Chapter 1 - Getting thereOur flight from Shanghai to Harbin was scheduled to 20:55 on Thursday. We were at the airport an hour and a half before that, and we knew that because of the holiday - there's a really good chance that the flight will be delayed a bit. We were lucky- it wasn't delayed officially but we only took off at 22:00. We landed in Harbin airport at about 00:30 and it took us an hour to get to the hotel in town. At 01:30 we were in our warm nice room, we slept a bit less than 4 hours and had to get up and catch the tour bus to Yabuli- the ski resort. We booked the whole trip in advance coz of the holiday knowing that if we wont - we just wont find transportation to anywhere, and no hotels. Our travel agent told us there's no public bus from Harbin to Yabuli, so she booked us on a tour bus there, which goes there everyday. This bus was very expensive (about 30€ return ticket, for 250 km drive) but she said that there's no other way- so what could we do. They picked us up at 06:00am, after getting almost no sleep that night. We were first on the bus, and after picking up another 30 ppl, we were on our way to Yabuli. The problem was that it took us 2.5 hours in Harbin to wonder around and pick them all up. We were really pissed off, knowing that if our travel agent had a bit more sense she would have asked for us to not be picked up first and have a few more hours of sleep, and not pay for a night in a hotel- for only 4 hours of stay... The bus took forever, I slept a bit of the way, Rob slept a bit of the way, and obviously they stopped in a really dodgy place for lunch. At 12:30 we were finally in Yabuli, well actually not in Yabuli town, but next to it- where the ski resort really is. We found our hotel, and checked in. This hotel: "Tong Xin Shan Zhuang" was picked by our travel agent coz it was much cheaper than the famous one in the resort: "The Windmill Inn". In the later- a room was 100€ per night (!!!) and we thought that's outrageous so we asked for something cheaper. Our hotel cost a third of that. When we entered the hotel the ppl there were really nice to us. When we entered the room it looked a but like a room that was stuck in the 70's, but it was really clean and nice. They treated us with apples, and everyday brought us something new, like nuts or fruit- for the holiday. The ppl in that hotel were so nice- I've never met ppl as nice in China. On the other side of the coin, as we say in Hebrew, there was the Windmill Inn. A big known Inn, who owns a lot of the resort. They were the exact opposite to the ppl in our hotel. Not nice, never smiled, always wanted more and more of our money. In the beginning they said there's no place to withdraw money there (that wasn't a lie...) and that they don't take credit cards... We thought we're in trouble so we asked if we can change some dollars. They said that we can- for a rate of 1$=7RMB. The real rate in the banks is something like 1$=8RMB so we didn't really wanna do that. Obviously they were planning on getting our dollars, so until we insisted on not changing them, telling them we don't have and such- they wouldn't let us pay with our credit cards even though it was obviously something they did often. Also we were told by some foreigners we met who stayed in the Inn that the rooms were not so clean, and not warm, the showers only had hot water between 18:00-21:00 and that they also felt like the staff is trying to get more money out of them. All that made us really happy about our hotel- where we paid so much less and got so much more...
Me on skis. Who knew.
Chapter 2 - The silenceWow. It was so quiet there. Coming from Shanghai to that secluded place was like 2 definite opposites. At night there was no sound. Nothing. The sky was black, filled with stars, and the silence ruled. We slept so deep those nights.... incredible. Also the fact that it was so dark- no lights through the window... so different than Shanghai...
View from the lift.
This year there wasn't much snow,
but was enough to ski.
The ski-pass includes full equipment rental, but it's really not cheap. We were there for 4 days, the first day was not really good weather so we took a half day ticket (=4 hours) for 38€ per person, the second day we took a full day (it was great weather for the rest of our stay) for 48€ and the last 2 days we took half days as well. In the first 2 days we skied, and I tried a few runs, just the problem is that they don't groom the runs at all so for me, after only one year of skiing in my life, it was a bit of a challenge with all the moguls. That's why on the 3rd day we decided that maybe it's just better that I learn how to snowboard, to use the time in a better way. I was excited to learn, and after 2 days, 10 million falls on every inch of my body, learning that I have muscles in the front of my neck, hurting everywhere, and generally having a lot of fun and being really tired- I'm really happy that we did that! In the last day, on the last 10 minutes I had to practice, I crashed really hard into a stupid Chinese guy with a snowboard, even though I was waiting for him to go out of the way- he stopped right in my way again like a total asshole. The fall was so painful... My head started hurting as if it was falling off. But I didn't let that put me down, and I know that the next time I have a chance - I'm going to practice it again!
