Vacation Day 8/9: Harbin, and back to Sg

[coolohoh]

Day 8, and the second last day of the trip!

Our agenda for the day was to go to Guogeli street, and then the Qiuling building there. Qiuling is one of their famous brands, selling red sausages and what not. From dad’s intel, the street was an estimated 2km from our hotel. Yeah, we decided to forgo the taxi and walk there. Needless to say we walked a lot that day. 

Breakfast was noodles from a roadside shop. It was delicious. 

Walking… 

Walking… it took us like, over an hour to reach. 

The random stuff we saw on the way. 

Some weird deco in the middle of the road. 

Nicely decorated bridge. 

Railway tracks. 

Clean, white snow. 

Like I said, ice is their fav building block. A wall of ice right beside the road. 

We reached this crowded street after walking for a long time. At first we thought we had reached… 

Stuff made of ice are EVERYWHERE. 

Turns out this place was their railway station. No wonder there were so many people hurrying past with luggages and all. 

Still someways to go! 

After finding out the directions… it’s back to walking. 

After lots more walking, we finally got to the start of Guogeli street. 

A magnificent looking building. But it’s a hospital and not our destination. 

We passed by a starbucks. My mum loves starbucks, so we made a mandatary coffee stop. 

A cute chart explaining the types of coffee. 

Pretty paintings on the walls. 

Finally! Our target! 

We stood at the intersection for some time so I snapped a couple of photos. The main shopping place moved from their main building to somewhere else though. And they had signboards and salespeople in the underpass directing visitors to the new location. There was a queue to buy the sausages, not very long though. We bought a bunch to eat ourselves, and as souvenirs for relatives. 

Afterwards we walked along the street for a while… 

And it started snowing, more heavily this time. It snowed the day before too, but really tiny flakes.

I must say that it snowed during the night many times. Like in the morning you can see the building top covered with snow. But the snow on the streets have already been cleared away, save for those in those tree planting areas, like some of the photos I took earlier. The rest of the snow on the streets have all been swept alway. Really efficient! 

More snow. I took a video too… 

Another slightly more successful attempt at taking a photo of the snowflake. We stood there like idiots trying to take photos of snowflakes. And with my furry coat… 

See? It was trapping loads of snowflakes. So I ended up having to stand still while my sis and mum snapped away. And then apparently a big snowflake landed on my pony tail too… 

We visited a shopping mall. Dad tried on some clothes… but I think he didn’t buy any in the end. Mum/sis managed to get… I can’t remember… 1 or 2 cashmere sweaters. They can share their clothes so… It was on offer and really cheap. 

We passed by a bbq place after that and decided to have lunch there. It was really cheap, newly opened so there was a special offer. 

Buffet style. 

The selection available was huge. 

Was too busy eating to take much photos, but there were loads of meat and the meat was good. There was seafood too! And loads of cakes and dessert. 

That’s outside the shop. A really pretty sofa. 

Original price 68 yuan. Special offer of 48 yuan. There’s a time limit of 2 hours though. 

Another banner showing their selection of food. 

Another deco. 

We managed to hop on a van/taxi that took us back to Zhongyang street after that. 

Here we are, back at Zhongyang street… that’s some advertisement of a shop, and that is made of plastic. 

As with this. 

A plague introducing the various buildings along Zhongyang street. 

Holiday Inn spotted in the distance XD

We went back to the underground street that we had gone… the day before. Spotted a bread talk shop there. It’s a Singapore bread shop that started expanding in China several years ago… and it certainly is doing well there! We saw shops in Shanghai,  before last time…. I saw one in Chongqing… and now Harbin too. 

Some random ice flooring area in Zhongyang street. No idea what it’s for. 

We bought a hot ginger ale cola after that. 

Coca cola again. 

A stick of dates in rock sugar, and a HUGE stick of hawthorn. Like really mega sized. The stick was so long, huge and heavy. 

We walked along that same street again, and did some shopping. 

