History often repeats itself. I was once again looking for a place to celebrate Chinese New Year. Last year it was Railay Beach in Thailand. This year, I decided on a place that’s the polar opposite: the ice, cold winter plains of Harbin.
I made contact with an old friend from the US. His name is Pete, and we grew up together when we were in high school. His family was originally from Fujian, and they immigrated to the US long ago. His sister is a year older than me, and he two years younger than I. During summers, we’d often play video games, hang out at the local park, or go bowling. But this was a lifetime ago. Both of us have completely changed in taste, perspectives, and life decisions. One thing we have both in common now is that we are both working in China. Except he is married to a nice girl in Harbin. Thus, I decided to go visit him and see how he’s doing.
At the time, I was only aware of three things:
1) Frigid, negative degrees weather, made worse by freezing wind.
2) Delicious wheat-based foods such as hand made noodles, dumplings, Baozi, and hearty barbecues.
3) White spirit guzzling North Eastern guys who then get into fistfights.
In China, white spirit is a high percentage alcohol drink that is known to warm the body and soothe the mind. In Chinese, it is pronounced “Bai Jiu”. This literally translates to “White wine/spirit”.
I also know that in some shoddy bar, somewhere in an uncharted alley corner, will probably serve the best Bai Jiu and barbecue in Harbin, and after feasting there, some drunk guy is going try to start a brawl. So in an attempt to prepare myself, I enrolled in a boxing gym and trained two hours twice a week with a professional coach. In order to prepare my body for the 46% alcohol contents of the standard “Dong Bei Bai Jiu”, I take sips whenever I was thirst during training. Now I understand why in Chinese TV shows, those fighters always have some kind of “drunken style” with their fighting techniques. It’s so cold, that when they get thirsty from their training, they just drink Bai Jiu to warm themselves up!
My training culminated to being able to do twenty minutes of jump rope, the standard Calisthenics, three ten minute rounds of mitts, heavy bag, then ten minutes of abs. I felt ready. No one is going to mess with me in Dong Bei!
Know how to fight? check.
Know how to drink Bai jiu? check.
Know how to withstand the cold? Uh oh.
I had an awesome Adidas sports thermal tights used in winter sports, which I got on sale in Japan. I decided I would then wear jeans and wool socks layered on top.
For the upper body, I’d wear a thermal shirt, then a Superdry wool sweater, and a Superdry jacket that was battle tested in Niagara Falls a few years ago.
In cold weather, protecting your head is imperative because that’s where most of your body heat dissipate from. So I packed a wool thermal cap. The funny thing with this wool cap is that it as big ball of fur on top of it, with two more balls of fur dangling on each side. It was a bit too…cute. I contemplated whether I should wear it. I bought it in Japan and at the time, it never said it was for male or female. As my friends made it a point to laugh at me whenever I wore it, it occurred to me that the wool cap was made for women. Oh well.
Finally, I topped out my winter armor with a nice wool scarf.
Winter Wonderland
The flight from Shenzhen to Harbin was about four and a half hours. The flight was long and boring. I think my comfort limit on a plane is about three hours. Anything longer than that and I’d start fidgeting. Most Chinese people tell me that China on the world map looks like a huge chicken. And funnily, Harbin is the eye of the chicken.
We finally landed. I really enjoy the coldness of China’s northeast. I feels refreshing and crisp.
In the airport terminal, I immediately put on my winter clothes. Pete was waiting for me at the exit and we took a bus to Harbin’s city center. It was a forty-five minute bus ride to city center. Pete and I chatted about our lives. It was so unique because we both grew up in the same street. Went different paths and now are both in China. We checked into our rooms and decided to get Indian food for dinner that night. Because it was so frigid and cold, every room has a heater. I loved the dryness of China’s Northeast, and quite surprisingly I didn’t mind the cold.
