Dali daze

As with many people I've spoken to since, Dali in Yunnan Province is probably my favourite place I've visited in China so far. I decided to alter my original plans to be in Kunming longer and head to Dali for a few days after a little advice from some people back in Tianjin. I'm so glad I followed their suggestion because I absolutely fell in love with the place. It's a stunning little city just a four hour train ride from Kunming. I would highly recommend for everyone visiting China to go to at least once.

Poppy and I took an early train and coincidently booked onto the same train as another British Council ELA I knew. It was really great to catch up with Will and hear all about his time teaching in Jiujiang. Even better was that he was about to embark on a pretty random 20 day trek in the mountains of Yunnan with his own personal sherpa who coincidently didn't speak a word of English. If ever I thought I was being adventurous, Will completely blew me out of the water. Again, it was moments like this that made me feel like its a small world after all. What were the chances that in a country as huge as China, we'd be booked onto the exact same train? 

一。Cangshan Mountain

Poppy and I took it easy on our first night in Dali. We ventured to a nearby dumpling restaurant and the lovely lady chef let us make our own dinner and help out making dumplings. We were also charmed by a lovely little girl who practised her English on us and began reeling off some lines she memorised really well. She proceeded to tell us that her name was Daisy, that she was 10 years old and that she was a happy girl. 

The following day, we decided to do a little hike on Cangshan Mountain - surrounded by nature, the fresh smell of Yunnan pine and the odd waterfall. With a summit at over 4000 metres, we were unable to see the very top of the mountain veiled by thick cloud. Visitors can reach one of the highest peaks via chairlift but due to weather (apparently it'd been snowing the night before), this wasn't an option for us. We settled for a hike about halfway up the mountain instead.

I found the sight of these sticks at the base of the mountain paths quite curious. Poppy said she'd been told that Chinese people will often leave sticks to prop up the base of mountains to keep them more stable. It's such a strange concept but actually I think it's quite nice to believe that you're helping keep the mountains upright. This made the various signs along the mountain which urged visitors to "beware of falling rocks" and to "run fast" in the case of rock fall quite amusing.

We walked along the Cloud Pass, a 13km path along the middle of the mountain. The path itself meanders a great deal. One minute you're over looking the city with stunning uninterrupted views, another you're tucked away underneath rock overhang wondering how on earth gravity isn't causing this monstrous mountain to come crashing down.

There were so many moments where I would just stop dead in my tracks and just have my breath taken away by how stunning the views were from Cangshan. The skies were clear, the air was fresh. These are things that I took for granted back home. Before moving to China, I never really considered what the air quality would be like, nor did I think about the fact that seeing a blue sky is actually considered lucky back in Tianjin. In this part of Western China, away from factories or constant road traffic, Dali was just beautiful because you can actually see it clearly. I don't think I ever really understood what it meant to 'drink air', but being so high up on Cangshan, you really can!

Dali is just unbelievably picturesque from Cangshan, truly like something from a postcard.

二。Ancient Town

The hostel we were staying in was based within the Ancient Town walls, making it incredibly convenient to explore. Dali has a reputation for being a bit bohemian and hippie. I'd even go as far as to say it's quite hipster (although the vibe isn't as imposing or contrived as the word might suggest). For all of it's crafty stores and independent coffee shops which still maintain the original architecture of old Dali, you're never left with a lack of places to explore within the city walls. Listen to the music that echoes out of local venues, sample the unusual tastes of rose pastries, browse the beautiful patterned clothes on store racks. The Ancient Town host so many little gems.

City wall archways

Maybe one of the best things is that Dali is incredibly charming. It is touristy but it still feels unspoilt. The tourism there isn't intense as it is in other Chinese cities I've visited. It almost feels as if this is still a cool Chinese secret that people are yet to find out about and see as a commercial tourist opportunity. Personally, I hope that it remains that way - although maybe that'll be hard if I don't stop singing Dali's praises...

