Went to the Beijing Railway Station an hour before departure had to queue to have our tickets and passports checked, then it was through to security another formality. This is the first time using a Chinese train so bit of a learning curve. Had to go to waiting lounge #1 and that was packed with people waiting for the Harbin train. Queued up like sheep pushing going on every direction. Once through the door we found carriage #3. Thinking this is our compartment but there is 3 adults and a baby. There is a crowd behind us wanting to board but they have to wait as I find this is our compartment bunks 1 and 2. The father was only visiting, oh the thought of a young baby in our compartment I was hoping for a good sleep. The journey was about 10 hours not a fast train. The mattresses were quite hard so not the best sleep and the baby cried a few times oh bliss.
Got out of the station and Penny’s app for where we were was not working luckily I had the address of the hotel in Chinese. Twenty minutes later after asking a few people we were directed to the hotel by a kind man. It just looked like an office building but to the left of the office lifts was another lift around the corner with the hotel name in Chinese. Had to take the lift to reception on the 24th floor. It was 08:00 and they checked us in, not a problem which was much appreciated by us both. The receptionists could not speak English but used translator and they gave us a note for the taxi driver to take us to Ice Festival and another back to the hotel. The receptionists also making coffee so Penny had a large one. Had to use another lift taking us up to the 29th floor top of the building. The room is quite spacious king size bed which Penny hopped into it, she needed a few more hours of sleep. I did the washing by hand in the sink and rinsed it in the shower I was having, convenient. After wringing it out as much as I can I use the bathroom mat and place a few items in one half of the towel, cover it up and then walk up and down the items and a lot more water comes out using this method. Have 2 large radiators and they were dried in 4 hours. I join Penny for a few hours of sleep and the mattress is memory foam as are the pillows so very comfortable, Penny is a happy lady she quoted like sleeping on a cloud.
After 14:00 we take a taxi out to the Ice Festival a 25 minute ride and cost £3 and the taxis have meters not like the Russian ones. We found the entrance bought the tickets £38 each. It was not too busy as we walked around taking everything in. The Festival organisers are still finishing off some of the sites which was unfortunate, maybe there was some delay putting it all together. Found a restaurant on the site and we had a Chinese soup with noodles beef and lots of spices and herbs in it, it was hot but we appreciated it. Just after 16:30 it was dark and all the ice sculptures were lit up in an arrange of different colours, it looked spectacular. So we walked around and through all the sculptures on show and it was getting busy. The had luge rides and inflatable rides there was a queue for both of them some of the ride lanes were work in progress unfortunately. I thought I needed to go to the toilet so I went in and there was the squat not clean. Having to peel off my selopettes, first need to take my jacket off and hoodie top then drop my trousers and thermal bottoms. Since I have had diarrhea for the past few days my risk assessment said no way. Found Penny and we got a taxi back to the hotel. Where the driver dropped us off was another shorter route to the train station so we checked it out no stairs to deal with escalators to the waiting room and it is large but full of people. Harbin has a population of 10.5 million.
I am having issues with my VPN nothing has worked for the past week what they have told me to do and I am getting pissed off, all I can get is Yahoo mail, NZ herald. BBC and FB get timed out every time and using Google Chrome is a nightmare because the Chinese block the use of it. I have asked the VPN site can I call them in the morning so we can sort this issue out. Got one full day tomorrow in Harbin going to walk around the city and explore.
Maurice's Travel 