We woke up the next day and set out to see Harbin’s Winterland. Luckily for us, our hotel was located close to it. We set out on foot and took a cable car into the park that encompasses the Winter Wonderland. When we got there, we got tickets and went into the park. We walked around and soon came upon a lot of ice sculptures. It was simply beautiful. We saw sculptures that depicted different culture, religions, and stories. There were also snow activities to do such as sledding. Basically you get on top of a tube and they kick you down a slope. It sounds simple but it very fun. Pete and I must of went down that slope a million times.
We then tried one of those small mechanized toy cars that would buzz along the snow ground at one meter per minute. We were limited to twenty minutes. So we got on, drove it about ten meters, which took ten minutes. Kids, moms, and grandmothers walked past us. We then turned around and drove it ten meters back. Then we sulked off. We also saw a man made snow track. Basically it’s a four hundred meter elongated circular path that let people skate around. Kind of like what you see sprinters run on, but in our case, it’s for ice skating. You can see kids and adults go round and round.
We then came back to city center and decided to get some food. We walked the malls, the stores, and ate some more. It was a pretty fun and relaxing day.
The next day we visited an indoor skiing place at the Wanda Mall.
Wanda is one of China’s richest men and he opened a whole bunch of malls all around the country. This particular Wanda mall has a nice indoor snowboard and skiing rink. We rented equipment, took a lift to the top, and skied a pretty steep downward slope. We did this for about three hours. It was fun, but the learning curve was steep. After we were done, we went to get some lunch. We had some local dishes such as 杀猪菜 (Pork Stew), which is basically pig blood sausage, and fermented cabbage in a pig bone broth. The soup was hearty and warms the body. It was perfect for winter. After a morning of skiing and a warming lunch, we headed back to city center.
When we got back to our hotel, we decided to try a specialty sausage that is popular among the locals. It is cured and smoked, as they were made in Poland or Lithuania. The sausage was commonly called “Li Dao Si” sausage, some called it “Kazakh red sausage”. It was first manufactured in March 1909 by Lithuanian staff in a Russian-capitalized factory named Churin Sausage Factory, located in Harbin’s Daoli District. It has a more European flavor to it and is hearty in nature. They also roast it fresh there if you want to have a snack.
I want to take time to explain some Chinese personality generalizations.
People up in the northeast are much more outgoing and if you seem to be lost, they’ll walk to your destination. If two people get into an argument, their temper would go from zero to “war” in two seconds flat. A fight would ensue and the issue would get resolved when someone falls. This is actually very efficient as problems would get solved within minutes.
In the South, people tend to be a bit introverted. If two people starts a yelling match, they’ll continue that shouting match until they are face to face. Then they’ll shout some more until dusk. This takes too long and it really burdensome to the ears. Northerners rather just get it over with using fists. Simple. Efficient. And to the point.
In China, they say Northerns are more 大方, or generous. When they invite you to a meal, they tend to buy the best, drink more alcohol, talk loudly, and laugh heartily. They joke often, and display their feelings openly. If they get made fun of, they will laugh with you, and then make fun of you three times worse.
In the South, people are more 小气, or stingy. Money spent is meticulously calculated. A person’s character is carefully guarded. And if they are offended, they will sulk, and display passive aggressive behavior.
Siberian Tigers
The next day, I decided to head down to the Siberian Tiger zoo. Peter was too sore from snow ski-ing so I went myself. I took the bus there and found the zoo. I bought some tickets, which comes in three parts. The ticket first lets you watch a circus type of show. It showcased guys on motorcycles and they rode dangerously close while being caged in a steel ball. The motorbikes has their own color style and lighting. It was very cool. After that they had a trainer come out with ten tigers and made them do tricks. The tigers were really obedient and performed very well.
I then left the compound and came upon the entrance of the zoo. Buses picked up loads of people and drove inside. The place is basically a big park for tigers, sectioned off to keep tigers in check. Our bus went through different gates. We drove past various tigers bathing in the sun. Soon our bus cam to stop in a clearing. We saw a pickup truck come and the driver threw some live chickens out the window and then zoomed away. Before we knew it, several tigers swooped in and devoured the chicken. One of them wasn’t hungry and decided to just crush the chicken with its teeth and walk around with it hanging dead from its mouth.
