Hello everybody. This is the new Student Staff, Y.G, the international student from China. The fall semester has passed for several weeks, how is your new campus life? As for me, I am always looking forward to the holiday during the term time and make a traveling plan beforehand. So have you already decided your plan during the winter break?
Recalling back my winter holiday last year, I went to Snow Town and Snow Valley in Heilongjiang Province in China with my family, and also went to Harbin, for celebrating the New Year.
We went to Harbin at the beginning and visited the Bingxue Big world. Even though the entrance ticket is quite expensive and local people will not go there because of this price, I still think it worth to have a look as a tourist. Also, the architectures here were built by ice and decorated with colorful lights, just like Elsa’s castle in the Frozen.
We also tasted the street foods, Russian Sausage. It is so great to take a warm and delicious when you are walking on the street during the winter. Because Heilongjiang shares a border with Russia, there are many Russian style souvenir shops and Russian food on the streets.
The second destination is Snow Town. It is also one of the famous tourist sites in China during the winter. A specific area in Snow Town is protected, so you can see the houses in there wear a pretty thick “Snow hat”, which is really amazing. However, it is super cold there, maybe around -25 degree. Everyone wears pretty thick jackets, snow boot, glove, mask, hat, and scarf. You would feel your face be frozen if you take off mask and hat outside.
Then we hiked across from Snow Town to Snow Valley, a challenging 15-km walking on the snow, also get the snow view of the Yangcao Mountain. The snow is thick so it is really hard to walk on it. You will drop in the snow sea by accident if you go the wrong way.
The snow valley is smaller than snow town, but you can feel more about the local life here. Because it was around New Year when I went to snow valley, there are bright red lanterns in front of each house, which let you feel really festive, and tell you the New Year is coming soon.
The next destination is Wusong Island. We passed a white birch forest on our way to Wusong Island, which is my favorite. The forest is so beautiful and peaceful, which makes you forget all the annoying stuff. Also, I really recommend a Chinese song, Birch Forest by Pu Shu, the song I replayed all the time during the journey.
We finally arrived in Wusong Island. Wusong Island is famous for the ice-rimmed tree, which only happens during December to February. The mist from the Songhua River frozen in the bare tree branches and formed a crystal-like ice hanging on the branches. However, it is up to the weather. The weather was not good when I went there, so I didn’t see such an amazing view. The Wusong Island is super cold! I couldn’t feel my hands and foot after I stayed outside for 20 minutes. So I have to go to the rest lounge to heat myself. It is the coldest place during this journey. Without this temperature, there would not be this kind of view of the ice-rimmed tree here.
That’s all of this journey! We got lots of fun with snow, snow view, local food and so on. Speaking of food, the volume of local food is super big, and always served in a big iron pot. Even though it might look so-so (my poor photography skill), it is actually delicious! And finally, we finished this pot of stewed chicken by five people.
I live in the middle part of China, the local life, view, and food in northeast part is quite different from where I live. I really enjoyed experiencing these differences, and also I really recommend you to have a look.
Y.G (Student Staff)