三。Xizhou Village

Along the huge Er Hai Lake that Dali is nested on are a tonne of villages you can visit via bike. As we've heard from my Xi'an post, my cycling abilities aren't the best. Knowing that I'd be heading to Vietnam (a motorcyclist's paradise) after Dali, I thought there would be no better time to try my luck on an e-bike to ride around the lake. Turns out, e-bikes are harder to ride than they look. I could never quite find the sweet spot on the accelerator that made you go at a decent speed. As someone who wouldn't describe themselves as a road safe cyclist, even the lady who rented the bikes out to us had reservations and suggested we give the bike back. The good news was that the villages are also easily reachable by public buses, so off we went to Xizhou.

Xizhou baba cooked on an open charcoal 'oven'

Much like the Ancient Town, Xizhou has it's own charming quirks - local people hanging colourful tie-dyed fabrics for sale, traditional Bai ethnic architecture and winding alleys to get lost in. Our helpful hostel receptionist told us we must try the local delicacy of 'Xizhou baba', which she likened to a pizza. Not directly comparable, 'Xizhou baba' is like a doughy flatbread cooked on open charcoal ovens and filled with either pork for a savoury option or red bean paste for a sweet choice. Naturally, I opted for both...

Street graffiti

Xizhou was full of little surprises. A random turning took us to a paddy field, vividly green with farmers working away. Back down another alleyway, we stumbled across some Chinese graffiti art. For those looking for a bit more of an 'off-the-beaten-track- type experience of Dali, Xizhou is a good place to visit.

四。Erhai Lake

Just a short tuk tuk ride away from Xizhou, we sped along to get a close up view of Erhai Lake.

It's easy to forget you're in China when you're by Erhai Lake because it's not your typical 'Chinese' scenery. It's hard to put into words just how beautiful Dali is, but photos speak for themselves...

五。Chinese Coldplay

Just when we thought we'd explored every corner of the Ancient Town, Dali threw us another surprise on our last night. A few nights before, we'd enjoyed some live music at a local bar - a hippie looking expat armed with a Spanish guitar playing smooth covers of Blackstreet's No Diggity and Sinatra's Fly Me To The Moon (quite the repertoire). Our impressions of the music scene in Dali were incredibly positive but on our final night, we stumbled across a strobe light filled street with pumping music. I didn't really know where to look. To my left, a pair of young Chinese dancer girls dressed in identical outfits which appeared to be a cross between cowboy fancy dress outfit and traditional Chinese cheongsam. To my right, another performance by some Chinese acoustic artist, trying to wrestle away attention from passersby. What did catch my eye was Chinese Coldplay singing a rock version of Yellow. China just continues to surprise me in all the best ways...

I feel like I only scratched the surface of Dali but from what I did experience, it's got to be one of my favourite places in China so far. I know that I absolutely have to head back to Yunnan Province and see even more at some point. Until then, Dali!

All aboard for Kunming

The next stop on my Spring Festival travels was Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province. In terms of distance, a flight from Chengdu to Kunming would only take about an hour and half. But in times like that, you gotta think – where’s the fun in that? Rather than go for convenience and speed, Beth and I decided to take our first ever sleeper train in China which would take 22 hours in total. Of course, there was a risk we’d suffer from cabin fever and/ or complete boredom but we were pleasantly surprised at how fun the sleeper train was.

一．22 hours

Soft sleeper train luxuries

We chose a train journey that would arrive in Kunming early the following day so as not to waste a day of our travels. We could also feasibly sleep through the night and kill a few hours that way too. Sleeper train tickets come in different standards. You can go for a dirt cheap standing ticket, a hard seat, a hard sleeper or soft sleeper. Seeing as we would be on the move for almost a day, we opted for a soft sleeper ticket and the train journey was actually incredibly comfortable. The main difference between a soft and hard sleeper is certainly comfort. Hard sleeper cabins accommodate 6 passengers with three bunks (top, middle and bottom) on either side, whereas a soft sleeper accommodate 4 passengers in a relatively more spacious cabin. We were provided with duvets and pillows. Our ‘cabin mates’ were also very friendly, often offering us snacks and trying to chat to us.