Then the pickup truck came again and dropped a bunch of turkeys. More tigers swooped in and grabbed the turkeys. One of them was quick and agile and managed to escape. It started running and one of the tigers chased it. Surprisingly, the turkey headed our way and took flight. But being a turkey, it can’t fly. It just kind of glide through the air. It was gliding our way and our bus is pretty tall， at around twelve feet in height. Everyone on the bus was rooting for the turkey to escape, but our bus blocked the turkey’s flight path. The turkey tried and tried and couldn’t get any more lift time. It crashed into our window and fell to the ground. The tiger dived and then bit the turkey. Several tigers also swooped in and there was a fight. One of the tigers won and took the writhing turkey away. The nature of the wild unfolded tragically for the turkey, but it demonstrated how different species work together to create an ecosphere.
The Dinner
On New Years Eve, we checked out of our hotel and had breakfast. It was a hearty Dong Bei breakfast with chilled meat, Chinese Nan bread (Da Bring), and raw onions. We had it at MaoMao’s, which is a restaurant close to our hotel. We then took a bus and rode forty five minutes to a town called “Ah Cheng”. It is a sizable town with the basic supermarkets, malls, and apartments. Pete’s wife and her family originated from there. When we arrived, we went to Pete’s apartment and put our stuff down. I met his wife, and mother in law, both very nice ladies. The family owns many medical supply stores and local pharmacies. Since there were going to be twenty of us, they decided to cook (and eat) New Year’s dinner in one of the stores due to space availability. So we took a taxi there and I was introduced to the rest of the family.
We soon had dinner and was enjoying all sorts of delicious dishes. There were boiled shrimps with vinegar sauce. Salt and pepper beef. Fried ribbon fish. Braised Carp. Soy sauce braised pork spare ribs. Pig knuckles. And a very scary looking silkworm. Yes you read correctly. Silkworm.
They are shaped like an egg, and brown in color. The outer shell is multi layered to look like scary insect armor. It literally looks like something that popped out of your scariest horror movie. Just looking at them, you get a feeling like a small brain sucking alien will pop out of it any minute. Peter’s in-laws stir fried those little suckers with a little bit of oil and salt. To be honest, eating them is a whole new experience. If I had to break it down in the simplest way possible for you, I’d say the inside is like steamed scrambled eggs. Its yellow in color, has consistency of scrambled eggs, and is rather tasteless. That is the reason why they use salt, to give it more flavor. It tastes rather normal, and not as scary as it looks.
After dinner, we did the usual Chinese New Years activity such as using Wechat to post pictures of dinner, receive and give red packs, and watch the Chinese New Years show on CCTV. This goes on to about ten o’clock. Families usually would then play MahJeong, which is a Chinese gambling game. You’d bet a few coins here and there for fun. Finally, when close to midnight, it is tradition that everyone have dumplings. Inside some of the dumplings, they would hide a coin in there. This is usually kinda fun for the kids because they get a kick out of getting additional money.
After that, people would retire back to their bedrooms for slumber.
The next day, Peter and I just relaxed in his apartment. We walked around his neighborhood and bought some gifts for me to take home. That night, his mother took us to the best restaurant in town. I had the most authentic northeast foods. Every dish was delicious, and hand made. Finally, I said my goodbyes to Pete and took a bus from Harbin City center back to the airport. The flight back to Shenzhen was very good. I landed around eight or nine. Then took a taxi home.
All in all, I think it was the most traditional Chinese New years I ever had. The cold weather, the hearty food, the joyous people, and the atmosphere of the North really brought China’s traditional New Years festive feelings. In my opinion, there is only one way to enjoy Chinese New Years, and that is up in cold winters of China’s Dong Bei.