DAY 11 - TIANJIN
Bright and early we got up and took the train to Tianjin, after picking up laundry and our flight tickets to Harbin. On arrival, we got a taxi to the hostel I had written down, with a driver who had the worst retroflex I have ever heard in my life (the retroflex is where they pronounce a word as if it ends in 'r' instead of whatever it should end in, or sometimes they drop the second syllable of a two syllable word and just pronounce the first syllable, but ending in an 'r.' Completely incomprehensible. Hate it). Neither of us had any idea what he was saying most of the time. He kept suggesting we go to places other than where we wanted to go, we think, but I told him I had a reservation at the hostel (a lie), and that shut him up.
We checked in and went pretty much straight back out, to explore the main delights of Tianjin, starting with the Old Cultural Street. It's essentially a tourist trap of shops trying to look like old China. We had candy floss, and went to a jade shop. I wanted a jade rabbit on a red string (2011-2012 is the year of the rabbit, and as I'm a rabbit, that will be an unlucky year for me. So if you wear something red at all times, you're safe. And why not have something tacky like a jade rabbit on it? (And by the way, jade I always expected to be expensive, but it's really not.), and they had a really nice one here. The lady kept going on about how we were friends, and then told me 300 kuai for the rabbit. My haggling skills clearly need some work, I offered 200 (still slightly more than I'd like to pay, but I didn't want to start too low), and pulled a face, then whispered '220, we're friends.' Then immediately shook her head and whispered '200, we're friends.' Should have started at 150, the price I was hoping for. She kept on about us being friends, and told us to come back and see her - we're friends after all. After some more wandering and tour group dodging, we decided to head to 南市食品街, the food street.
Which is not so much a food street as more of a mall that's made only of food places. We went into one little place and tried the recommended local delicacies - 狗不理包子. The guidebook translates that as the son of a restauranteur baozi (steamed bun type things, there's no decent translation), but I don't buy it, as the Chinese character for character means dog not pay attention baozi. But anyway. They were not unlike regular baozi to be honest. In fact, I have no idea what makes them special.
Having eaten our fill and seen the bits of Tianjin we wanted to see (we also saw the Bell Tower on our walk, but if I'm honest, all bell towers look the same, and I no longer care if I see the, I've probably seen about 20 now). We decided to go and sample some slightly less local delicacies at 星巴克. By this point, we were absolutely knackered, so went home to go to bed. At 8pm. Life on the edge. But when we turned off the light in the hostel room, we had the opposite problem to in Shijiazhuang - it was bright enough to read.
DAY 12 - TIANJIN => HARBIN
At ridiculous o'clock (about 4), we got up, got ready and checked out to get a taxi to the airport for our 7am flight. Not much fun. There were other white people on the plane, which was WEIRD, but what disconcerted me more was that the airline was called OK Air! Wonderful. Just sounds like the plane is going to drop out of the sky, doesn't it?
Having landed in one piece, we got the shuttle bus to the train station, where we were greeted in the standard Chinese way: shouts of "Hello! Taxi!" (although taxi is more often pronounced like taxes, which I don't want, or tackus, which just sounds funny.) Difference is, this was entirely in Russian. Harbin is in Heilongjiang province, on the border with Russia in the far north east of the country, and there's a large Russian population there. I refuse to get in taxis where the driver runs up and starts hitting my arm and shouting at me, trying to rip me off, (and regularly whistling and making other dog-calling noises - I realise I'm white, so look different, but I am in fact still a human) so we walked around the corner and got in the taxi of a guy who was just sitting quietly in his car. At the hostel, we dumped our bags and went straight out.
We started with buying our tickets to Changchun, then tried to get a bus to Central Avenue. Not as easy at it sounds. At the bus stops were people telling you which bus to get, as the signs were apparently all wrong. After a small road crossing hiccup (we managed to end up further from where we wanted to be), we were offered assistance by a young Chinese girl. She took us on the bus which stoped a short distance away and walked us to the street.
