Memoirs of Beijing

When other cities in China lose their tourists during the winter months, Harbin is quite the opposite. The allure of Harbin during winter drives tourists to visit in droves. Foreign and local tourists flock this city during winter albeit the freezing weather to enjoy the Ice and Snow Festival which opens every year on January 5.

If you plan to head up north when the Ice and Snow Festival is on, here are some things that you should be aware of:

• Train tickets to and from Harbin are sold out within the first 10 minutes when it becomes available. Particularly train tickets for the Friday night sleeper train with return on Sunday night.
• You will more or less pay the full air ticket price during weekends.
• Airport buses to the city are available at RMB 20 per person.
• It is advisable to hire a car in advance than wing it by taking public buses or taxis if you plan to go around the city. Buses to the main tourist spots are infrequent and are always full. Taxis are limited and will most likely pick up passengers along the route.

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In 2011, my dream of going to Harbin became a reality. I have been planning to go to this place for four years already but it never came to fruition. The best time to visit is during the Ice and Snow Festival which opens every year on the 5^th of January.

The original plan was to go with a group of people from the US Embassy. We will be taking the train to Harbin and take the plane back. However, as January is considered their peak season and the Chinese New Year is just around the corner, tickets to Harbin sell in a blink of an eye. With no tickets in sight, the group dwindled down to 3 people (Shaady, Donny and I). Shaady and Donny flew on Friday night, while I flew on Saturday morning. I was lucky to be able to get a train ticket back to Beijing courtesy of my colleague’s parents who are based in Harbin.

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On the last day of our holiday, we took it easy as the weather is cold and we just want to relax.   We spent the morning away in our hotel watching movies on the satellite TV.  For lunch, we went to the hotel’s Flavours restaurant for their lunch buffet.  The selection was quite plenty and they even have live, walking crabs as offerings.  The ice cream is New Zealand Natural and they have my mint choco flavor.  My only complaint is they keep giving my grill order to the other customers.  I had to go to the grill counter four times before I was able to get my order.

Tsingtao Beer Museum

After a sumptuous meal at Flavours and checking-out from the hotel, we went to the Tsingtao Beer Museum at 56 Deng Zhou Road, Shibei District.  Deng Zhou Road is Qingdao’s “Beer Street” where the International Beer Festival is held.  This festival starts in late August and will run for 14 days.  It is similar to the Oktoberfest in Munich.  Entrance fee to the museum is RMB 50 for adults.

Tsingtao Brewery is the oldest brewery in China built by Germans and opened in August 1903.  The tour walks through two buildings: the administration building where the history of the brewery is presented and the production building where the beer production process is explained.   In the middle of the production building tour, you will get a free glass of Qingdao beer straight from the production line to taste.  At the end of the tour, you can purchase some Qingdao souvenirs such as special edition beer cans, beer mugs, chocolate filled with beer and shirts.  I bought some chocolate filled beer as souvenirs and they’re shaped like miniature beer bottles placed on beer trays.  It costs RMB 30 each.

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Qingdao is a major city in Eastern Shandong province.  It’s not the provincial capital but it’s more progressive than Jinan.  Upon arrival at Qingdao Train Station around 11am, we hopped on a cab and head straight to Intercontinental Qingdao.  After we dropped our bags, we asked the concierge for a recommendation of a good place to eat seafoods.  He suggested a street with restaurants serving fresh seafoods.   When we alighted on the street, we headed to the place with a lot of people.  Unfortunately, lots of people doesn’t mean good food and service.  They served us our food after an hour and it wasn’t that great.  We vowed to ourselves to eat good food before we leave even if it’s expensive.

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From Jinan, we took a two hour train ride to the coastal city of Qingdao.  I was looking forward to this part of the trip as I miss walking in the beach, looking at the sea and eating seafood. 

Location

Intercontinental Qingdao is located in the new area of Qingdao.  It’s beside the marina where they hosted the 2008 Olympic Games’ ocean sports.  From the train station, it’s roughly RMB 30 if you get on their RMB 12 flag down cab or RMB 20 if you get on their RMB 9 flag down cab.  From the airport, it’s roughly 40 minutes or RMB 100 including the toll gate. 

