We headed straight to the airport, nothing much interesting happened in Beijing. We’d called the young lad one (or was it two) days before to confirm our booking.
The place ride was a smooth one. And that was my first photo in Harbin. There weren’t much taxis, and if we took a taxi, we’ll have to take two taxis. There were buses that dropped you off around Zhong Yang Da Jie (literally Grant/Big Central Street) though, and it was much cheaper. I’d definitely pick that option if I was alone. I did take the bus often when I travelled around China with my friend after all. But dad was really hesitant… but in the end he gave in. So yup, this shot was taken from the bus. You can see reflection from the glass.
another shot from the bus before we set off XD
The hotel room! It’s an international chain hotel - Ibis. Not as luxurious as the one in Beijing, this one has 3 stars only, but hey, it’s a clean, big room… everything looks really new… ok, no proper space to put luggage but it’s alright.
Ah but before reaching the hotel… the bus dropped us off somewhere around Zhongyang street… somewhere. And it was a long walk while hauling loads of luggage to our hotel. We had to stop off somewhere and put on earmuff/hats because our ears were dying. I put on my face mask too… it was coooold!
A nice, fairly large flatscreen TV.
Toilet with a curved wall. It reminded me of the toilet we had when I shared a room with my friend on a boat. Though this toilet is way, way nicer.
We went for a walk after gearing up properly.
That’s the Saint Sofia Orthodox Cathedral - thanks to wiki for the full name - across the street.
Our hotel is just like, 1 minute away from the church. So we pretty much see it everyday hahaha.
So yup, many photos of the church on various occasions…
Anyway… it’s… lunch? Tea time! Well by the time we were done at the hotel and all, it was time for a late lunch! We ate at Dong Fang Jiao Zhi Wang’…
Dumplings.
That was fried pig intestine… and some kind of gourd. We couldn’t figure out what that veggie was. hahaha.
Chicken wrap! With century egg inside!
Right beside the dumpings store is ‘Lao Chang Chun Bing’, another famous restaurant in Harbin. We ate that the next morning ;)
Ok, so we went to check out the church after that! Nice eh? With the lights and all. Oh and it was Christmas day! Hence the inflatable santa!
Some panorama attempts.
Hard to get it right eh? ><
A closer look at the church.
Well basically we circled the church once.
Other shopping centres around the square, because I had nothing better to do.
View from the back of the church. It’s not very big. You have to pay to enter though, and we heard that the interior isn’t very nice so…
The side. Loads of bird resting there.
Enough of the church! The
high class shopping centre beside our hotel. Inside that shopping centre…
The ceiling. Yes, it’s random, I know. We went to out favourite place in the shopping centre.
You got it, the supermarket! Cute rilakkuma coffee drinks! We didn’t buy it though :P
Dried eel bones, and vacuum packed salmon. We visited a local market too, and bought tons of food back for dinner.
This bread. It’s kinda like sourdough bread, and it’s called the Da Lie Ba. Apparently derived from the Russian word khleb for “bread” - again, says wiki. Well Harbin is quite near Russia, so I’m not surprised.
It’s big. With a diameter like a soccer ball. And my hands aren’t that small too.
Our amazing Christmas dinner. Bread and drinks from the supermart/market… a smoked turkey leg from the market, Harbin red sausages… cake (the cream! Oh the cream! It was soo good! The fresh cream! You never get such good cream in sg) Eggs… all salted eggs. But there’s like… goose salted eggs and like… swallow salted eggs… or something. I never properly figured out which bird’s egg it was. But it was nice! The egg yolk was really fragrant! And the hairy crabs ha! My dad gave up hope because we didn’t come across any in Beijing. Well you can blame it on the fact that we were staying in a premium district. No local supermarkets there. But lo and behold! Here it was in Harbin!
The two small square things in the top left hand corner? Yes the one with a gold strip in the middle. That’s some snacks we got from Beijing hahaha. It’s some kinda powdery thing pressed into a block. There’s various flavours, like peanut, black sesame, almond etc.
Turkey leg!
Kinda dry… but it’s fragrant. And huge.
Hairy crab! My dad bought a travel pot just for the sake of cooking the hairy crabs hahahaha! Well we made half boiled eggs in Beijing too. By half boiled eggs… I mean eggs with the yolk still running. Like onsen tamago. It’s really nice. I don’t know why many westerners feel so disgusted by it. And no, I’ve not gotten salmonella from eating half boiled eggs before. Really.
Needless to say we had a ball of a fest that night. We just sat around eating while watching the TV.
That ends the events of Day 5! XD
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