中国的圣诞节 (Chinese Christmas)

It’s become a lot colder in Tianjin since my last blog. As I write this, it looks like a summer’s day outside. The sky is blue, there’s no wind, snow or even frost, the only difference is the temperature, sitting at a fairly average -7°C. The rivers and lakes do have a layer of ice, but life does seem to continue as normal.

This contrasts a great deal with the further north city of Harbin (哈尔滨), where I spent the last week enjoying lows of -21°C. Siberian winds bring weather so cold that you can only have your phone out for a few minutes before its insides freeze, and the battery starts to die. Unlike Tianjin, Harbin is almost completely covered in snow and ice with the main river frozen down to a metre below the surface. People bring cars, quads and even dog sleds onto the ice, offering quick novelty trips down the river to tourists and passers-by. This isn’t the only way Harbin makes use of the cold though. Shop freezers become obsolete as ice-cream is simply stored in boxes outside the shop (along with other perishables) and perhaps most significantly in tourism, sustaining an attraction that draws in international visitors from all over the world.

Although Harbin’s natural snow is too dry and powdery to be moulded into sculptures, a factory produces artificial snow ideally suited for the job which is then shipped out around the city. The result is rows and rows of perfectly formed carvings produced quickly and consistently that are capable of holding as long as the weather does. On the other side of the river sits the Ice and Snow World, an expansive winter park filled with giant hand-crafted structures paying tribute to world landmarks such as the Colosseum or Big Ben.

The park takes around 15,000 workers 16 days to complete, mainly using chainsaws, hammers and chisels to painstakingly craft each block of ice from the river and merge them into a seamless structure. Finally, millions of LEDs are set to flash and change colour within the ice to bring the park to life. At night, the display looks incredible and despite the high admission fee and freezing cold, audiences are known to flock from all over Asia just to catch a glimpse of it. The structures last around 2 months, before being dismantled and shipped back to the river before the temperature starts to rise again. It’s an incredible thing to witness first hand and you can’t truly understand cold like this until you feel it for yourself.

The city itself is fairly similar to any other in China, but it’s location and climate seem to give it a different personality with a visibly strong influence from nearby Russia. Although very much a Chinese city, it was refreshing to see things like vodka and barbecue, giving the culture a distinct identity, which is recognisable and interesting.

With our time in Harbin over, we took the sleeper train back to Tianjin, arriving on the morning of Christmas Eve. Although I’m not really a Christmassy person, it’s still really weird to be spending it this far away from home. China is officially an atheist state, so most people tend not to celebrate Christmas in any big way here. Some of the more Western shops and restaurants might put up some decorations or play Christmas music, but in most places you can’t really see anything different. On Christmas Eve, we had classes just as normal and were timetabled to have them on Christmas Day, but our teacher cancelled them at the last minute. Christmas dinner posed a slight challenge. Determined not to settle for rice or noodles, KFC and Burger King ended up as the closest we could afford to the real thing. And although it wasn’t the most traditional Yuletide meal, something out of the ordinary helped make the day stand out a little, a welcome distraction for a lot of the group missing home.

New Year’s Day seemed to pass in just about the same way. There weren’t any fireworks or crowded streets, just another day ticking over to another number. But again, we made sure to celebrate in the same way we always do, even though we’re 8 hours ahead of our family and friends back home. It’s been a really weird couple of weeks, even by China standards, but again it’s all part of the experience.

圣诞快乐，新年快乐!

Ice skating on the canal in Tianjin.

Snow carving in Harbin

The Ice and Snow World at night.

Christmas morning.

Sheldon chilling out on the canal.