We were very grateful, then she went on our merry way and decided to check the book to see if there was anywhere good to eat there. At which point the girl came back and led us to the restaurant we had chosen, although we knew that it was around 20 yards away. We went in, and there was some confusion over how many were in our party - was she with us? Grateful though we were, we hoped not. We sat down, the two of us, and ordered. While we were perusing the menu, she pointed out chips, which I assumed meant "you're white, you eat these." Then she went and sat by the door, moving between there and right behind our table for quite some time. The Russian food was nice, although I was quite confused to be told they had no hot water, so we couldn't have the tea we ordered.
When we finished eating we sat for a while, as most of the things we wanted to do were better after dark. We also didn't know what to do about the girl. But after around 20 minutes of us sitting doing nothing, she just left. We walked the streets for a while, then went to look at the river, to se if there was anything interesting there. There was.
First, a 10 kuai ice slide which was really rather good fun. From the bottom, which was the river, we saw small seat trpe contraptions which you used two big sticks to propel on the ice. The guys renting them out were incapable of speech, which got a sarcastic comment from me and an angry shout from Nikki. Eventually, we worked out that they wanted 50 kuai as a deposit, and went for a whirl. After a few minutes though, we were well and truly frozen. Cue ten minutes of trying to get back to the 'desk,' as it was up a very slight slope. Nikki even crashed into a stall in the process, which amused me a lot. On our return, we tried to get our 30 kuai each back. He gave us ten. Together. So we shouted at him, and we got ten each. I asked if it was 20 for Chinese people and 40 for foreigners. He laughed, and then told the Chinese people nearby that it was indeed 20 for Chinese people, 40 for foreigners. So Nikki shouted a lot. Then grabbed our money, which he accepted. Nikki then promptly slipped and fell on the ice, and couldn't get up.
We walked along the river a little and came to another slide, which we decided to try. It was 30 kuai, but instead of 1 go, you got 30 minutes of goes. And it was way more fun than the first one. It was on a <strike>tyre</strike> <strike>dingy</strike> round-thing, and the horrible horrible man kicked us down the slope, so we love him. Toward the end, the evil balacavaed (is that a word?) man starting spinning us too, which was terrifying for the first few seconds, but immense fun.
After that, we were quite cold so walked towards the cable car across the river, stopping to buy a warm drink (of Sprite...only in China) on the way. We could have walked over the river, and as we both hate cable cars, it would have been a much better idea. But we're not very wise. It was at this point I realised I had forgotten my Student Card, so I paid double what Nikki did.
In the cab;e car, after much fearful giggling and kchchkchkkchchhhkchh which was smoother than normal, some random Chinese people in one going t'other way waved, so we waved back. Then waved at the solitary passenger in the next one. From the cable car, we saw something that looked rather fun - driving on the solid ice. They had a load of cars and a race track for you to drive round.
Eventually we landed, and went to go and see the snow sculpture competition, where again I was thrilled to be privileged to pay double what Nikki paid. The sculptures were stupidly good, and in 30 minutes we'd seen practucakky akk if them, so we got the free bus to the thing we wanted to see most - the world famous ice festival. Which was so good I could just wee. But after having seen just over half the sculptures, the -30 was getting to me, so we went for a 20 kuai instant hot chocolate. Which helped, but didn't fully thaw me. But still, we managed to see the rest of the sculptures, and Nikki bought some tat. Then we began the walk to the city centre, as the Cathedral of St Sophia was at the end of the road, but as we've noticed on rather a few occasions, the guidebook is wrong. At the end of the huge bridge, we got a taxi (they weren't allowed to stop on the bridge you see), but the driver didn't know where he was going. We got there in the end though, only for Nikki's last batteries to die. Cut to a length (10 minute) search for bateries. Photos taken and some oohing and aahing at the pretty church done, we had dinner and went home to bed.
But the taxi driver didn't take us to where we wanted to be (Xuefu lu 4 dao, for those in the know), but rather, dropped us at Heilongjiang Daxue, about a 15 minute walk away. But it wasn't so bad, as we'd thawed over dinner and in the taxi.
We started with buying our tickets to Changchun, then tried to get a bus to Central Avenue. Not as easy at it sounds. At the bus stops were people telling you which bus to get, as the signs were apparently all wrong. After a small road crossing hiccup (we managed to end up further from where we wanted to be), we were offered assistance by a young Chinese girl. She took us on the bus which stoped a short distance away and walked us to the street.
