[Heilongjiang] — Harbin Ice and Snow World, Saint Sophia Cathedral, Central Street, Snow Town, Mohe, Siberian Tiger Park

In early 2018 and early 2020, I visited Heilongjiang twice. The first time I went with friends to Harbin Ice and Snow World and Snow Town, and the second time I went to Harbin alone to see Saint Sophia Cathedral, the Tiger Park, and Mohe. Both trips were in winter, so I’m recording them together as a Heilongjiang tour.

Early 2018

D-1 Harbin Ice and Snow World

D-2 Datuodingzi Mountain, Snow Town

D-3 Snow Town

Early 2020

D-4 Saint Sophia Cathedral, Stalin Park, Central Street

D-5 Mohe Arctic Village

D-6 Mohe Arctic Village

D-7 Mohe “May 6th Memorial Hall”

D-8 Harbin Siberian Tiger Park, Heilongjiang Museum, Gogol Bookstore

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The first stop in Harbin was the Ice and Snow World, an icy and snowy paradise.

As a native of the Northeast, I’ve seen plenty of ice and snow sculptures since childhood, but usually they’re just decorations on the street. Harbin Ice and Snow World is an amusement park built entirely from ice and snow as bricks, very special. Especially at night, the crystal-clear ice sculptures glow with colorful light, magnificent.

We came here after lunch. In the afternoon there was sunlight and it wasn’t too cold, so we first played on the various rides and got in line for the extra-long slide while it was still warm.

We queued for over an hour and finally got our turn. Although the ride only lasted a minute or two, it was definitely worth it — the sliding speed was extremely fast.

After coming down, we found the queue had more than doubled since we arrived, so if you want to ride the slide, it’s best to queue early.

2018 was KFC’s 30th anniversary in China, and the KFC colonel here was dressed in a traditional Northeastern floral-patterned coat.

As evening approached, the sun set.

Once the sun completely set and the sky began to darken, the lights in the park turned on, creating a completely different scene. The ice sculptures look much better at night than during the day.

The day we went happened to be the opening ceremony, and there were fireworks — very beautiful. I managed to snap this photo with my phone, and I’m especially proud of it.

By nightfall, the sky was pitch dark, and the ice sculptures appeared even brighter, but the outdoor temperature dropped sharply. My phone would quickly freeze and die in my hand, so I had to stick a hand warmer on it and keep it in the inner pocket of my down jacket.

The Ice and Snow World also had many indoor attractions, such as a penguin paradise, performances, Russian model runway shows, etc. If you couldn’t stand the cold outside, you could go indoors anytime to warm up.

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The next day, we joined a two-day tour to Snow Town. Snow Town is actually a small village, formerly a state-owned forest farm. Due to the climate and mountain terrain, the snow here is exceptionally heavy and sticky, making it easy to accumulate, creating snow scenes rarely seen even in the Northeast.

Our first stop was Datuodingzi Mountain. The trees were covered with thick snow, forming snow-covered pines.

A little white rabbit blended in with the snowballs.

A man holding a gyrfalcon (haidongqing). You could take a photo with the gyrfalcon for a fee.

The rooftops were piled with thick snow, at least half a meter deep, and the mountain paths were trenches carved through the snow.

At the summit, blue sky, white clouds, mountain mist, and snow-covered pines formed a stunning picture.

We took a snowmobile down the mountain, experiencing the thrill of speeding through the snowy forest.

Not far from Datuodingzi Mountain, we arrived at Snow Town.

Most of the houses in Snow Town were built later. Covered with thick snow quilts, they had a unique charm.

A single wooden stake could form a “snow mushroom.”

The snow on the eaves looked like cream about to drip down.

The village had only one main road, which could be walked in about ten minutes. Shops, restaurants, and souvenir stores lined both sides. Since it was in a mountain valley, the sun stopped shining directly around 3 PM. After sunset, the cold surged up from the ground.

There were boardwalks built on the mountainsides on both sides of Snow Town, allowing you to climb up for an overhead view. Decorative lights hung under the eaves, reflecting on the thick snow, really like a fairy-tale kingdom.

Early the next morning, I got up. The Snow Town was quiet in the early morning, no longer feeling like a tourist spot, just a small Northeastern village.

This photo was taken from the return bus, through the window, so the colors are a bit off. But the snow-covered pines were truly beautiful.

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During the New Year holiday in 2020, I had a few free days and planned to experience the extreme cold of the northernmost point in Mohe. So I came to Heilongjiang again. I had a few hours in Harbin to transfer trains, so I took a walk around the city center.

Harbin Railway Station has a very exotic character.

Outside the station, in the north square, there is the Saint Iver Church.