Here’s a mirror that I bought as souvenir. Photo taken back in sg of course. It’s a nice motif of the Sophia church. 

Mum wanted to have coffee before heading back to the hotel… so we went to this café. 

Some expresso shot thing… idk. I don’t know much about coffee… 

Another coffee drink. This one’s called spiderman. 

Cute hello kitty wine bottle decors at the side of the table. This place was like… a bar? With people singing live on a small stage… and screens and projectors beside every table showing snippets of random movies. Yes the whole place was pretty dark. 

We ordered a steak to share for dinner… It wasn’t very good… pretty tough. 

They have nice decors though. 

Ah here you can see the stage at the top left of the photo, the screen beside each table, and the row of wines in the centre of the walkway. Got no idea why they have a bunch of hello kitty plushies in the middle. Felt pretty out of place. 

We made our way back to the hotel after that. 

Not before passing by this place yet again… well because we have to take this side road to get back to our hotel. 

As I passed by the arch I noticed a curious thing… 

People stuck coins to the side of the arch hahaha! Cos well you know, it’s ice! You just need some body heat to melt it! 

And that was all for our Harbin trip. That last day just sucked for me though… I’m not even sure exactly what happened. For one, I was having a diarrhoea since the morning. Maybe it was because my inner wear had somehow rode upwards, leaving my tummy feeling constantly cold… and then the bbq made ti worst because we used the same chopsticks for raw and cooked food… or maybe it was the coffee on empty stomach… and maybe cos I didn’t eat enough for dinner (we had some random snacks, and ice cream, then the steak, but the steak kinda came after the coffee). After surviving through the street unscathed for so long… it had to be it on the last day. I was just puking and vomiting back in the hotel. And I barely managed to squeeze my clothes into the zip lock bag… after that my poor sis did all the rest of the packing >< 

We transited in Chengdu airport. It was a different terminal and a pretty long walk between the terminals. Again, sis and dad were hauling most of the luggage >< While I was worried about literally shitting in my pants. The flight was ok, at least there wasn’t much turbulence to add to my worries… at least not when I was awake. I didn’t manage to eat anything though… and barely ate for a couple of days after that. Thank goodness I applied for more leave! Well granted I could have gotten an MC, but I didn’t really need to go to the doctors. And I had to clear my leave or it’ll get wasted anyway… By the time we reached sg it was already 1am on the 30th. The taxi queue was ridiculous long, and we had so many pieces of luggage we doubt it would fit into a single taxi. We waited in queue for the maxicab instead… which took ridiculously long to arrive. Over an hour wait. And dad had work the next morning. I was just deadbeat. 

Oh wells. Sadly I just had to fall sick at the end. 

Still, overall it was a really enjoyable trip. Got to visit Beijing, refreshed my memory… saw loads of snow and ice… 

I’ve been to China quite a few times over the years.

The first trip as really long ago, to Beijing and Tianjing. We went with a tour group, but extended the trip so that we could visit the China Weiqi Association. 

Then we went to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Suzhou. Again, on tour… Hangzhou and Suzhou were really just touch and go though. 

After that we went on a tour to Korean, and they ‘gifted’ a trip to Shanghai. So we visited Shanghai for a second time. 

Thereafter would be my trip during uni, were I went to visit my friend in her hometown in Chongqing, and then we went to the Shanghai World Expo together. 

Of course, finally there was this trip. So in total, I’ve been to China 5 times now… Beijing twice and Shanghai thrice. I must say that China has changed a lot over the years. On our first trip, there were still plenty of toilets with no doors. No doors in the toilet cubicles. Now? All doored. And there must have been some sort of directive, water saving measures or something… because no matter which toilet we went to, be in Beijing or Harbin… ALL the toilets had automatic taps. Seriously, ALL. The rest of the toilet can be really old, with doors that’s still those half sized doors in squatting toilets… but the taps are sensor taps. Doesn’t make sense at all unless they had some related laws. The food has changed a lot too. Not salty and oily anymore. 

