An Icy Weekend
Hello all, I'm back from freezing Haerbin (don't ask
me to tell you how to pronounce it), and I have lots
to tell (pictures will be provided soon).
We (4 Israelis, a Tahitian and an American) all went
to Haerbin in the far north east of China to see the
famous ice lantern festival.
So a bit of background about Haerbin - a 6 million
people city near the border with Russia, that has
changed hands between China, Russia and the Japanese.
During winter the temperatures range between -30 - -20
c which is about -10 to -20 F (yeap that means now).
Packed to the brim with clothes and munchees for the
road, we boarded a hard sleeper train, which consists
of a really narrow hallway and triple bunk-beds (not
very big either). After 12 hours of uneventful
traveling we got to Haerbin and were confronted for
the first time with the cold - wasn't so bad, or at
least that's what we thought.
After trying quite a few hotels that said they had no
rooms left (apparently many hotels except for the
expensive ones won't accept foreigners) we finally
settled in a decent one.
The next day we set off to the ice festival compound,
along the pretty wide river (150-200m wide or about
500-700 feet) that's frozen solid. The place was
called the ice and snow world and had famous
buildings from across the world (gate of triumph, a
church, a mosque, a pagoda and many other buildings
and ice statues) build of ice blocks and sculpted from
ice. At night evrything is illuminated from the inside
which gives the place a really "groovy" 70's
psychodelic (sp?) feel. I'll let the pictures do the
talking when they come.
At night we went to city's Russian quarter and visited
a "blues bar" full of russians dancing to Russian pop
music (ah - just like home). It was nuts. Oh yeah- and
all the girls were 6 foot (1.80m) blondes or
brunettes.
Notice the douoble gap I made, there's a reason for
that. This is where the real adventure begins. The
next day we decided to go visit the Siberian tiger
park, where you can watch - tigers, but also lions
panthers etc... and also see an innocent chicken or
duck thrown to the open ground and watch as they
devour it. Sounded like great fun.
So, armed with a lonely planet, we left looking for
the bus station that leads there (we were too stingy
for a cab - a fatal mistake). We got to the spot where
the station was supposed to be and - no station. So we
go and ask a bus driver how to get there (sounds
reasonable enough doesn't it?) and after thinking for
a bit he said hop on, change a bus when I tell you,
and you'll get there. We hop on, change busses after a
really long ride and find out that the new bus
doesn't get there and that we have to switch another
bus. We take another bus which, again, takes us to a
long ride and... we end up where we started. Finally
we give up and decide to take a cab. So we walk
towards the road and a guy approaches us and asks
where. We answer the tiger park and somehow (don't ask
me how), after a lot of negotiating using a 3 year
old's chinese, we find ourselves stepping off a horse
and carriage in the middle of the frozen lake I
mentioned before, and starting to cross it by foot (I
remind you, it's -25c at this time). Finally we get to
the other side catch a cab and find out that the place
is about to close.
There was a bit more to the story, but this has become
long enough. So we saw some magestic tigers, but
didn't get to see them feast, but at least it was for
free (because there was no one there).
The way back was pretty uneventful, just another 12
hour train ride.
This is the short version of Amit's adventures in
Haerbin.
Hello all, I'm back from freezing Haerbin (don't ask
me to tell you how to pronounce it), and I have lots
to tell (pictures will be provided soon).
We (4 Israelis, a Tahitian and an American) all went
to Haerbin in the far north east of China to see the
famous ice lantern festival.
So a bit of background about Haerbin - a 6 million
people city near the border with Russia, that has
changed hands between China, Russia and the Japanese.
During winter the temperatures range between -30 - -20
c which is about -10 to -20 F (yeap that means now).
Packed to the brim with clothes and munchees for the
road, we boarded a hard sleeper train, which consists
of a really narrow hallway and triple bunk-beds (not
very big either). After 12 hours of uneventful
traveling we got to Haerbin and were confronted for
the first time with the cold - wasn't so bad, or at
least that's what we thought.
After trying quite a few hotels that said they had no
rooms left (apparently many hotels except for the
expensive ones won't accept foreigners) we finally
settled in a decent one.
The next day we set off to the ice festival compound,
along the pretty wide river (150-200m wide or about
500-700 feet) that's frozen solid. The place was
called the ice and snow world and had famous
buildings from across the world (gate of triumph, a
church, a mosque, a pagoda and many other buildings
and ice statues) build of ice blocks and sculpted from
ice. At night evrything is illuminated from the inside
which gives the place a really "groovy" 70's
psychodelic (sp?) feel. I'll let the pictures do the
talking when they come.
At night we went to city's Russian quarter and visited
a "blues bar" full of russians dancing to Russian pop
music (ah - just like home). It was nuts. Oh yeah- and
all the girls were 6 foot (1.80m) blondes or
brunettes.
