Yay! Day 6!
Let’s see what we did!
Opps. Apparently the first thing I did was to take photos of the loot we got from the supermarket the day before. Hahahaha
Brunch was at Lao Chang Chun Bing. Basically you order various veggies and meat and wrap them up yourself.
so that’s the skin. And a dish of salted veggies and eggs.
And another veggie dish. There’s the sauce, onion, spring onion, cucumber and parsley to add to the wrap.
Meat slices!
We ordered soon many dishes that day. Opps. Finger got in the way :P
Ah that dish was delicious! Braised green chilli. The chilli was so silky and smooth. Yes it’s oily though. But really, it was probably like, the oiliest dish we had in the entire trip? And then again, you don’t drink that sauce/oil. The rest of the veggie dishes are not oily at all. Even in Beijing that was the case too. I mean, chilli oil doesn’t count! But really… compared to the last time I visited Beijing. We went with a tour group then, and despite the tour guide reminding the restaurant to cook the food with less oil and salt, every dish was still exceedingly salty, and dripping with oil. Every dish. Now? Not at all! It was perfectly normal. Eating habits sure have changed a lot! That’s all the photos of that meal, because things got messy afterwards since you have to wrap the thing yourself, and the skin is kinda oily (else the stuff would all stick together). Plus there’s loads of water dripping from the veggies and all… AND greedy me always end up with a huge wrap, and my parents will be like ‘how the hell can she still wrap that up?’ But I always manage to get it wrapped up pretty nicely, w/o breaking the wrap. *shrugs* I like my food.
We visited a local supermarket after that. Crowded with loads of locals. Loads of red sausages there as well.
And milk. It comes in all sorts of cartoons. I regret not taking a picture of a WHOLE TABLE full of minion packaging milk. Stacked high up like the above spongebob squarepants milk packets. There’s loads of different flavours too. Banana, strawberry, chocolate etc… They have loads of yoghurt drinks too. Me and my sis got a pack of 6 chocolate milk for breakfast.
We walked to the central street aka Zhongyang street next! An ice wall. At night it’ll be lighted up… and the food stalls inside will open. Currently only a few were open.
Ice is like… their favourite building material.
Bing Tang Hu Lu. Oh wow. That snack has it’s own wiki page. 
We bought one and shared. And sat on the ice furniture as we snacked. It was delicious. My prior memories of eating that thing was when we went to Beijing last time. And it tasted awful. Very sour, and the rock sugar coating was melting and making a big mess. It was winter then too, but not as cold as Harbin! This time round however, the hawthorn was actually sweet. It’s… very fresh. The fruity flavour just fills your mouth.
A deco infant of that food place… with some random guy sitting inside.
There’s a TON of ice sculptures along the Zhongyang street. No it’s not glass or plastic, but ice! There’s loads of tourist along the Zhongyang street… and it’s funny listening to their convos. Some just don’t believe it’s made of ice. Then there’s the mums who would tell their kids, ‘Don’t touch the ice!!!’. Kids touch it and report back, ‘Mum! It’s not wet at all!’.
Yes. It’s not wet at all. Just a slight bit of watery feeling below your hands, probably because of the heat from your hands… but if you use your gloves to touch it, your gloves don’t get wet. And to be fair, there’s no water left on my hands either when I touch it with my bear hands. Just that strange, watery feeling. No, it’s not sticky at all. Because it’s just cold enough there. Amazing. And for those of you from temperature countries, I’m sorry but you’re probably gonna hear more of this later on too. That’s the kind of amazement you feel when you’ve lived in the equator all your life.
I really like Zhongyang street. That’s one of the buildings on that street. Loads of old western/Russian buildings there.
Really, you wouldn’t think that you’re in China, if you just… you know, ignore all the Chinese words.
The street has a… romantic, tranquil feel to it. And when the sun sets, the yellow street lamps turn on, and music (heard the swan lake a couple of times) plays… it has a very pleasing atmosphere.
Another ice sculpture. Ice sculptures are like, everywhere.
The signpost showing ‘Zhongyang street’.
We wanted to stay in this hotel initially, but apparently the reviews were bad.
