Back at Last: Part Two

We Finally Reach Dongbei
From Tianjin we planned to travel to Dalian the southernmost city in northeast China. The train trip would be over ten hours so we again opted for the overnight sleepers. The trip is so long due to the location of both cities as they are on opposite ends of the Bohai Gulf. Ferries do cross this sea but it is definitely not worth the time and effort.

We found a nice cheap hotel very close to the train station and stayed here for the next three nights. We did not intend to be here this long but we actually were ahead of schedule and a bit behind on money so it worked out as such. Dalian is very much the most "international" city in northeast China. The Korean and Russian influence is very evident. Although the sites of the city are spread out, the atmosphere here was nice. The one downside is tour guides and bus operators will not leave you alone. They continually hound tourists until no end asking you to buy. It got very annoying.

Our first tourist spot was the Old Russian Quarter. Once the area to house Russian gentry, the mansions here are slowly decaying as several families are cramming into each house. In spite of this, there remains one sole street filled with decent Russian archiceture and dozens of shops and vendors selling Russian everything from vodka to knives. Pazi found some good buys here like Russian chocolate that she bought for half the price as other spots.

Later we browsed the underground market and an upscale shopping mall. Nothing was spectacular but it was warmer inside than out. The temperatures were close to zero so it was getting colder. We found this nice cozy cafe and had chicken curry and vegetables. It was a great price and tasted good.

The next two days that followed included city squares and beaches. It is interesting how many squares there are in north China. The squares here are basically oversized roundabouts that either get so much use that it is impossible to even cross the street, or the squares are so useless that it looks like thousands of dollars have been wasted to have one measly statue. The best one we visited was Zhongshan Square. This roundabout is laid out with nicely kept lawns and encircled by colonial buildings from the Russian and Japanese eras. The buildings are now hotels and banks among other things.

Our other tourist site was Tiger Beach. Looking at the literature, it seemed like a very nice beach to venture out and see. However, when we arrived here it was not that great. Of course it was out of season but besides an overcast day, we only saw the ocean park. It looked like a sad version of Sea World. We wandered a bit, and stumbled upon a massive development project nearby. A shopping complex was being built in what was considered "North American" style. It reminded us of fancy outlet malls.

The next day we decided to check out another beach since Tiger Beach was just so-so. The new one was called Xinghai. We had to take a long bus ride to get out there but it was in a double decker bus. The trip reminded us of Hong Kong and it was nice since there was only six people total including us riding. When we arrived at the beach we could see that it was definitely a major attraction in the summer. Many wrapped up vendor stalls lined a boardwalk above a beach that was decent sized. As we walked around to a cove it was even more developed with monuments and statues. We stopped to watch several old men and woman get in a swim. It looked extremely cold! The end of our journey took us to a neat walking bridge that has great views of a Bavarian-style castle. This structure was massive and it blew our minds to find out it was Dalian's Seashell Museum. Supposedly part of it is a hotel that you can stay at.

Movin' on to Shenyang
On Tuesday, December 22nd we took a short four hour train ride north from Dalian to Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province. This is a rather plain and simple city that serves as a railway junction and banking center. Since it's the northeast's biggest city at over four million, we decided to stop for a bit and see what there was to offer.

Lucky for us we found an excellent accomodation called Ibis Hotels. A French company with hotels in larger urban areas of China, this chain had good service, rooms, and superb rates. We paid only 168 yuan ($24.75) per night. For the clean rooms and nice bathrooms we thought it was a steal. The location was another plus for us as it was located right in the heart of the city. After settling in we decided to grab a quick bite to eat. We walked around the city a bit but really had no time. The sun set at 5p.m. We noticed the days were getting shorter the further north we went.

The next day the cold weather hit us as sub-zero temps became the norm. The only major attraction for Shenyang is China's second Imperial Palace, the first being the Forbidden City. Constructed during the Manchu Empire back in 1626, this structure is basically a replica with few differences to the design in Beijing. Adan really wanted to stop and take photos at this site, while Maria and Bill lacked any serious interest.

Inside complex is 300 rooms, a sizeable difference to the 999 rooms of the Forbiden City. Many of the features of the palace reflect the Manchu and Mongol influence and it is not more evident than in the style of dragons used throughout the complex. The palace is divided into three sections and although the woodwork has been neatly restored throughout the whole site, the Dazheng Hall is one of the premier features of the palace. Adorned with sinuous dragons in Manchu style, this octagonal wooden structure with vivid lacquered paint is not something you can see at the Forbidden City.

It only took Adan about two hours to get through the whole palace. From here the group decided to visit the Liaoning Provincial Museum. Considered the best museum in all of northeast China, it was worth a look. We arrived about two hours before closing and it was not nearly enough time to see everything. The site is large with three levels of exhibits. We looked at various statues, paintings, copperware, pottery, jade, and porcelain.