I don’t know what it is about moving vehicles but the dull motion of a moving train or car often makes me feel sleepy, whether I really am or not. Much like the lazy pandas we saw at the zoo in Chengdu, Beth and I catnapped an awful lot during the 22 hour journey. When I wasn’t sleeping, I was able to write some postcards, do some reading and even write my Harbin blogpost. The long train journey was great to do some of the things I never tend to find time to do.

Dining cart 

When it was time for dinner, one of our cabin mates told us the on-train dining carriage was open to serve passengers. The train guards seemed highly intrigued and amused by Beth and I wanting to order food. By this point, I've pretty much mastered how to tell people that I am indeed (as they rightly assume) Chinese but that I was born in London and therefore my Chinese isn't so great.

“我是中国人，但我来自伦敦所以，我的中文不好”

The trouble with this sentence is that people will either assume I know no Chinese or are incredibly confused that I seem to speak a little. In any case, the train guards assumed the former and decided the best way to communicate what was on the menu to us was via – wait for it… emojis.

Now, I know how to say pork in Chinese. I also know how to read the characters on a menu but I did found it absolutely hilarious that the guard decided to show me the pig emoji to ask if we approved of this as an alternative to chicken which we originally asked for. A swift nod of agreement from us and the food, although not appearing appetising, arrived and was surprising really decent. All in all, the 22 hour train journey was one which I'd happily do again. Shelling out a little extra for a soft sleeper was certainly worth it.

二. Yunnan Cheese

Speaking of food, the one things I did a lot of during Spring Festival was eat everything in sight. I'm always keen to try out local delicacies wherever I go. The great thing about China is that every city has it's own type of food or dish that it's famous for, and with a country as vast and diverse as China, there's always something new to try. I can't speak highly enough of Yunnan cheese - it's a must eat if you find yourself in Yunnan Province.

If there's anything I "miss" from back home, maybe it's the quality of dairy products. I was once told by someone I met when I first arrived in China that many people here are lactose intolerant, which might explain why things like cheese isn't a big thing here like it is back home. Whilst there is definitely a culture of drinking milk for breakfast in China, I've always found the quality and taste of it never as satisfying as back in the UK so I find my diet lacks in dairy compared to before.

Yunnan cheese was a great discovery though. Made from goats milk, it can be likened to halloumi in terms of taste and the way it's served (pan-fried). I never thought I'd see the day I'd get my hands on halloumi-esque cheese in China. Maybe it's the fact I've been without cheese for so long, but I thought Yunnan cheese was simply delicious.

三. Dianchi Lake

Wet feet by Dianchi Lake

Kunming is actually located well into the mainland, but a visit to Dianchi Lake and you could mistake it for a coastal city. We were lucky with the weather and took a leisurely stroll around the lake, watching as the tide went in and out.

Strangely enough, one of the reasons people visit the lake is to go and feed flocks of seagulls. There are tonnes of stalls selling huge baguettes and biscuits which locals and tourists hold out towards the lake and allow the seagulls to peck at whilst they get the perfect snapshot on their camera phones. Although this kind of thing would probably seem like a nightmare to some, the seagulls are actually quite tame. None of them seem like the ravenous kind you might find in the UK, always circling the skies waiting to swoop in unannounced to steal food from your hands. It may seem like a bit of an odd tourist attraction, but I guess there is something enjoyable about it.

四. Whizzing down the Western Hills

Ski lift up to the top of the Western Hills

Close by Dianchi Lake are the Western Hills which give amazing panoramic views of the entire city. We took ski lifts to the top of the hills and I have to say, I was completely bowled over by how beautiful the city is from that high. I didn't know much about Kunming before I went but I certainly didn't expect it to be as serene as it was.

There's a saying that if you do not visit the Western Hills, you haven't truly visited Kunming and if you haven't seen the Dragon Gate, you haven't really visted the Western Hills. We had to absolutely blitz the Western Hills though to see the Dragon Gate and still get back to the ski lifts before they closed - so the race was on to see the many temples dotted along the hills, touch the stone Dragon Gate for good luck and make it back in time or else get stuck on the mountain. We made it in good time and even fit in a cheeky ice cream at the end, but given more time, I'd have liked to have explored the Western Hills even more as there are a fair few scenic spots throughout the hills.