If you ask me if I’d like to go back to Beijing though… I think not. I’ve seen most of what they have to offer… and shopping wise, it’s just… sad. Development on Wang Fu Jing street seemed to have stopped years ago. True they have loads of new malls, but fashion wise Shanghai is still the place to go. It IS the fashion centre of China after all. But Harbin was really interesting too. It’s the new up and coming city in Northern China, and I do feel that way when I visit. Look at all the luxury brands there. I saw none of that in Wang Fu Jing street, and that’s supposed to be the most premier shopping street in Beijing! Apart from the luxury brands, there were so many other shops selling a wide variety of clothing in Harbin. Much more interesting variety in Harbin IMO. The development in Harbin is certainly worth watching. 

Of course… if I were to visit China again, I’d rather go to somewhere I’ve not been before. Qingdao perhaps? Heard there’s loads of seafood there. Or Yunnan. With the fantastic views… Guilin too. And I’ve never been to Fujian before, even though that’s where my paternal grandmother came from. We still have relatives there, and we still do occasionally keep in touch… ok not me, but my parents and uncles. And they are doing well too, all having their own business and making way more money than we are…. hmm.

 

Right. That’s all from me on my holiday trip! Ah there’s still a few photos and videos here and there to upload… next time! :P

Comments

[sky-fish7.livejournal.com]

I just checked your entries about your trip and wow... looks really impressive! Sounds like it was a great trip, even if it's sad that you fell sick in the end =/

Hah~ you know... I fell that itchy feet a lot lately, I want to get out of here, to places I've never been before. Maybe not China and also not Japan yet because I simply don't have the money for a trip to a country so far away but there are also a lot of places in Europe that I didn't see yet... Well, the problems are 1st - no money for travelling. 2nd - too less holidays. 3rd - I want to go on my own (so without friends or family) but I'm not sure if I can do that, because I'm pretty helpless on my own... I'm totally unorganized, I have a really bad sense of orientation and I'm really shy in RL with interacting with people... But for some reason, I want to challenge myself, like going to an English speaking country all on my own and look how far I can get with my English, just out of curiosity. Or to go onto a trip to a quiet place with beautiful nature to finally calm down a little, far away from everything here... but then again, problem 1 and 2 XD

[coolohoh]

Yeah. The sickness was a real downer at the end, but now that I've long recovered, I don't remember much of the vomitting and stuff anymore :P Just the good memories remains XD

Yes same! Money is a problem! So for me, maybe just asia, or south east asia first. Stuff are cheaper in those countries too. China would be hard to navigate on your own w/o knowing the language. Me too, I'm shy in real life too. Organization wise... I don't know. I'm organized in some parts, like my work, or like having a ton of masterposts on LJ etc... but planning a trip? I don't really like it. Or maybe it's cos I have an OCD dad so I end up disliking the experience...

Your English? You'll get very far with it my dear! It didn't even cross my mind that you're not a native English speaker/English isn't your first language because you write so well! It's not like you need top grade English to ask for directions etc. It's just basic conversational English.

[sky-fish7.livejournal.com]

Good to here that you will treassure the good memories (and not the illness xD).

Yeah... money... ugh I hate that topic lately. I try to save money but then I'll end up spending it for CDs and concert BDs and cinema... sometimes I wonder if I should get a part-time job but then I wonder WHEN I should do it XD lol...

Oh yeah, I'm pretty well organized with the stuff I like (like writing fanfictions, doing the stuff for my community, also with subbing and such I'm well organized) but it's different than planning a trip or such. I really suck at that! o_O It's horror... that's why I'm happy that most of the time my friends are planning our trips and I just have to let them drag me along XD But somehow I want to challange myself one day and go onto a trip just by myself >.< I wonder if I'll be brave enough to really do so. lol

Eh? Really? o_O You thought I'm a native English speaker? Ah no no XD I try my best but I'm far away from that I think. And yeah, I guess asking for the way and such wouldn't be a problem but if I'd be in an English speaking country, I'd like to talk with the people there. I mean, REALLY talk like holding real conversations about stuff and whatnot. That's also one of the reasons (expect from the money XD) that I hadn't been to Japan yet. I want to study more Japanese first so that I can really try talking to people there and understand them then. But well, about that talking plans, again there would be the question if I wouldn't be too shy to do that anyways haha

[coolohoh]

Ahhhh talking to the people there ne? That's like... out of the question for me... I'm too shy!

