanted to be in, completely starving, and not feeling so comfortable with our current situation. There weren't any cabs immediately available and there wasn't really another way to get around there unless we wanted to hunt down a bus and take our future in our hands getting on and heading to unknown destinations; which was a no. We remembered passing a TGIF and decided that, given the present circumstances, we would fold and eat American. Well we got there and it wasn't a TGIF it was the Saint Petersburg (as in Florida) Cafe which seemed to have robbed TGIF of its logo. Food was a little scary as were the decorations...lots of neon and mirrors and very Miami Vice. There was to have been entertainment with showgirls and as much as we wanted to see it for the horror we knew it would bring...we just couldn't make it. Incidentally, whatever this place was was recommended by the evil Frommer's.

Next day we set out seeing what was to be explored in Harbin. The answer is not much. You can do Harbin in two days...max. Despite having the look of a city that has been salted for snow far too often (ie grey with whitish smears all over everything) I found the architecture at least to be quite interesting. It is very easy to tell that the Russians had a large hand in building the city. While signage everywhere is Chinese, the buildings are very very Russian.













All the buildings that is, except for our favorite...



Yes, that's right, there's a WalMart in Harbin and it was a Godsend. For some reason, of all the cities in China we visited, it seemed particularly difficult to find food in Harbin. Maybe because we were afraid to trust Frommer's anymore (wisely) or because few menus came in English...but we stocked well up on food and snacks at WalMart. Also, the Harbin WalMart's butcher section was like a real butcher's shop with hanging dead animals. I think American WalMarts should have those.

Worth mentioning is that I bought our train tickets at one of the stations in Beijing...in Chinese. I stood forever in the line for foreigners which, as far as I could tell, was no different from any other line. Anyway, I got to the top of the line and managed to buy to tickets with return to Harbin all by me onesey in Zhong Wen. Mini wave in honor of me!