We were very grateful, then she went on our merry way and decided to check the book to see if there was anywhere good to eat there. At which point the girl came back and led us to the restaurant we had chosen, although we knew that it was around 20 yards away. We went in, and there was some confusion over how many were in our party - was she with us? Grateful though we were, we hoped not. We sat down, the two of us, and ordered. While we were perusing the menu, she pointed out chips, which I assumed meant "you're white, you eat these." Then she went and sat by the door, moving between there and right behind our table for quite some time. The Russian food was nice, although I was quite confused to be told they had no hot water, so we couldn't have the tea we ordered.
When we finished eating we sat for a while, as most of the things we wanted to do were better after dark. We also didn't know what to do about the girl. But after around 20 minutes of us sitting doing nothing, she just left. We walked the streets for a while, then went to look at the river, to se if there was anything interesting there. There was.
First, a 10 kuai ice slide which was really rather good fun. From the bottom, which was the river, we saw small seat trpe contraptions which you used two big sticks to propel on the ice. The guys renting them out were incapable of speech, which got a sarcastic comment from me and an angry shout from Nikki. Eventually, we worked out that they wanted 50 kuai as a deposit, and went for a whirl. After a few minutes though, we were well and truly frozen. Cue ten minutes of trying to get back to the 'desk,' as it was up a very slight slope. Nikki even crashed into a stall in the process, which amused me a lot. On our return, we tried to get our 30 kuai each back. He gave us ten. Together. So we shouted at him, and we got ten each. I asked if it was 20 for Chinese people and 40 for foreigners. He laughed, and then told the Chinese people nearby that it was indeed 20 for Chinese people, 40 for foreigners. So Nikki shouted a lot. Then grabbed our money, which he accepted. Nikki then promptly slipped and fell on the ice, and couldn't get up.
We walked along the river a little and came to another slide, which we decided to try. It was 30 kuai, but instead of 1 go, you got 30 minutes of goes. And it was way more fun than the first one. It was on a <strike>tyre</strike> <strike>dingy</strike> round-thing, and the horrible horrible man kicked us down the slope, so we love him. Toward the end, the evil balacavaed (is that a word?) man starting spinning us too, which was terrifying for the first few seconds, but immense fun.
After that, we were quite cold so walked towards the cable car across the river, stopping to buy a warm drink (of Sprite...only in China) on the way. We could have walked over the river, and as we both hate cable cars, it would have been a much better idea. But we're not very wise. It was at this point I realised I had forgotten my Student Card, so I paid double what Nikki did.
In the cab;e car, after much fearful giggling and kchchkchkkchchhhkchh which was smoother than normal, some random Chinese people in one going t'other way waved, so we waved back. Then waved at the solitary passenger in the next one. From the cable car, we saw something that looked rather fun - driving on the solid ice. They had a load of cars and a race track for you to drive round.
Eventually we landed, and went to go and see the snow sculpture competition, where again I was thrilled to be privileged to pay double what Nikki paid. The sculptures were stupidly good, and in 30 minutes we'd seen practucakky akk if them, so we got the free bus to the thing we wanted to see most - the world famous ice festival. Which was so good I could just wee. But after having seen just over half the sculptures, the -30 was getting to me, so we went for a 20 kuai instant hot chocolate. Which helped, but didn't fully thaw me. But still, we managed to see the rest of the sculptures, and Nikki bought some tat. Then we began the walk to the city centre, as the Cathedral of St Sophia was at the end of the road, but as we've noticed on rather a few occasions, the guidebook is wrong. At the end of the huge bridge, we got a taxi (they weren't allowed to stop on the bridge you see), but the driver didn't know where he was going. We got there in the end though, only for Nikki's last batteries to die. Cut to a length (10 minute) search for bateries. Photos taken and some oohing and aahing at the pretty church done, we had dinner and went home to bed.
But the taxi driver didn't take us to where we wanted to be (Xuefu lu 4 dao, for those in the know), but rather, dropped us at Heilongjiang Daxue, about a 15 minute walk away. But it wasn't so bad, as we'd thawed over dinner and in the taxi.
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