Long overdue - Part II - Yabuli

From Harbin, we departed on a train south-east towards Yabuli, about 2hr 30mins away. Yabuli touts itself as the winter-sports hub of China, where there are a number of ski-grounds, including the training facilities for the national team. It touts itself as an affordable alternative to Europe or Japan for skiing, and this year, Yabuli is hosting the winter universiade, where a myriad of students from various countries will compete in a variety of events like ice-hockey and skiing. No chance of any representation from Singapore then!

Yabuli train station

The resorts offer beginner to advanced slopes, and for as low as 100yuan (approx. US$15), you can ski for 2 hours, and it even comes with snowboard/ski and piste rentals and ski-lift rides to the intermediate or advance slopes. Hire a coach if you can’t ski to save your life.

While I was there, struggling not to fall down the bunny slope, I saw little kids from the national team repeatedly whizzing past me (running uphill in their skis) and then racing down at top-speed N times– so much for thinking I’m athletically-inclined! However, I saw just as many beginners crashing into the fence. My excuse for my poor form - I was born in a tropical country!

At Yabuli, the ever-resourceful beau found us a homestay in one of the nearby villages for an "authentic” dongbei experience for only 50yuan a person.

Dongbei people traditionally in-build brick stoves into their brick houses. The locals burn wood-fire to cook and warm the house. The heat from the stove is channeled into various parts of the house, including the walls, and the bedrooms which have a platform about 1 m high (thus eliminating the need for a bed-frame) where you can lay mattresses and bedding. This keeps the house incredibly warm and toasty during the long, harsh winter.

However, for whatever reason, i couldn't sleep well that night. Maybe the platform was too hard and i was used to sleeping on a thicker mattress. Or, maybe it was because the heat coming through the mattress was so strong that i felt like i was a pizza being cooked over a fire.

Anyhow, our homestay was very pleasant and relaxed- we felt enveloped in warmth inside the house (even though it was minus 20 deg C outside) and the very nice hostess also served us hearty home-cooked meals.

The next day, Beau and I embarked on an ambitious plan to hike from the village to the top of the mountain. It didn't seem very far (from where we could see) and it appeared to be a half-day job - just had to walk past the lake, and into the forests and cut through a couple of hills to get to the top - or so it seemed. Everybody we enquired said it could "possibly be done" although they had never tried. Needless to say, we lost our directions since we didn't have a topo map or a compass.

After walking past the lake, we entered the forest and meandered our way through. the trees There were no visible trails and the ski-slope was obscured from view. I grumbled at Beau while we trudged in knee-deep snow and fought the branches in our face. The snow in my shoes were making my toes frosty!

Suddenly, we became aware that someone else was amongst the woods, watching us as we walked through. We turned and saw some wild-looking man in a tatty army jacket and a dead deer lying by his feet. He sat there motionless, staring at us until we said hello and ask for directions to the ski-slope but he seemed very sinister and unfriendly. He pointed us in the opposite direction of where we were heading, and without saying much else, dragged the deer into the forest and disappeared. We were sufficiently spooked-out when he appeared behind us just as silently 15 minutes later without the deer. We let him past and again, he melted into the forest in a matter of minutes. We decided to turn back - there was no way we could make it on to the ski-slope by our targetted time, and this guy spooked us out. Did he shoot the deer? it looked like a bullet went through its body but we didn't hear any gunshots.

On our way back out of the forest, we saw drops of blood along the trail and we figured out that he had dragged thie animal down the hill to store it somewhere and came back up again. How on earth did he drag this load down and return so quickly?!

Beau and I had a field day speculating various theories about this guy - he didn't seem like a farmer from the nearby villages. Our most plausible theory being he was a convicted criminal on the run, hiding in the woods and living off the land. Was he alone or did he have some fellow hunters?

Anyway, that was how we ended of our little hike and in the end, we had to hop on a bus to get to the ski-grounds -an unglamorous conclusion to our little Siberian wilderness adventure.

By the lake

I love the wilderness and the stark landscape -pristine white snow that glisten in the sun and the desolate forests. In the distance, spires of smoke rise from the farmhouses. There is an overwhelming silence except for the crunch of snow under your feet (or in your shoes!).

This is what i imagine Siberia looks like.