五. Yuantong Temple.

Possibly the most peaceful place I've ever been to in my life, Yuantong Temple is the most famous Buddhist temple in Kunming and is certainly a place I recommend to visit in the city. After leaving the temple, I remember feeling a little disorientated that I'd gone from a place so serene back into the hustle and bustle of city roads. The temple is tucked away and once inside, you'd never guess you were within a provincial capital city. It's a great, chilled out way to spend an afternoon because of the massive contrast it provides to Kunming city life.

Monks on a bridge

We watched for a while as the monks performed their daily prayer ceremony, chanting their Buddhist mantras as locals also approached the main hall to join in. If you ever needed an example of how important and thriving Buddhism still is to the daily lives of some people in China, you could certainly find it here. Amongst the main green lake, beautiful pagodas and stone bridges, it was all just incredibly peaceful, which left a really positive lasting impression of Kunming for me.

Chengdu-ing it

Spot the panda

Chengdu - capital of China’s western Sichuan Province and city iconically known for being home to giant pandas and spicy cuisine. Enter Annie and Beth in full tourist mode, seeking to immediately tick these two things off the Chengdu must-do list. I couldn’t possibly come to China without visiting at least once so I made it the first stop on my travels. So, for my first post on my first Spring Festival stop, here are my Chengdu highlights:

一．Hot Pot

The night prior to leaving for Chengdu, I’d spoken to a fellow expat in a bar in Tianjin about the must-do things in the city. His answer: try Sichuan style hot pot. 

Me and Beth about to enjoy hot pot with a new friend

Now, I’m partial to a good hot pot. In the winter climate of Northern China, hot pot is the perfect meal to enjoy to ward off chilly winds but according to this guy at the bar, Sichuan hot pot was (in his words) “melt your face off” spicy.

“First, you think you can take it, and then your lips start to tingle. And then you can’t feel your lips. Then, come the sweats as your tongue feels like it’s about to explode. You’ve probably swallowed one of those sneaky peppercorns as you feel your face about to set on fire.”

Boy, did this guy paint a picture. Now, I’m by no means a spice wuss, but he did scare me a little about the level of spice I might have to face if I tried a genuine Sichuan hot pot. Not enough though – it was one of the first things Beth and I did on our first night in Chengdu. We ventured to Shu JiuXiang Hot Pot Restaurant (蜀九香) in WuHou District near where we were staying. We were assured it was the type of place that stayed open late and offered top notch food.

Having never actually ordered hot pot on our own before, we did a pretty decent job. Our waitress was also pretty helpful with giving us tips on the best combinations for our dipping sauce. We left with full-stomachs but were not quite content with the level of spice we ordered. It wasn’t quite the “melt your face off” experience we were looking for and so the search continued.

On other nights, we tried our hand at spicy noodles yet we were still not satisfied. It was only until our last night when we were taken to a hot pot place upon the experience of a new friend we made on the bus back from Leshan that we got the closest to ‘melting our faces off’. Between us all, we ordered two spice levels of soup base. Sure it was hot but I have to admit I didn’t have tears streaming from my eyes like I thought I might. The food and service was still amazing though and we were even treated to a mini Sichaun Opera mask changing performance which was great fun. I guess the search goes on for a tear-inducing spicy Sichuan hot pot though…

二．People’s Park

On our first full day in Chengdu, our itinerary was entirely open. Maybe it was the chilled out vibe of Chengdu that made us feel quite easy-going about what to do in the city but neither Beth nor I felt like doing anything too strenuous. We spent a good portion of the day in the People’s Park because a guy I was chatting to over Tinder had recommended it as the best place to chill out and grab a relaxing cup of tea at one of the many teahouses.

Obviously I can’t just skip over the fact that I’ve casually dropped in my use of Tinder in this post, but bear with me as I hark back to my summer travels in Japan last year to explain why it’s relevant to mention. I did a solo trip to Japan last summer to visit a good university friend of mine who was, like I am this year, teaching English in Northern Japan. I stayed in a traveller friendly hostel in Tokyo and really enjoyed talking to the stream of backpackers that came and went every day. One guy from Canada particularly stuck out to me though.