Notice the douoble gap I made, there's a reason for
that. This is where the real adventure begins. The
next day we decided to go visit the Siberian tiger
park, where you can watch - tigers, but also lions
panthers etc... and also see an innocent chicken or
duck thrown to the open ground and watch as they
devour it. Sounded like great fun.
So, armed with a lonely planet, we left looking for
the bus station that leads there (we were too stingy
for a cab - a fatal mistake). We got to the spot where
the station was supposed to be and - no station. So we
go and ask a bus driver how to get there (sounds
reasonable enough doesn't it?) and after thinking for
a bit he said hop on, change a bus when I tell you,
and you'll get there. We hop on, change busses after a
really long ride and find out that the new bus
doesn't get there and that we have to switch another
bus. We take another bus which, again, takes us to a
long ride and... we end up where we started. Finally
we give up and decide to take a cab. So we walk
towards the road and a guy approaches us and asks
where. We answer the tiger park and somehow (don't ask
me how), after a lot of negotiating using a 3 year
old's chinese, we find ourselves stepping off a horse
and carriage in the middle of the frozen lake I
mentioned before, and starting to cross it by foot (I
remind you, it's -25c at this time). Finally we get to
the other side catch a cab and find out that the place
is about to close.
There was a bit more to the story, but this has become
long enough. So we saw some magestic tigers, but
didn't get to see them feast, but at least it was for
free (because there was no one there).
The way back was pretty uneventful, just another 12
hour train ride.
This is the short version of Amit's adventures in
Haerbin.
Sorry for not posting for so long (if there are any people left that actually read it), I had both technnical difficulties and motivational ones.
School is going ahead as planned, i.e. pretty monotonous, but my Chinese is imroving, bit by bit.
This time I'll talk about a school trip we had to a small, perfect village called HanCunHe (read: HanTsuenHe).
Out teachers didn't tell us much about this trip, besides it was supposed to be a "language practice day with the "locals", whatever that meant.
However when we arrived, it was a completely different story. Apparently, the whole place was once a mud hut village, with a dirt road crossing it. Now, after the party spiced up the place a bit, It's practically a twilight zone perfect village. At first we visited the village's greenhouse, which was built with the help of Israeli Engineers and Farming experts (we're still on the map), and that uses the for front of agricultural technology, rendering the place self-sufficient. Then we went on to a tour of the village itself, and the museum dedicated to all the work that was done here.
I'll start with the village. The village is built from different housing blocks or quarters, with each quarter consisting of the exact same type of houses in perfect square rows, but with each quarter/block having different types of houses. The houses themsleves are quite large, both in Chinese standards and Western standards, and have even a small yard infront of them. The streets are very clean, very organised (organized?) and very very empty. Besides from the ocassional stray dog, I personally, saw no one, and other people swore they saw at least 3 people. Everybody were away for work, and that means everybody. The number of people who are not between 20-40 in this village isn't very high apparently.
After touring the genuine streets, we entered the museum, dedicated to the commemoration(sp?) of the village, before and after, the leaders who led this project, and all the honours bestowed on this place by foreigners and dignitaries.
We concluded with a not bad lunch in the big hotel at the entrance to the village.
What can I say, This village can tell us a lot about the transformations China is going through.
School is going ahead as planned, i.e. pretty monotonous, but my Chinese is imroving, bit by bit.
This time I'll talk about a school trip we had to a small, perfect village called HanCunHe (read: HanTsuenHe).
Out teachers didn't tell us much about this trip, besides it was supposed to be a "language practice day with the "locals", whatever that meant.
However when we arrived, it was a completely different story. Apparently, the whole place was once a mud hut village, with a dirt road crossing it. Now, after the party spiced up the place a bit, It's practically a twilight zone perfect village. At first we visited the village's greenhouse, which was built with the help of Israeli Engineers and Farming experts (we're still on the map), and that uses the for front of agricultural technology, rendering the place self-sufficient. Then we went on to a tour of the village itself, and the museum dedicated to all the work that was done here.
I'll start with the village. The village is built from different housing blocks or quarters, with each quarter consisting of the exact same type of houses in perfect square rows, but with each quarter/block having different types of houses. The houses themsleves are quite large, both in Chinese standards and Western standards, and have even a small yard infront of them. The streets are very clean, very organised (organized?) and very very empty. Besides from the ocassional stray dog, I personally, saw no one, and other people swore they saw at least 3 people. Everybody were away for work, and that means everybody. The number of people who are not between 20-40 in this village isn't very high apparently.
After touring the genuine streets, we entered the museum, dedicated to the commemoration(sp?) of the village, before and after, the leaders who led this project, and all the honours bestowed on this place by foreigners and dignitaries.
We concluded with a not bad lunch in the big hotel at the entrance to the village.
What can I say, This village can tell us a lot about the transformations China is going through.
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