More ice sculptures.
We made our way to the end of Zhongyang street, towards the Songhua river
Ice sculptures lined the street, with one sculpture every few meters. They are nicer when lit up at night… but we didn’t know that…
A pretty café along the street.
Kids playing with the ice. They were sweeping the ice down onto the floor, and it sounded like glass clattering to the ground. That kind of sound… I think you’ll only hear it with glass in Sg.
Another sign post.
More ice sculptures. This one is of a cat playing with a ball in a room… there’s a potted cactus and curtains.
More beautiful buildings.
A random duck deco.
An underpass. With loads of shopping areas below too!
That’s in the underpass.
As with this. Ginger coke. Hot.
The underground shopping area beside the underpass.
The sign says ‘Alice’s wishing well’.
Can you see that clearly? It’s a cute toilet sign!
The beer we bought from the supermarket the day before.
This is right at the end of the Zhongyang street.
The flood control monument.
And from another angle. This place is right in front of songhua river.
We were kinda still too early in the year when we went. They were still fashioning the snow sculptures.
Construction in progress!
A photo from the back of the flood control monument.
I think that semicircle thing is pretty…
And another photo.
When I have any photos on the same place, it’s generally because my mum/dad are taking loads of pics and we’re staying in the same spot…
The ice park by and on the songhua river.
Stairs down… Everything below is on the songhua river, that’s completely frozen over. There’s bobsleding to the left and…. sliding on those inflatable lifesavers to the right.
Another look from the top of the stairs.
Snow and sand, to make the ground less slippery to walk on.
Bobsled tracks.
How do they stop the bobsled at the end of the tracks? Dump loads of sand.
Ice. And slippery!
The riders all take off at the sound of the whistle. And somehow I never caught the right timing. Hahahaha.
More ice sculptures.
Cycling on ice anyone?
Sun setting in the distance.
We made our way back after that, didn’t try any ice activities. My parents were still scared about my ankle which I brought the year before. My sis didn’t say it to my parents though… but her knee which she dislocated several years ago dislocated twice while walking on these ice/snow. Once she grabbed me really tight and I was wondering if she was alright…. very slippery here, esp when there were stretches of pure ice. 
A panorama shot. You can see the flood control monument on the left.
Another attempt. No luck getting the whole monument in the shot :P
Walking back on the Zhongyang street.
We entered one of the souvenir shops. Mum got a Russian doll here.
Rabbit tea café? Hahaha snapped a shot cos it was so cute.
Inside the department store. Do you recognise that? It’s One Piece!
Cool eh? Loads of sheep in all the shop, because the coming year is the Year of the Sheep. 19th of Feb, that’s when the new Lunar year will start.
There was an Astroboy shop too.
Even the food court had a cute sign. It’s a movement to get people to clean up their plates, and not waste food.
We went for dinner after that. Dinner was to be Russian food, so we walked around looking for a restaurant.
Yes, it’s a big block of ice, with a hole dug in for candles. But anyway, mum went in, took a look at the menu, and decided not to eat there cos they didn’t serve some of the dishes she wanted to try.
A restaurant we passed by with nice deco.
More photos of Zhongyang street, with the dreamy lights. Oh yes, that place is hellye crowded though.
That same icy place we passed by in the morning, now with lights.
We ate at the apparently very famous (and expensive) Portman restaurant.
See they got certificates! Well the top is for being a Green restaurant (as in eco friendly), and the bottom is for the good quality cuisine.
Inside the restaurant. It’s very classy indeed. And very pricy too.
We ordered a three person set meal, though there are four of us… cos you know, it’s cheaper, but we don’t really eat that much. Pumpkin soup.
Sasauges/cold cuts. Ok. I suck at names.
And bread.
I love the way the butter is curled up XD
Steak….
Foie gras. Now this was really nice. The oil was evenly spread out within the piece of liver, and it just melts in your mouth. This wasn’t part of the set meal though, we had to order it separately. (yeah, 1 set, shared between 4)
Breaded chicken. I think the Japanese does it better though…?