“Do you know what’s really good for travelling?” he said. “Tinder.”

“It’s really good for talking to people about what to do wherever you are.”

I remember rolling my eyes and instantly dismissing his comments. Sure mate. It’s definitely nothing to do with the fact you want to pick up a pretty Japanese girl. Of course you’re “looking for tips”…

I have to take that all back though. I’ve found Tinder a really good source for local knowledge and tips for the best things to do and see in any given city. I’d genuinely recommend it as an alternative to looking up stuff to do on Tripadvisor etc. This little anecdote becomes even more relevant towards the end of this post too but that’s another story. As I said, a Tinder tip I received told us to go to the People’s Park and it was a good choice to make.

The sassiest Chinese dance couple in all of the People’s Park

We really enjoyed standing around in the park watching a herd of ‘dancing aunties’ and old Chinese couples break out the moves in a kind of public park strictly come dancing show. We even got involved at one point in a Chinese Zumba style class (although Beth was far more adept at picking up the moves than I was).

I always find it quite incredible that so many people of the older generation in China are such incredible dancers. They’re just so co-ordinated and perform the dances effortlessly. The old couples did take breaks between some dances to catch their breath, but it was also very sweet to have stood on the side lines and watched as old men invited other women sitting on the edges for another cheeky dance.

I couldn’t take my eyes off one couple in particular though. Both nailed every single move and you could see all the other couples around looking over their shoulders for a brief second as they commanded the floor. The woman in particular with her long, butterfly printed velvet maxi skirt just oozed sass. Talk about dance couple goals.

Yep, enjoyed hot chrysanthemum tea through a straw…

It was a lovely little walk around the park itself. Chengdu was just so chilled. We sat down for some tea in one of the teahouses and spent some time people watching. Locals simply enjoying tea as they read the newspaper. Groups of old men getting worked up over their card games. Families with several generations spending time together, grandmas cuddling their adorable baby grandchildren. Here I also discovered how delicious chrysanthemum tea is. It was a random choice to have made in the first place and I can’t deny that I didn’t get it because I knew it’d look pretty but it’s now become one of my favourite teas. 

(*Note to self:- track some down now you’re back in Tianjin.)

三．Pandas

Day two in Chengdu and we went into full tourist mode when we headed to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. We bought some panda ears and wore them pretty much all day. We took a tonne of photos, attempting to get the best selfies with the pandas. It was harder than it sounds because the pandas were for the most part snoozing away and pretty inactive. For the ones that were awake, it was a bit of a battle with all the other Chinese tourists who also wanted photos. But you really can’t complain. Pandas are just too cute, whether they’re asleep or not.

I did enjoy letting my inner biology geek loose too. Reading about genetic diversity and the use of studbooks in one of the little museums reminded me of my school days revising for biology exams. Kiri - if you’re reading this, I’m sure if you were with you, you’d have found some awful biology related joke to tell.

There’s a section of the park dedicated to giving more information about what the pandas eat at the reserve and how it’s prepared. You can even try a sample of panda bread! But for the record, panda bread isn’t that great to eat and you should probably leave it up to them...

So there we have it – another thing ticked off the list must-do in Chengdu list. Although I hadn’t realised it until recently, this was the third time in my life I’ve actively gone out of my way to visit some pandas so it’s not like I got some special feeling seeing them for the first time. But you simply cannot go to Chengdu without paying a visit to the research base. You just gotta Chengdu-it (sporting panda merchandise not compulsory, but highly recommended).

四．Leshan Grand Buddha 

One of the other main tourist attractions in Chengdu is the Leshan Giant Stone Carved Buddha . I hadn’t actually known much about it before actually getting to Chengdu but I do think it’s worth the hour or so bus ride out of the city to go and visit.

