I’ve finally gotten around to finish typing up a large portion of my trip to the Harbin Ice Festival in January of 2008!!! YaY! But I just discovered that I totally killed Part 2 of the Harbin Trip by saving Part 3 over it!! >=( I’m so distraught right now… it was such a long post too. This will just mean that Part 2 will be delayed, I’ll attempt to get it up by the end of this week though =) Note to self: Always type posts up in Word for backup!!

Harbin-Ice-Festival

 

After our last exam at BLCU (Jan 15th), most of us international students went off on our mini holidays to other parts of China or back home to see family and friends. After months of preparation and continuous discussions about where to go and what to see, we decided on going to the Harbin Ice Festival!

Harbin MapWe had actually prepared an itinerary to travel all the way to Guilin and Chengdu to see the pretty landscape and cute pandas (did you hear about the Pandas who escaped because of the earthquake??), even going through Xi’an and Pingyao to see the terracotta warriors and ancient city, but we realised it was a bit too hopeful since it was a right before Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and we were most likely going to have trouble with train tickets!

We weren’t wrong! Talking about our plans to Harbin was one thing, to actually get it done was another! Firstly, just to buy the train tickets to Harbin were a huge hassle because you have to fight half of China just to get to the ticket counter. The whole ticketing system was so that you can only buy your tickets 4-5days before the departure date, and you can’t book any tickets ahead of time. Although, I’m sure you could if you knew someone at the ticketing office!

We had to line up several times in the super-long Chinese style queues, where it’s just one big free-for-all wrestling match to get the ticket officers’ attention only to be turned down and told “明天回来 come back tomorrow“. We ended up delaying our trip by a few days because of this, which meant our hotel bookings had to be changed and our hopes of getting our hands on 3 hard sleepers were dashed. Instead, out of pure desperation, we got ourselves hard seaters.The train ride to Harbin was extremely memorable.

HardSeater.jpgFirst of all, China rail sells standing tickets for those who, as the ticket suggests, remain standing throughout the whole journey. During peak season, these passengers are shoulder to shoulder blocking your way from the door to your seat. If you arrive late to your seat, expect some locals to be sitting in your seat. That is, if you even make it to your seat in the first place!

The train had already started moving and we were stuck in the mass of people trying to make our way to our allocated seats. Several locals happily help by pushing you on your way (some more aggressively than others). I’m quite sure I ended up stepping on people and random luggage in the aisle, as well as practically sitting in some strangers lap.

China LandscapeWe found entertainment in just observing and commenting on the appearance and behaviour of the local Chinese. One girl in particular looked every part Japanese with her hair and make up, even her giant teddy bear. We watched her almost get run over by the lunch cart (she bought a standing ticket), we watched her steal the seats of other patrons when they went to the toilet and we also watched her practically sleep in the aisle.

It was only until near the end of our journey that the crowd ‘thinned’ out so those standing had space to sit/sleep in the aisle. It was also towards the end of the 18hour train ride that the locals found great humour and entertainment with us foreigners. Chinese are easily entertained if you just simply speak broken Mandarin to them and teach them some English.