For Christmas Eve we were unsure of exactly where we would be. Although we were really ready to head north, we decided to stay one more day because of the temperatures that we would soon face in Jilin province. It was to be -25C (-13F). The decision turned out okay. We slept in, got up late to have breakfast, and then visited a few insignificant squares and shopping districts. Bill really wanted to have good Dou Jiang (soy milk) and Dan Ta (egg tarts) later in the day so we found a couple shops with these items. Eventually we ended up in a very plush shopping mall. Here Bill located an incredible hot pot restaurant that charged only 39 yuan ($5.75) for all you can eat. We decided to come back here for our Christmas dinner. The food was superb. Great quality meat, vegetables, and spices. The restaurant really impressed Pazi with its conveyor belts that shifted around dishes of raw ingredients that you could grab and put directly into your own individual hot pot.

White Christmas
Although the weather in Shenyang was cold, we did not see snow until Christmas morning. As we checked out of our hotel we stepped outside to a blanket of white snow as more kept falling. Bill had never seen snow before so he went nuts. He is from Guanxi province (bordering Vietnam). This was fine until it became impossible for us to locate a taxi to take us to the train station. It became such a problem that we panicked because we were running out of time before our train was set to leave.

Lucky for us we did locate a taxi and not a moment to soon. We arrived at the train station and left less than ten minutes after getting there. Talk about cutting it close! The train ride would be just under four hours and not many people were riding with us. It made sense once we arrived in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province. Changchun is cold, very cold and because we needed to by our tickets to Harbin in advance, that meant we needed get them immediately after arriving. Most train stations have a ticket office in a heated building. This is not the case in Changchun. We had to line up and wait outside for over thirty minutes to buy tickets! Immediately after buying them, we ran inside to the nearest store to get warm.

Changchun proved to be a very boring stop for us. We traveled by light rail to our hotel that was some distance away. But the ride showed us the sights of the city and we could tell we were not missing much. It was a factory town. Known for making automobiles and auto parts, the factories reminded us of Dongguan but at artic temperatures. Our time here was set for two days. It would be the slowest two days of the trip. Bill actually never left the hotel because he felt it was too cold. We went out both days but saw a very depressing area of town with weather so darn cold we could barely stand it. It was nice to leave here on Sunday, December 27.

Harbin Heaven
As luck would have it, our train to Harbin was delayed over one hour. From the crowds that were forming, it looked like this would be a packed train and it was. It was obvious that vacationers were ready to have a winter getaway. It took another four hour train ride to reach Harbin. Once we arrived, we were welcomed by ice sculptures being built right outside the train station. In excitement we went to see the artwork. It took us just a few minutes to realize that we were in -20s (-10s) temps and the sun was out! Harbin taxi drivers have a strange agenda. We learned this when we got rejected time and time again asking for a ride to the city center. We ended up walking there! It only took us thirty minutes, but we needed to thaw out. In fact, we went to have dinner right next door and spent that first day acclimating to the weather.

Harbin definitely has a few things to do. We visited St. Sofia's Church. This splendid Byzantine-style church now houses an art and architecture centre. We would visit this magnificent Russian edifice several times during our stay and take both day and night photos to capture its beauty. After this we headed over to the Song Hua River. This massive river becomes completely frozen over with ice during the harsh winters. People are able to ice skate, dogsled, take horse carriage rides, and even drive cars on it. We went down on the ice and took pictures of the other tourists partaking in the above mentioned activities.

The rest of the day was spent wandering in neighborhoods enjoying the Russian architecture and thawing out in shopping malls. For every hour outside, we needed at least twenty minutes inside. We repeated this for several hours until 4:30 when it gets completely dark in Harbin!

Our last day before leaving for home focused on shopping and attending the 11th Annual Harbin International Ice Festival. We chose shopping for the early activity in the day because it would allow us to take it easy before our big night. The ice festival takes place every night with thousands of lights showing off incredible life-size scultpures. Additionally, because the ice needs to be kept at a certain temperature for the two months the festival takes place, temperatures can reach below
-40(C and F) when snow machines are shooting out freezing white clouds!

The ice festival is truly an event. Built around an ice wall, the ice sculptures have themes from various parts of the world. We saw the Great Wall, Roman Coliseum, Ruin of St. Paul's Cathedral (in Macau), Eiffel Tower, Egyptian Pyramid, Terra Cotta Warriors with horses, among other well known landmarks. There were about 50 life size structures in all. We had 70 minutes to venture out and explore these ice sculptures. Adan and Bill thought they might need more time, but after fifteen minutes realized 70 minutes was more than enough time considering how cold it was. All in all, it was a magnificent ice show.

The next morning we packed our bags and headed to the airport, which was about a two hour ride. We were all ready to be 'home' in a warmer climate. As the other teachers arrived to school with tans and layers of clothes, we were just thawing out and thought the January Dongguan weather was just fine.