 Somehow managing to make my head look a similar size to the Giant Buddha

The Leshan Grand Buddha is the largest stone carved Buddha statue in the world and amazingly, was carved into a cliffside during the Tang Dynasty. From above, the Grand Buddha is indeed impressive but you can't really get the full impact of the statue itself until you reach the bottom. Amongst the swarms of other tourists, you've got to precariously walk down some steep steps to reach the foot of the statue. Then it takes a lot of craning your neck to take it all in.

Smaller than Buddha's little toe

There's something a little off putting about that fact that you're actually a lot smaller than merely one of the toes of the statue (there's something I'd never thought I'd say), but you've got to give it to the monks who decided to complete this project thousands of years ago - if you're going to make a Buddha statue, make it a good one. 

五． Jin Li Street

So there are lots of other key things to see and do in Chengdu including a visit to the giant Chairman Mao monument outside the Sichuan Science Technology Museum, hanging out by Tianfu Square or doing other day trips to visit Emei Shan (the only other thing I wish we had time to do), but my last key highlight was Jin Li Street.

It’s not unlike lots of other pedestrianised streets in major Chinese cities. Feels a bit like traditional Chinese hutongs, is still very touristy as streets are lined with stalls attempting to sell you souvenirs and things you probably don’t need. That said, I still enjoyed the buzz of Jin Li Street in all of its lantern lit glory. It’s easy to get lost in and just take in the chaos amongst the random music that plays from bars and restaurants. It’s also a good place to try out different food from the various stalls. We kept the Chengu panda theme alive with some cream filled panda shaped bao.

Just a quick mention here but as I said earlier in the post, Tinder is a decent tool for a traveller to seek tips about what to do and where to go from people who live locally. I can also say it’s a good tool to discover that it’s, as they say, a small world. Whilst swiping, I unexpectedly came across someone I sort of knew from uni. I literally couldn’t believe it when I came across JKB over Tinder. Despite the perhaps slightly awkward but hilarious circumstances, it encouraged me to get in touch and we managed to organise to go for a quick beer or two by the river on my last night in Chengdu.

JKB is doing amazing things right now cycling around the world. In the space of a year, he’s cycled from the UK to China with the aim of eventually getting to Australia. But there’s no use me telling you about his journey, his website and blog updates do a better job than I ever could. It’s definitely worth checking out for his stories and photos! You can check it out here.

I probably said it out loud a great deal whilst I was there but Chengdu is, much like the pandas we saw lazing around, so freaking chill. It was a good place to begin Spring Festival travels and really ease us in. Next stop though? Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province and what better way to embark on the next part of the journey than taking my first ever sleeper train in China. Total journey time? 22 hours. But more about that next time…

Long time no see

So it’s been over a month since I last posted (oops). I vowed to keep the blog updated whilst I was travelling but that was clearly an ambitious pledge. But my holiday is now officially over and I’m back in TJ - back to teaching, back to regularly eating 牛肉面 and back to writing blog updates (I hope).

As I settle back into life in Tianjin, here begins a blog series I’m planning on uploading covering all my adventures and mishaps (and believe me there were plenty) during my Spring Festival travels. 

Hitting the road on day one of my travels

To make things a bit more digestible, here’s a quick overview of my travels in numbers:

• 37 days away from Tianjin
• 22 hours in one train sitting
• 10 leg bruises (approximately)
• 8 destinations in China
• 6 flights
• 5 destinations in Vietnam (7 including some brief pit stops)
• 4 mountains visited
• 3 boat/ raft trips
• 2 people crashed into on a bike (luckily, both left uninjured)
• 1 lost piece of luggage (still unrecovered).

Whilst I genuinely had a pretty amazing time during my winter break, it was a rollercoaster – definitely full of ups and downs both in the metaphorical sense and the sense that I hiked a few mountains. I was very conflicted about coming back to Tianjin. I wasn’t looking forward to early mornings and long days teaching too much, but I did like the idea of getting back into some kind of routine. I love travelling and have loved it for the past month and a bit, but I was also in need of some rest and a place to plant my feet in the ground again. Overall though, I’m really grateful that I was given the time to go and do all the travelling I did but it is really nice to be back.