Oh this was yummy! Lamb stew! Or whatever it’s supposed to be called. It’s a sweet stew though… well sweet and a little sour? Because of the tomatoes and onion I guess. This was good though, loved the lamb taste. Though dad prefers it made savoury though.
Mashed potato with… ham/bacon bits? It was tasty, but not unique.
Now this is unique though, at least I’ve never seen fish done this way before. It’s fish fillet coated with eggs and fried. Think French toast, but replace the toast with fish.
They served a strange homemade wine too, that was pretty sweet and we didn’t like it. Dad kept complaining that for the price they could have at least served a proper wine. Oh and there was some sort of strange pickles. Just a whole plate full of pickles. We didn’t finish that. Too sour for me. One or two is fine, but one whole plate was just too much.
This was the most expensive meal we had in China, and sad to say it was probably the worst too. We could have eaten like… four meals in other places at the same price. It was… normal. I have no idea how authentic Russian food is supposed to be like… but this meal we had… out of all the dishes the only one I liked besides the foie gras (that wasn’t part of the set), was the lamb. The rest were… normal. Steak was decent, but we can get that same steak, with that same taste everywhere in sg. Fish was interesting, but at the end of the day it was still fish, coated in eggs. And it was either ketchup or chilli sauce on top. And I thought authentic restaurants don’t use ketchup/chilli sauce. Potato salad was nice, but nothing special. It’s like a taste you can get else where, and at a much cheaper price…. Meh. That was just a sad meal ><
So that restaurant was just off zhongyang street. We took a walk in zhongyang street again after our meal. And that shop! The Ma di er ice cream! If you remember my post about the last day in Beijing! We ate that same ice cream there! In Beijing they had some fanciful flavours though (but we only tried the original), but here there was the one and only good ol' original.
It was CROWDED.
The ice cream. Just like that. No wrapping whatsoever. They just have one big plastic, transparent box, like those you may use to store your clothes etc, full of ice cream sticks, separated only by thin paper. Yes, just like that. The benefits of the cold weather. We saw people with a plastic bag full of ice cream sticks and just swinging the bag around as they strolled. Lol. In sg, the ice cream would still melt by the time I reach home from the mall, even if I put it in a cooler bag with blue ice. The difference!
We discussed the difference between the ice cream in Harbin and the one we ate in Beijing.
Sis: This one tastes more milky, the milk taste is stronger.
Dad: This one is more chewy too.
Us: *rolls eyes* That’s cos of the weather!!!
Lol!
Another restaurant along Zhongyang street.
Somehow… we saw loads of KFCs on this trip, but this was the first McDs we saw.
There were a number of hot ginger cola stands around.
Lighted ice sculptures!
Butterfly.
We went inside the shopping centre for a while… there was this pretty water feature in between the escalators!
There were loads of people at the entrance of the mall, taking shelter from the cold. Some even blatantly sitting on those chairs they put out for customers of those jewellery counters. It was interesting to see the salesgirl hurry around to tear down all the little ‘Christmas special’ flags lining the top of the stalls. It’s the 26th of December! Only! In sg all those stuff stays on longer than a day after Christmas! Much much longer. And the go up long before Christmas too. We do depends a lot on tourism after all.
You might have seen it in the earlier photos too. That white block there….
Well, it’s graffiti wall. Made of snow!
We didn’t have any pen/marker on us though.
It looks nice right? The lighting and all.
More icy sculptures.
We saw on the news that there were ice bars on Zhongyang street when we came back to sg. Like, a bar just out in one of the side streets, with the entire counter made of their favourite building block - ice. It wasn’t there when we went though :( We were too early, the winter festivals had not officially started yet.
Ah, they have this shop in Harbin too.
Two characters holding Bing Tang Hu Lu.
The end of the Zhongyang street!
Coca cola having promotions… with a huge polar bear made of snow.
Gosh. Just how long did I wait in order to capture this one shot, without anyone in the picture?
If you see something like the above in Sg, it’s made of styrofoam. In Harbin, it’s made of snow. The difference!
Ah, that same wall. Now lit up.
Say did you notice? The decoration is made of pot scrubbers!
Drinks we bought at the market earlier in the day. And that brings us to the end of Day 6!
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