Next Stop: Harbin

First off it must be said that Harbin is freaking COLD!!! The reason I went to Harbin was because during that time of year they hold an ice festival where they have huge ice and snow sculptures.
When I got off the train in Harbin a man outside the train station helped me to find the correct bus for me to make my way to my hostel. On the bus I was lucky enough to meet a young man who spoke English and he was kind enough to ask the bus driver to let me know when I needed to get off the bus. Without too much trouble I was able to locate my hostel.
The thing about the hostel I was staying at is that the staff there do not speak English. I was given a notebook on which was written "Do you have a reservation?" I answered in Chinese that yes I did. Then they point to "how many days?" and so on. Arriving at the same time as me was a guy named Daniel who was also from America. We had come to Harbin for the same reason and so decided to combine our plans together as travel buddies. The following day we were also able to add three more people to our group, a girl from Germany and two girls from the UK. The first night we were there we tried to go ahead and go to the ice and snow world where they have the huge ice sculptures all lit up but by the time we got there they were about to close so we decided just to go for a meal instead. We grabbed the closest taxi and asked him to take us to a restaurant where we could get some traditional Harbin specialties. After a very short ride (without the use of a meter) he tried to tell us that we owed 30 Yuan for the ride. Daniel and I have both been in China for a little while so we knew that this guy was trying to rip us off. So we told him in Chinese that it was too expensive and I went to hand him 15 Yuan. He didnt want to take it from me. I told him that was all I would give him and he still refused to take the money, so Daniel and I said fine and just got out of the taxi giving the driver nothing. Of course the driver did not want this so he got out of the taxi too. I then again offered him the 15 and he begrudgingly took it. He figures because we are foreigners we dont know any better but to his chagrin we did. Note: when taking a taxi try to go away from tourist spots to catch one. If you have no other choice either bargain for the price right away or demand that the driver use the meter.
Daniel and I then enjoyed some delicious food and then made out way back to the hostel for the night.
The next day we all met up and decided to start our day visiting the Siberian Tiger park, head over to the snow sculptures and then finish with the lighted display of ice sculptures.
Tiger Park
The tiger park was awesome. It is a large area filled with tigers, lions, white tigers, ligers, and even a jaguar. We bought our tickets and Daniel and I split the cost to feed the tigers a chicken. We all got on the bus and after they fed the tigers our chicken we wanted to see more. There were 24 people on our bus and we figured that if everyone threw in 50-60 Yuan that we could buy a cow to feed the tigers. So we found someone who spoke both English and Chinese and proposed our idea to our fellow riders. The bus driver and tour guide then suggested that we use our money to get two sheep instead as it would be a better show. Turns out not everyone wanted to put in money so we collected from everyone who wanted to throw in and decided to buy one sheep and six chickens. The bus driver then made everyone who didnt throw in money depart from the bus. You dont throw in the dough you dont get to see the show. What followed was both grotesque and awesome. The tigers move so fast and you get to be so close it was well worth 50 Yuan. I have great pictures and video from this adventure.
Snow Sculptures
The snow sculptures are fantastic. The detail and creativity that is shown is amazing. What they do actually is build the figure out of ice and then cover it with snow. While we were there, we ran into a parade. As we were taking pictures with some of the people in the parade they asked where we were from. When we said America they got very excited and wanted to get lots of pictures with us. Things like this always amuse me. "America! Okayla"
Da Da Bing Shui (Big Ice)
These were absolutely amazing. There is so much to see and its so impressive it would take your breath away. There are games you can play and ice slide to have fun with that were all free to enjoy. But it was freaking COLD!!!!!!!!! At one point we ran into what can only be described as an outdoor dance party so we stopped to dance and warm ourselves up. I definately needed this as I felt as if my feet were going to fall off. Did I mention that I was wearing two pairs of pants, two shirts, three coats, three socks, a face mask, gloves, and a hat and I was still cold?
After our journey we went back to the hostel, exchanged pictures and then the next day parted ways. That is one thing I love love love about traveling in China is meeting all kinds of new people! I hope you enjoy the pictures.