But you underestimate yourself my dear! We talk so much on LJ!!! Okay maybe the speaking part is different, but I don't have a nice British or American accent either... just my strange 'Singaporean styled English'. I think you'll do fine!

[sky-fish7.livejournal.com]

I guess, if it was Japan, I'd be too shy, so out of question for now but with English I'm a bit more confident and as I said, I'd like to challenge myself somehow... (even if I doubt that I'll do well because as I told you, I'm pretty shy too >.<)

Thanks dear, that's encouraging me somehow! ^^ *hugs*
Oh, does the Singaporean styled English sound so different from British or American accent? Now I'm curious =P

[coolohoh]

Oh yes it's different. I think that every country has their own accent ne? XD

[sky-fish7.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess. ^^ I don't know thaaat many accents though, I have to admit. Besides from what I get to know from TV and movies and such, I only know a few people from different countries.

A friend of mine from Switzerland for example. Her first language is French but we talk in English (we met two times so far for holidays) and I have to admit, sometimes her accent is a bit hard for me to understand even if I think that compared to other French people her English is much easier to understand for me.

Then of course I know some people from Germany who talk quite strange English XD But here, it really depends. Most people I know have a really good pronounciation (at least accordig to my evaluation. I think that my own pronounciation is quite good since it's quite easy for me to copy the "sounds" of languages but I don't want to know what a native speaker thinks about it XD) and others sound really horrible (on an Engrish level, if you know what I mean) but that's most of the time the older generation or people who have no feel for language at all.

[coolohoh]

There's quite a lot of foreigners in Singapore so I do know some Indonesians, China Chinese, Taiwanese... some Europeans too but more from Asia because of our location.

I can speak better when the situation calls for it... normally I tend to mirror how the other person is speaking. We have a variant of Engrish called Singlish here, and that's how a lot of people end up speaking 'English'.... and because words are pronounced wrongly, there's loads of borrowed words from Malay, Chinese, Hokkien and what not (I don't even know the origin of many words!), foreigners won't understand a thing. There's loads of expressions like 'lah' and 'leh' and 'lor'... that's... a little like the ne, na, and desu yo in Japanese. Sort of. The same 'used in different sentences/context and spoken with different intonation completely changes the meaning' thing. And this is spoken by youngsters all the way to old people.

[sky-fish7.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see, that's interesting! Didn't know about that Singlish. I guess it would be really hard for me to understand it XD

Btw, that just reminded me that in German (only in some parts of Germany) we have an expression "ne" (various pronounciations depending on the location) which is pretty much the same as the Japanese "ne". I found that pretty funny when I got to know German people (I'm from Austria, we speak German there too but different dialects and we use something different for that "ne" - namely "ge" or "gell"). ^^

Aw, talking about languages is so interesting! I'd love to be better with languages... I'd like to know some French too for example but I don't have time to learn it. I learned Italian back then at school and I still understand a bit but I can't talk it any longer at all o_O It's a pity (even if the school niveau wasn't thaaat high xD).

[coolohoh]

Yes it would be hard... I mean even the words aren't pronounced properly. Many people eat up their 'th' so three becomes tree.

Yeah! I find it interesting to talk about languages too! Too bad I don't know many languages. Just my mother tongue Chinese and English, and now some Japanese. I don't know any European languages!

[perkyandproud.livejournal.com]

Well, if you are going to get sick, doing it on the tail end of your vacation is the way to go!

*hugs you*

Amazing! :)

[coolohoh]

hahaha yes that's true! XD