I just came back from a wonderful trip to Harbin（哈尔滨）last week.
Well, actually the Harbin city itself is not that impressive. Of course, we all went to the Ice Carving thingy and all. Maybe I have seen one too many in TV. Don’t get me wrong – they are good and beautiful and I bet it takes whole lots of effort to build things from ice like that. Somehow it just does not feel very fantastic to me.
However, one thing left a good impression on me. It is the trip to the Snow Village (雪乡). From Harbin City, we took a four-hour train ride to a smaller town named Mudanjiang （牧丹江）. Then from there, we took another five-hour bus ride to this village. The tour guide said that this village is covered with snow for about six to eight months every year. That’s why the name came up – Snow Village.
There is something about the cold and hot wind currents from Siberia or something – well, you’ve got to pardon me for my limited Chinese understanding :p So these wind currents meet at this village which caused the snow to fall for an average of once in every three to four days during these period of time.
The road there started with a smooth highway ride. Then we turned out of the highway to a smaller street then to something like sand and rock covered track. There, it felt more like inside a turbulent ship rather than being inside a bus. Well, the driver of the bus seemed very eager to reach our destination or maybe he just couldn’t make it to be F1 driver that he vented this speed thirst by riding a 30+ seater bus, hahaha
The guide went on to say that the one hour before we reached the destination we would be able to see deep snow covering the street and the sideways. In the village, the snow can reach about half meter depth. Well, it all sounded like fun to me since I had never seen snow that deep in my life.
After some time, I finally fell asleep amidst the ‘smooth’ ride inside the bus. When I woke up, the sky was already very dark though it was only even 6 pm. There was totally no street lamp whatsoever on the sides. I looked from the window and from the part of track that was lighted by left bus headlight, I could already see the deep snow on the sides on the road.
We reached there at about 7 pm. The village is indeed very small. The guide said that our group of around 100 was actually the biggest they ever had and we did occupy almost all of the better rooms that they have in the village. By better, I mean those with decent sanitary rooms indoor and inside every guest rooms. I guess this secluded village will normally be visited by a small group of ski enthusiasts only. Every roof of this village is covered with a thick white snow, like those you normally see on kids’ birthday cake decorations, so cute….
In the morning, we were brought to the skiing ground. All of us were very eager to try out this new thing, since most of us had never skied before in our life. Well, I tell you it was a struggle to play this thing. We even found it troublesome to get our butt to a higher ground so that we could actually slide down. The thing is we had to catch a handle of a rotating machine so that we can be dragged up. This is the beginner one.
If you are already good, you can actually try a higher ground. To get to the higher ground you have to position yourself into something like a wooden plank for you to lean your back on and it will push you up.
I tried a beginner one. After struggling for sometime, I was finally able to catch the handle; it was because I kept sliding backwards before I even reached the handle, hahaha
So when I managed to catch it, I just grabbed to it thinking maybe when I reached about 2/3 of the way then I released and slide from there. It was hard to keep on grabbing the thing because of I was only using one hand, the other hand was occupied with holding the ski sticks. Well guess what, it was even harder to keep steady when you released the handle halfway. So I felt when I released the handle and one of my shoe was actually out of the ski slide (don’t know what this thing actually called). And from where I stand, I felt that I was actually too high above (didn’t feel that when I was looking from below) and there was actually no one around because the other had not reached where I was standing yet. I thought to myself – oh no, how am I supposed to get down like this. Finally after a few minutes, I saw a man coming up my way. So I just asked for his help to put in my left shoe back into the ski slide. He asked me whether I was first timer; I guess he could see it from my clueless look. I answered I was, he continued saying that this was too high for first timer. As if I didn’t know by now – I was grumbling inside my heart. He was thinking how to get me down actually but still couldn’t find any way. Well, I know that the only way to get down is to slide down myself. So I told him its okay and thanked him for his help and so I gathered up all my courage and started to position my ski to down direction. Just when I was still wobbly, it already started to slide down. I was doing okay initially but halfway I lost my balance and actually slid down on my butt and I had let go one of my ski stick on the way, hahaha….
It was exciting, hilarious and worrying all at the same time. I stopped by falling on the right side and one of the ski trainers below helped me up on my feet. When I started to worry on how I get my ski stick back, I saw the man who helped me before was picking it up as I looked up. He slid down delivered it to me.
Thank goodness…..
After this experience, I still tried for two more times before the time was up. Those two times, I started to slide from half way where I was the first time – hey, I learnt from my lesson :p They weren’t successful either. The sliding process was still quite okay although I still couldn’t balance myself well. The hard part was to stop. I always fell every time I tried to stop J I also fell backwards when I tried to go up by grabbing on the handle. Well, I guess I fell on all directions then :D It didn’t hurt though because the snow was soft and thick.
When the time for ski was up we still managed to snow fight each other. The snow was soft, thick and clean and it was just perfect to throw it or bury somebody inside, hahaha The meanest strategy is to put snow inside your enemy’s jacket, usually on the back of the neck so that it went down and directly touch the skin. You can really feel the coldness stinging your skin and the best part is it is difficult to get it out because you have to take off everything to get it out, hahaha…. Well, I got that one too so I know J
Well, it was very fun - one of the experiences I won’t forget. If there is another chance, I would love and try to play ski again although I know I would still keep on falling :D
Well, actually the Harbin city itself is not that impressive. Of course, we all went to the Ice Carving thingy and all. Maybe I have seen one too many in TV. Don’t get me wrong – they are good and beautiful and I bet it takes whole lots of effort to build things from ice like that. Somehow it just does not feel very fantastic to me.