A ten-minute walk from the station takes you to Saint Sophia Cathedral — one of Harbin’s landmarks. The cathedral’s colors are very solemn, and its spire is covered with white snow.

From another angle, I caught the moment the lights turned on.

From Saint Sophia Cathedral, I walked to the Songhua River. Along the way, there was a food cart selling candied hawthorns.

Passing by Zhaolin Park, which displayed many ice sculptures — works from a university ice sculpture competition.

In Harbin, ice sculptures can be made into various shapes, very lifelike.

Even the street lamps were made of ice bowls.

I arrived at the Flood Control Memorial Tower on the bank of the Songhua River, built to commemorate the fight against the catastrophic flood of the Songhua River in 1998.

On the shore was Stalin Park, which featured many snow sculptures.

Below, on the frozen Songhua River, there was the Ice and Snow Carnival, offering ice slides, snowmobiles, and various ice entertainment activities.

The colored lights flickered on the river.

Facing the Flood Control Memorial Tower is Central Street, similar to pedestrian streets in major cities, with shopping malls, snacks, and souvenirs of all kinds.

But the ubiquitous ice sculptures and the extremely low temperature constantly reminded me that this is the “Ice City.”

At night, the temperature was especially low, and my phone would easily freeze and die. Later, I figured out a trick: put the phone inside my sleeve, keeping it warm and easy to take out for photos anytime.

Workers were creating ice sculptures.

After dinner on Central Street, I returned to the railway station to start the next three-day-four-night trip to Mohe (two nights spent on the train).

Harbin Railway Station looked even more beautiful at night.

The train from Harbin to Mohe was a green train.

Along the way, it passed through Jiagadaqi, Tahe, and other places in the Greater Khingan Range, all extremely cold regions. The train doors were covered with thick frost.

I had never felt that the Northeast was a border region before, but I got that feeling when I arrived in Mohe. As soon as I left the station, the view was vast, the sky high and distant, and I breathed in the cool air. Perhaps because of the light pollution, the sky here was especially blue.

Outside the station, I shared a car with a few other independent travelers to Beiji Village (Arctic Village), heading further north.

It took about an hour from Mohe Station to Beiji Village, passing through the undulating Greater Khingan Range.

Arriving at Beiji Village.

Beiji Village is the northernmost village in China. In recent years, it has been developed into a tourist attraction. I really admire the person who thought of “northernmost” as a selling point for tourism, turning this nearly abandoned border village into a hot tourist destination.

Beiji Village is not large. There is one main road in each direction, with houses scattered on the sides, now all converted into guesthouses, restaurants, souvenir shops, etc. There is a small square near the Heilongjiang River.

After dropping my luggage at the inn, I wandered around the village.

At the edge of the village were desolate farmlands stretching endlessly, making me feel exiled to the end of the world.

Various buildings in the village claimed to be the “northernmost” — the “northernmost bus station,” “northernmost post office,” etc.

Snow sculptures were everywhere.

A corridor built of ice.

Ice cream was sold outdoors like this — colder than a freezer.

Due to the high latitude, the sun rises late in Beiji Village, around 8 am, with long dark nights.

That day’s itinerary was also wandering around Beiji Village. There were small attractions at each end of the village: to the north, the boundary monument and the northernmost square; to the south, the Oroqen ethnic park and the northernmost sentry post.

During my two days in Beiji Village, it wasn’t the coldest time in Mohe, but the temperature in the early morning was still around minus 30°C. I tried the “pour water and it turns to ice” trick on the frozen Heilongjiang River, and it worked quite well.

Sunrise in the early morning.

Walking north along the Heilongjiang River, the mountains on the opposite bank were Russia.

The huge snow sculpture at North Pole Square.

Thick snow everywhere.

A compass that could rotate.

This was the boundary monument of Beiji Village. But it wasn’t the northernmost point of China; that was on the border river near Beihong Village.

As a border area, patriotic education was well implemented. The village’s loudspeakers broadcast China National Radio news every morning and evening.

At noon, I went back to the village for lunch.

This rice noodle shop basically covered my lunches and dinners in Beiji Village. It was affordable and tasty, not like a tourist restaurant — I saw many locals eating there too.

After lunch, I wandered toward the southern end of the village. Along the way, there were frozen ice lanterns, reminding me of making such ice lanterns as a child.

The southern end of the village was the ethnic park, mainly about Oroqen folk customs, but the museum was closed.

The snow was deep. Even though it was the New Year holiday, there were few people.

An Oroqen tent.

It got dark very early. Around 3 pm, the sun was already setting.

I had originally wanted to see the northernmost sentry post, but it was getting dark, so I had to give up. I walked slowly back along the river to the village.

