Well if anyone asks where the Ice Queen lives, it’s Harbin, China. Somehow I got in my mind I was up for going to the coldest place in China.
Bonnie was more than happy for a travel buddy so we began planning. Harbin is in the northern most province of China and is known for its Russian influence and its World Renown Ice Festival. Some how I managed to block out the weather warning on all the travel websites, winters annually reach 40* below zero which is were the Fahrenheit and Celsius scale’s meet by the way!
As we are both English teachers with a limit salary we decided to take the cheap route and call it an adventure. We got prices for the Hard Sleeper Trains, ¥620 round trip – what’s 26 hours on a train? Everyone has to do a long distance train trip at least once in China right?
To keep from rambling, purchasing our tickets turned into a fiasco! You can purchase tickets 10 days prior to departure, we waited to long. 6 days before, the hard sleepers to Harbin were sold out and we had to purchase soft sleepers which were about double the cost. Thanks to Wendy we got the whole mess worked out and tickets bought. We would have been in deep trouble if Bonnie and I had tried to figure all that out on our own.
So Sunday night we set out. I had a backpack, Purse, and Bag of food! We met up at the Train station and joined the masses waiting in the hall, we of course were the only foreigners and got all the stares.
And the Adventure Begins.
With found our compartment and to our surprise were the only ones in it at the Weifang Station. We figured we’d be joined at the coming station. Well we could easily tell why the tickets went from ¥300 for a hard sleeper to ¥600 for the Soft Sleeper. The Compartments are amazing.

Home-sweet-home for the next 26 hours!
There are four to a room. The bottom bunk is the communal bench during the day for two. The Compartment is closed to the hall which makes the room warm and private (Later on this was not an upside to the soft sleeper. )
I had the top bunk and Bonnie the bottom. I was surprised at the storage room too. The beds were your average Chinese bunk, and the duvets were to die for.
We stayed up and chatted until about 11pm then hit the sack. I was a little restless wondering at each stop if someone would come in at the next stop. I was quite relieved in the morning to find the other two bunks still empty.
okay so after 20 hours in a cramped cabin what were you expecting, prom night?
We spread out in the morning as it didn’t seem like anyone would be joining us! We settled in for a long day. I decided to go comfy rather than flattering, wrong choice it would turn out.
Around lunch time we had gotten too warm and had opened the hall door. Soon a stranger wandered in wanting to talk to the foreigners. We soon realized our Chinese was better than his English. Most Chinese will give it an honest shot but give up as soon as they realize the pointlessness of trying to converse with Foreigners who don’t speak Chinese. This guy only seemed encouraged by the lack of communication and before we knew it he had invited his friend to come join us for lunch.
Before we could say ‘不要 we had two Chinese Guys drinking Baijiu and eating Chicken Feet in our compartment, not the most appealing situation. There are those situations in life which make you eternally grateful for choosing an Alcohol-free life, this was one of them. As true Chinese, they were not picking up on the hints we were throwing at them by the time 3 hours had passed, that we would prefer lunch to be over. So we fell back on the Chinese love of nap taking and said we would like to sleep.
One of them seemed rather keen on Bonnie which was not reciprocated! We had a good laugh at that thought once they left and decided to take naps to kill time. Half way through my nap I heard Bonnie calling my name, when I turned over in my bunk one of the Chinese guys was back and standing right next to my head. Turns out he was really keen on Bonnie and had come back for a chat. Not what anyone wants to wake up to. After a rather interesting 15mins we got him to leave and decided to look the door rather than just close it.

Front of the Train station, this is kids stuff compared to the Festival.
As we stepped off the train in Harbin it was like hitting an ice wall. Warm lungs don’t like icy air! My lungs ached at first as they adjusted to cold. Instead of jumping straight into a cab we walked around the front of the station where small ice sculptures were arranged. The ground was complete ICE. I had opted for warmth rather than traction but soon began to question my footwear choice.

Lights are frozen inside and the color illuminates the entire block.
After 10min we were finished or at least our bodies were finished with the cold. We jumped in a cab and handed the driver the address to the hotel.
We had no idea what to expect from the hotel. Online it looked decent but reality is rarely what they photograph for brochures.
Although the exterior was not the most tasteful we were thrilled to find our reservations good and the heaters blasting. We’d read many a bad review for hotels with heating problems!
We headed up to our room with no expectations and were overjoyed to find a clean, warm and comfortable but eclecticroom. After a hot shower I hit the sack and soon fell asleep. Again, where do they people buy their duvets? I want one!!