I didn't take that many photos because my fingers were frozen beyond mobility. Plus, my camera battery went flat frequently because of the cold and i couldn't be bothered to take my hands out of my pockets to warm them up!

Long overdue -Part I - Harbin

Long overdue photos of my winter trip up to the north-east

Spent the first few days of 2009 in Heilongjiang in the north-east or “dongbei” as Chinese call it. First stop was Harbin, where it was a mind-numbing minus 15 deg celcius.

Heilongjiang has strong Russian and Japanese influences, and it was ruled by the Manchus since the beginning of the 17th century right until 1911. The Russians came in the early 20th century after the Harbin-Vladivostok railway line was built and essentially built a miniature Russian city in the heart of Manchuria. From a dusty middle-of-nowhere northern outpost, Harbin was transformed into a modern city. In its heyday, Harbin was the playground for Russians, and boasted the first movie theatres, bath-houses, and a brewery (that still churns out Harbin Beer today) in the whole of China. During summer, they swam in the Songhua river, and in winter, played/invented sports such as women’s swimsuit snow-tubing (really).

The Japanese invaded Manchuria in the 30s and Inner manchuria was then known as "Manchukuo" and became a puppet state of Japan until WW2.

In the early 50s, Harbin, together with the rest of “dongbei” became the industrial base of China. Heilongjiang became a major producer of heavy industrial machinery and vehicles. Coal-mines established, and even oil was discovered. HLJ became synonymous with smog and pollution.

Today, it still retains some of its Russian flavour, with its stately architecture and cuisine and has an exotic look and feel to it. Coming into town via the airport bus, Harbin, at first impression seemed an old, gritty city. Several of the residential buildings were dilapidated and neglected.

Here, majority of the laowais are tourists from Russia, who hope over the border from a little town called Black River via train. How do you identify Russians? They wear fur and leather - loads of it. So much so that PETA would have a field day here. Even the locals here look different – a mixture of Han, Manchu, Japanese, and perhaps Siberian. The girls have round faces, straight midnight-black hair with a short fringe, large black eyes, and double-eyelids -very pretty. They all look like they are named “Irina” for some reason.

On the whole, Harbin’s infrastructure looks like it badly needs modernizing to catch up with the rest of the 2nd tier cities. The city buses were old and sluggish and bus-stops had graffiti all over. Beau commented that even the beggars here seemed much worse-off.

We visited the provincial museum and while it boasted an array of historical artifacts and relics (including some massive dinosaur skeletons), the displays were old-school and looked like they haven’t been updated since the 80s.

“Zhongyang dajie” or “Central street” is the showcase of its “Russian-ness”. Zhongyang dajie is a pedastrianized shopping street that has been spruced up and proudly proudly shows off its stately European-style buildings. There are a multitude of shops selling 红肠 or literally “red sausages” (a Russian tradition, apparently), Russian goods (think matryoshka dolls), and fur coats.

2 bears walked past me. I had to resist the urge to hug them - they looked so warm while i froze.

Another 2 Russians looking at the St Sophia Church

The highlight of my Harbin trip was definitely the annual ice-sculpture festival. Every winter, temperatures drop well below 0 degree Celcius, and huge blocks of ice are harvested from the frozen Songhua river and transported north of the city onto Taiyang Island, where they are transformed into a themepark wonderland. Even the park itself is ringed with a 1.5m tall wall entirely made of ice.

The scale of the sculptures were, frankly beyond my imagination and one can’t help but just gawk at all the magnificence of it all. . There are 40m high castles that change colours every 20 seconds, a huge Buddha sculpture, Chinese temples, churches, etc, all cleverly in-built with flashing neon light circuitry. In addition, it also has a miniature skating rink, snack stalls that peddle bintang hulu, souvenirs and little tents where you can escape from the cold for a steaming hot drink. There was also a big tent featuring Russian cabaret dancers.

This is the 10th year the festival is held and it's the ultimate crowd pleaser for adults and children alike but for the love of god, do wear warm clothes!!





A log of what I wore (and yet still felt frost-bitten) while i was up north:

• Thermal long-sleeved top


• Fleece top


• Thick pullover


• Ski jacket


• Leggings


• Fleece trousers


• Ski pants


• Socks x 2 pairs


• Neck-warmer


• Gloves


• Hiking boots