When I reached the village, it was around 4 or 5 pm and already dark. The “ice corridor” was lit up.

This is what it looks like inside.

After dinner, I came out again to look at the stars. Around 6 pm, it was completely dark.

Early the next morning, I got up to say goodbye to Beiji Village.

In the early morning, just before dawn, Beiji Village seemed still asleep, quiet and beautiful.

There was a bus to Mohe County town at the post office entrance.

Sunrise captured on the road.

When I arrived in Mohe County town, it was fully light. The county town was bustling in the morning, with many people at the early market.

The buildings in the town had Russian characteristics.

After breakfast, I went to the “May 6th” Fire Memorial Hall. It commemorates the forest fire in Mohe on May 6, 1987, which nearly leveled the entire town. Today’s Mohe was rebuilt on the original site.

Next to the memorial hall is Songyuan Park, a primeval forest inside the urban area and one of the few places not burned in the “May 6th” fire. It’s amazing that a pine forest could escape such a fire, so locals consider it a blessed land.

This mosque also survived that fire.

I wandered around the town to kill time, waiting for the afternoon train.

Here you could also see a Tong’erpu exhibition — in this extremely cold region, mink coats might be more needed.

Frozen fish and various frozen goods sold on the street.

In the afternoon, I returned to Mohe Station and bid farewell to this extremely cold little town.

Mohe gave me the feeling of a very laid-back small town with a slow pace of life. In winter, the nights are long. During my two nights in Beiji Village, it was extremely quiet at night, and I slept amazingly well. Although Beiji Village is a tourist area, it wasn’t noisy or overpriced like other scenic spots. The locals were warm and honest. The rooms were warm, and people’s hearts were warm too.

Siberian Tiger Park is the largest Siberian tiger breeding base, with over 700 Siberian tigers. Who says Siberian tigers can’t live in groups? Here they live together just fine.

The Siberian tigers here are mostly free-range. Visitors take a bus to tour the park. There are two types of buses: one with open windows where you can feed the tigers, and another regular one where you can only watch, not feed. (PS: The entrance fee + regular bus ticket costs 110 yuan; I paid an extra 20 yuan inside to upgrade to the feeding type.)

This was the first time I saw tigers up close. The “king of beasts” is really huge.

Meat strips sold on the bus could be fed to the tigers. The tigers’ big heads came right up to the window to eat, very intimidating. I thought, without this double-layer guardrail, we humans would just be a tasty meal for the tigers.

After getting off the sightseeing bus, there was a walking area where you could slowly stroll on a boardwalk and watch the tigers. You could also buy meat or live chickens to feed them.

In front of me were four foreign guys who were particularly keen on feeding live chickens to the tigers. Each bought one to feed. So I was fortunate to watch the tiger’s predation: a live chicken was thrown in and instantly torn apart, and the tiger lay down to eat.

The tigers in the park gathered in groups. When the staff’s feeding truck arrived, they didn’t run very eagerly, so their daily meals must be good.

Besides Siberian tigers, there were other species, like this white one, as well as leopards, lions, etc.

Leaving the tiger park, I went to the Heilongjiang Provincial Museum. Its exhibits mainly include artifacts of ethnic minorities.

What impressed me was this leather robe of Shaman Niangniang — real fur and leather together; it looked very warm.

After visiting the museum, I also checked in at an internet-famous spot — Gogol Bookstore. In today’s era of online prevalence, it’s rare to have a place like this for reading and selling paper books.

Churches are common on Harbin streets. This one, not far from Gogol Bookstore, is the Alekseyev Church.

After finishing the half-day tour in Harbin, I returned to the railway station to head back. In just two or three days, an ice sculpture was placed in front of Saint Iver Church.

Two winter trips to Heilongjiang — from unfamiliar to familiar with Heilongjiang and Harbin. Although all are northeastern cities, Harbin is clearly different from Changchun and Shenyang: it’s colder here and more exotic. The snow of Snow Town and the cold of Mohe each have their unique features. I have to say, Heilongjiang is still the top choice for winter ice and snow travel. I hope the pandemic ends soon, so I can go to Harbin again in winter to see ice lanterns, slide down ice slides, and have fun.

Itinerary Directory:

1. D-1 Harbin Ice and Snow World

2. D-2 Datuodingzi Mountain, Snow Town

3. D-3 Snow Town

4. D-4 Harbin Saint Sophia Cathedral, Central Street, Flood Control Memorial Tower, Stalin Park, Songhua River

5. D-5 Mohe Arctic Village

6. D-6 Mohe Arctic Village

7. D-7 Mohe “May 6th” Memorial Hall

8. D-8 Harbin Siberian Tiger Park, Heilongjiang Museum, Gogol Bookstore

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