Perhaps the best thing I discovered throughout my travels is that I actually really do love China. It’s not without its challenges and it never once occurred to me that I might miss the place but landing back in Guangzhou after two weeks in Vietnam was a relief. It was good to be back somewhere I was familiar with and felt like I belonged to. It was maybe the first time I thought of China as home.

Anyway, coming up keep your eyes peeled for further elaboration on all of the numbers above and more - starting with my first stop: Chengdu, Sichuan.

Harbin there, done that

One of the great things about being an English Language Assistant (ELA) is the amount of time off we get. I only teach about 16 hours on a weekly basis so I get a lot of free time in the week to do as I like. As Chinese New Year is one of, if not the most, important holidays in the Chinese calendar, schools take about a month off for holiday. In the run up to this, students take their end of term exams which for me meant not needing to teach my lessons around 3 weeks prior to official holidays as foreign language lessons were cancelled in order to give students more time to focus on important exams.

Knowing that I'd have around 7 weeks free to do whatever I wanted, I'd made a pretty extensive travel plan to make the most of my time in China. First stop? Harbin for the annual Harbin Snow and Ice Festival with my flatmate and fellow ELA, Beth.  

Now some might think we were crazy to want to head further up north to somewhere even colder and possibly more polluted than Tianjin. We'd been religiously checking the weather forecast for Harbin to keep an eye on what we were up against. Temperatures read -20/ -24, and as each day in January passed, this reading kept falling. No matter though, we were really psyched to go see some amazing ice sculptures. Scenes from the festival were widely reported in the media because it's a pretty popular festival in China. I'm pleased to be able to say we went for the opening ceremony and had a really great time. Here are some of my Harbin highlights: 

Food Glorious Food

When it comes to travelling, one of the things I'm most keen to do is try out the local cuisine. Having told some of my work colleagues I was heading to Harbin, they told me it was quite famous for a particular kind of sausage (哈尔滨红肠). It's pretty much the Chinese equivalent to a saveloy but it goes down well as something to snack on in the cold.

We also sought the advice of a friend of a friend who lives and studies in Harbin. Nick gave us some great suggestions for restaurants to visit. On our first night we ended up on Central Street (Zhongyangdajie - 中央大街) at a place which was very popular for serving Chinese spring rolls (Chun Bing- 春饼) - think more duck pancake rolls rather than the deep fried kind. 

Lao Chang Chun Bing (老昌春饼) on Zhongyangdajie (中央大街)

So whilst my Chinese is slowly but surely improving, ordering food from menus at a place I'm unfamiliar with can be a bit of a struggle. We weren't really entirely sure of what combinations of filling were best for this type of spring roll. Looking across to the tables of other diners, everyone had very different fillings, all of which looked delicious. How to solve the issue? Get the Chinese characters for 'recommend' up on Pleco and show the waitress. It was pretty hilarious but I have no regrets about the slightly embarrassing way we ordered because it was all delicious. 

Along came some shredded potato, scrambled egg, cooked pork, cucumber slices, spring onion and plum sauce, all of which you layered up into a pancake, rolled up and devoured. It was massively filling and a great dinner to start the trip on. 

On other days, we ate lunch with some lovely fellow travellers in our hostel. We'd headed to Oriental Dumpling King (东方饺子王) for some, you guessed it, dumplings (饺子 - jiaozi). Also located on Central Street, it's another very popular restaurant in Harbin. Maybe dumplings aren't too specific to Harbin, but they were still great. We also tried some Harbin stuffed buns (哈尔滨包子) at a restaurant not too far off from the hostel for breakfast one morning. I'm not sure it differed too much from the other baozi I've tried in my life but tasty all the same. 

The only other notable local delicacy I would recommend for people to try out if they ever end up in Harbin is the ice cream. 

You probably don't need ice cream in -34 degree weather but I thought it was pretty cool that vendors just had them out in the open. There was no need for refrigerators because the outside temperature is cold enough to keep them frozen. The ice cream itself was actually really tasty, possibly some of the best vanilla ice cream I've ever had. And for 5 kuai, why the hell not? 