In the vicinity of the hotel, there are several malls such as Olympic Plaza, Hisense Plaza, Marina Plaza.  It’s also walking distance to the May 4th Square.

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We had takeout from KFC for breakfast that morning as we don’t want to leave the comforts of our room till necessary. At 10:30am, the cab driver who took pity on us when we first arrived picked us up to take us for a day tour to Mt. Tai. We were given the option to take the slow or fast route. Slow route means more traffic lights and will use the side road. Fast route means take the expressway and pay extra for the toll fees. We opted for the fast route as we only need to pay an extra RMB 15 for the toll fee (one way) or RMB 30 (roundtrip).

Mt. Tai (泰山)

Mount Tai is one of the “Five Sacred Mountains” in China and has been a place of worship for at least 3,000 years. From Jinan, it takes roughly 1-1/2 hour travelling by car or mini-bus or 45 minutes by fast train to Tai’an train station.

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After a good sleep and an hour of lazing in the hotel doing nothing, I was raring to get out of comfort to explore the city. Since we don’t want to go around in circles, we went to the tourist spot due north of the hotel.

Daming Lake

Daming Lake is the largest natural lake in Jinan fed by the artesian karst springs which allowed the lake to have constant water year-round. This lake is split into two parts, the old and new area. Small tour boats are available in the new area for RMB 10 halfway. You can also walk around the lake if you feel like mingling with the crowd. We decided to take the boat and got dropped off near the Tower of Transcendence (Chao Ran Lou). After some photos outside the tower, we headed inside to escape the cold and see a bird’s eye view of the entire lake. Entrance ticket to the tower is RMB 40.

The Tower of Transcendence is actually a museum inside. It has 8 levels which hosts an interactive exhibition of the city parks, some excellent wood carvings, a cartoon model of old Jinan (this is the one I like the best!), some marble statues and of course the terrace where you can view the whole lake. From the top of the tower, the lake seems small and is comparable to Beihai lake in Beijing. It was a bit of a letdown as there’s nothing special to it. We decided not to spend the day walking around the place and touring each building and garden as it’s the winter season and the weather was not perfect photo weather.

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This will be the start of my series during my travel to Shandong province.  My colleague and I visited Jinan, Tai Shan and Qingdao.

Going to Jinan

If you plan to travel to Jinan, you can opt for either plane or train.  The train leaves from Beijing South station which is much better compared to Beijing Main and Beijing West Station.

The CRH train which we took will get you to Jinan in 3 hours.  Since we left on Chinese New Year, the train was half empty.   When we exited the station to get a cab, there was a long queue on the taxi stand and taxis were scarce due to the holidays.  Luckily, a cab driver took pity on us or maybe was mesmerized by my colleague’s beauty that he stopped and took us to our hotel.

I really hate renewing my visa around the time of Chinese New Year as my passport is stuck with the public security bureau for a stretch of time.  This year, I’m out of luck as they won’t release my passport until the day after the Chinese New Year holidays.  That means, I cannot travel by plane nor check-in in a hotel. 

As I was bemoaning about my predicament, my colleague took pity on me and asked if she could travel with me.  After contemplating on where to go which will only involve train travel, we decide to head to Shandong province for some sea and mountain air.

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After experiencing Chinese New Year in Beijing in 2006, I told myself that I don’t want to be stuck in the city with nothing to do and being bored.  Ever since then, I’m usually out of town and either head back home or to a different location.  This year, my friend and I will visit the elusive Harbin.  I’ve been trying to visit this place for the past 3 years and I don’t want to mess it up this year.

Harbin (哈尔滨)

Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang, which is the northernmost province of China.  It is dubbed as “Ice City” for its long and cold winter.  It is also famous for it’s winter ice sculptures which happens every year in January and February. 

In the 1920s, it is recognized as China’s fashion capital as the newest fashion passed by this city before heading towards Shanghai.  The city borders Russia and a lot of their architecture are influenced by their neighbor.

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