Me on a snowboard.I was actually able to board down a bit!
Chapter 4 - Going back to Harbin
The trip back was just as annoying as the trip there. Apparently, the tour guide of the bus taking us there forgot about us (that's what we think) and just handed us over to a friend of hers that had exactly 2 spare seats. In the beginning that tour guide told us to sit in one seat, then in another, and then asked us to sit separately. I was so annoyed with the treatment we got that I started to yell and say that we're not sitting apart. I was so annoyed that I didn't even wanna talk Chinese to her, even though she knew no English. In the end there was only 1 nice person on the bus that moved and let us sit together. It took a lot less time, and with great timing, not even knowing that we're making the right decision, somewhere in Harbin where the bus stopped for a few minutes and the guide went with some ppl- I told Rob- lets get off here and just take a taxi to our hotel- God knows how long it's gonna take for them to drop all 50 ppl off the bus. We did so- and our hotel was a 5 minutes drive away. We were so happy! Also we were really hungry, and after having to eat only Chinese food for 4 days, with nothing western on the menu we were craving for Pizza. I saw a Pizza Hut on the way, and told Rob- hey! here's Pizza Hut- remember where it was so we can go back there after checking in to the hotel. The time was already 21:00 and we haven't eaten a thing after skiing that day, we were tired and hungry. Suddenly the taxi driver stops next to Pizza Hut, turns around and stops at the other side of the road. That was the entrance to our hotel. We started laughing so much, having so much luck after a crappy day...
Zhong Yang Da Jie- The pedestrian in HarbinC
hapter 5 - Finding my roots in HarbinMy grandfather was born in Harbin. His parents were Jews from Siberia that ran away to Manchuria in the beginning of the last century. I already visited there last time I was in China, but then I got sick and only saw a little. This time I asked my mom to get me the old name of the street her dad lived in (all the streets had Russian names then, and now they all have Chinese names) so I can try to find it. On Wednesday morning we started our day by looking for information everywhere, and found a travel agency close to the main known pedestrian street. There was a lady there that was an angle, and even though she knew no English, and I knew just enough Chinese to tell her what I was looking for - she made a few phone calls, gave us some maps, and took us to the old synagogues and Jewish school 10 minutes away from there. She was so nice... We took pictures of it all, and went in the buildings. We found out that in the big synagogue they opened a museum for the Jews of Harbin. We read all that was written under the pictures, and found some info that helped us, and it was really interesting.We also investigated the ppl there (just a few Chinese workers) asking them to help us find out the name of the street nowadays, and we did. We took pictures of the street, and it was really nice knowing that 60-80 years ago my family was there...
The old Synagogue in Harbin A picture of my great grandfather's
pharmacy license in Harbin
Chapter 6 - Ice and MagicIn the same afternoon we went to see the Ice Sculpture Festival in Harbin. It happens every year, in winter- they build huge famous buildings from ice. It was a real treat, we went there just before sundown so we can see it both in the light, and in the dark- all illuminated in colored neon lights. It was so worth it and it was definitely the nicest man-made thing I've ever seen in China.
It's all from Ice
Chapter 7 - Last day in HarbinWe woke up late, skipping the horrible breakfast of the hotel (Chinese breakfast) and went to a nice French cafe in the pedestrian street. We had nice croissants, good coffee and good bread. After that we went to Santa Sophia church, an old Russian Orthodox church, and inside we guessed what was written under old pictures of Harbin- coz it was only in Chinese. Was good practice for our character reading, and we were even asked to take a picture with a Chinese girl who found us interesting just for being foreigners...
Then we went to pick our things back from the hotel, took a taxi to the airport and obviously found out that our flight was delayed 1 hour. The check in was a huge mess, but in the end we were finally in Shanghai - after a really nice holiday.....