Me with a red nose eating ice cream in extreme cold

Harbin Snow and Ice World

Of course, one of the main reasons we decided to go to Harbin was to visit the festival. One of the main sites was the Harbin Snow and Ice World (哈尔滨冰雪大世界) which displayed truly impressive ice sculptures. 

We were lucky to be accompanied by another girl who was also staying in our dorm room. Sarah was a really sweet girl who was studying in Beijing. Despite us not really being able to fully communicate with her, she was persistent with her efforts, often translating what she wanted to say on a phone app. 

Sarah, me and Beth before we spent 9 hours at the Harbin Snow and Ice Festival 

In temperatures of -34 degrees where it physically hurt to have your hands exposed, you had to give it to Sarah for wanting to speak to us via her translation app. She was also sweet enough to give us spare face masks and heat packs because she'd had so many left over. For anyone going to Harbin, I can't stress enough how essential having heat packs is. They're not only helpful to keep the main parts of your body warm when you're outside for long periods of time, but we also found them useful in keeping our phones warm. Due to the extreme cold, our phone batteries would get zapped and turn off randomly, making taking photos of all the amazing sculptures a bit of a challenge. But heat packs are the way to go! 

Anyway, we arrived at the Snow and Ice World just after 1pm. Perhaps one of the downfalls of the festival is that tickets into each of the sites are a little pricey (by Chinese standards). Tickets into the Snow and Ice World were 300RMB alone so us arriving so early meant we took full advantage of our day. It was also worth it to see the ice sculptures in both daylight and at night when they are lit up in beautiful neon colours. 

Daytime ice castles

Ice sculptures by night

There's a fair bit to do to keep you occupied whilst you're at the arena. We actually queued for about an hour to go down the world's longest ice slides. I couldn't feel my feet by the time we got to the front of the queue and there were definitely times when I considered packing it all in because I couldn't feel the ends of my legs, but it was worth it in the end - it was great fun. It was clearly a popular ride because the queues looked like this by the time we got to the top. 

Huge queues for the world's longest ice slide

You can also take rides on giant rubber rings down snow slides, have a play on ski sleds, ice skate, see fashion shows and exhibitions or even buy your own plastic sled to sledge down smaller ice slides and snow hills. There's plenty to do to fill your time. I personally felt like a big kid amongst it all. 

Loving life on ski sleds 

I guess what made our day was that we got to catch the official opening ceremony for the whole festival. There were live drumming performances and music (the anthemic 小平果 got played, of course) as well as a fireworks display. This all going on amongst the colourfully lit ice sculptures was a great end to our 9 hour visit to the Snow and Ice World! 

Fireworks for the opening ceremony 

Frozen Songhua River

Standing on a frozen river 

One of my favourite moments on the Harbin trip was walking over the frozen Songhua River just before sunset. It all felt quite surreal. The river itself was quite wide but due to the cold, it was frozen completely solid, so much so that there were people offering rides on rubber rings pulled along by snow mobiles or horse and carriage rides. 

I never for a moment considered it might be a slightly dangerous thing to do - until I saw a couple cracks in the ice towards the end of the river. Still, there was such a chilled out and easy going feel. Here's one of my favourite photos of a guy casually riding a bike over the river: 

Sun Island 

The other main site for the festival was Sun Island, the main place displaying snow sculptures. We headed there with more friends we made at the hostel who coincidentally studied in Tianjin and had mutual friends with us. 

It was a good job we did because our new cheeky but charming Korean friends managed to swing us a little discount by persuading some of the staff to pretend we knew him. We only saved about 30 kuai but that was enough to buy a well earned coffee later that evening.  

Again, it was really amazing to see the snow sculptures as well as the sculptors hard at work turning huge blocks of packed snow into intricately detailed sculptures. Some of them were absolutely huge, so I can't imagine how long it took to create. 

Huge snow castles and ice pagodas

I genuinely recommend anyone who finds themselves on this side of the world to take the plunge into minus-silly-degrees and visit Harbin during the Snow and Ice Festival. I'm so pleased to say that I have Harbin there, done that!