However, one thing left a good impression on me. It is the trip to the Snow Village (雪乡). From Harbin City, we took a four-hour train ride to a smaller town named Mudanjiang （牧丹江）. Then from there, we took another five-hour bus ride to this village. The tour guide said that this village is covered with snow for about six to eight months every year. That’s why the name came up – Snow Village.
There is something about the cold and hot wind currents from Siberia or something – well, you’ve got to pardon me for my limited Chinese understanding :p So these wind currents meet at this village which caused the snow to fall for an average of once in every three to four days during these period of time.
The road there started with a smooth highway ride. Then we turned out of the highway to a smaller street then to something like sand and rock covered track. There, it felt more like inside a turbulent ship rather than being inside a bus. Well, the driver of the bus seemed very eager to reach our destination or maybe he just couldn’t make it to be F1 driver that he vented this speed thirst by riding a 30+ seater bus, hahaha
The guide went on to say that the one hour before we reached the destination we would be able to see deep snow covering the street and the sideways. In the village, the snow can reach about half meter depth. Well, it all sounded like fun to me since I had never seen snow that deep in my life.
After some time, I finally fell asleep amidst the ‘smooth’ ride inside the bus. When I woke up, the sky was already very dark though it was only even 6 pm. There was totally no street lamp whatsoever on the sides. I looked from the window and from the part of track that was lighted by left bus headlight, I could already see the deep snow on the sides on the road.
We reached there at about 7 pm. The village is indeed very small. The guide said that our group of around 100 was actually the biggest they ever had and we did occupy almost all of the better rooms that they have in the village. By better, I mean those with decent sanitary rooms indoor and inside every guest rooms. I guess this secluded village will normally be visited by a small group of ski enthusiasts only. Every roof of this village is covered with a thick white snow, like those you normally see on kids’ birthday cake decorations, so cute….
In the morning, we were brought to the skiing ground. All of us were very eager to try out this new thing, since most of us had never skied before in our life. Well, I tell you it was a struggle to play this thing. We even found it troublesome to get our butt to a higher ground so that we could actually slide down. The thing is we had to catch a handle of a rotating machine so that we can be dragged up. This is the beginner one.
If you are already good, you can actually try a higher ground. To get to the higher ground you have to position yourself into something like a wooden plank for you to lean your back on and it will push you up.
I tried a beginner one. After struggling for sometime, I was finally able to catch the handle; it was because I kept sliding backwards before I even reached the handle, hahaha
So when I managed to catch it, I just grabbed to it thinking maybe when I reached about 2/3 of the way then I released and slide from there. It was hard to keep on grabbing the thing because of I was only using one hand, the other hand was occupied with holding the ski sticks. Well guess what, it was even harder to keep steady when you released the handle halfway. So I felt when I released the handle and one of my shoe was actually out of the ski slide (don’t know what this thing actually called). And from where I stand, I felt that I was actually too high above (didn’t feel that when I was looking from below) and there was actually no one around because the other had not reached where I was standing yet. I thought to myself – oh no, how am I supposed to get down like this. Finally after a few minutes, I saw a man coming up my way. So I just asked for his help to put in my left shoe back into the ski slide. He asked me whether I was first timer; I guess he could see it from my clueless look. I answered I was, he continued saying that this was too high for first timer. As if I didn’t know by now – I was grumbling inside my heart. He was thinking how to get me down actually but still couldn’t find any way. Well, I know that the only way to get down is to slide down myself. So I told him its okay and thanked him for his help and so I gathered up all my courage and started to position my ski to down direction. Just when I was still wobbly, it already started to slide down. I was doing okay initially but halfway I lost my balance and actually slid down on my butt and I had let go one of my ski stick on the way, hahaha….
It was exciting, hilarious and worrying all at the same time. I stopped by falling on the right side and one of the ski trainers below helped me up on my feet. When I started to worry on how I get my ski stick back, I saw the man who helped me before was picking it up as I looked up. He slid down delivered it to me.
Thank goodness…..
After this experience, I still tried for two more times before the time was up. Those two times, I started to slide from half way where I was the first time – hey, I learnt from my lesson :p They weren’t successful either. The sliding process was still quite okay although I still couldn’t balance myself well. The hard part was to stop. I always fell every time I tried to stop J I also fell backwards when I tried to go up by grabbing on the handle. Well, I guess I fell on all directions then :D It didn’t hurt though because the snow was soft and thick.
When the time for ski was up we still managed to snow fight each other. The snow was soft, thick and clean and it was just perfect to throw it or bury somebody inside, hahaha The meanest strategy is to put snow inside your enemy’s jacket, usually on the back of the neck so that it went down and directly touch the skin. You can really feel the coldness stinging your skin and the best part is it is difficult to get it out because you have to take off everything to get it out, hahaha…. Well, I got that one too so I know J
Well, it was very fun - one of the experiences I won’t forget. If there is another chance, I would love and try to play ski again although I know I would still keep on falling :D
