Ice Carving And Harmony In Harbin, Northeastern China at Chinese New Year

Ice sculpture, Flute, by Dayou_X in Wikimedia Commons.

Harbin, nicknamed the ice city, in northeastern China is the place to be in the cold season of January to March especially at Chinese New Year. I was reminded of this by Chinese girl who I met in Singapore. She said, "Any travel agent in Singapore will be able to organize a trip for you, because Harbin's Ice Festival is very popular".

Ice And Snow World sculpture park, Harbin, China.
Photo by Lin Yang in Wikimedia.

The major attractions are the giant sculptures in the two parks, one on Sun Island, by the river where workers carve out the ice blocks. The ice sculptures are not those little table top ones you see at some upmarket winter weddings, but full size, like the ice hotels. You get ice bridges you can walk across. One of the venues has ice sculptures floodlit at night with glowing colours. These are paid for attractions in large fields. Hundreds of workers have toiled with heavy machinery, and great skill, for days, working days. 

Entrance. Photo by Dayou_X in Wikimedia.

On investigation, I realise that the temperature of minus thirty is not a place where I would like to spend January. Minus fifteen in a South Korean ski resort did not suit me. I spent the first day, Saturday, of my weekend away at Korea's nine dragons (nine mountains) ski resort, shopping for a warmer hat to insulate my neck and cover for my nose, as well as a second layer of gloves. My time and money was spent on shopping for clothes I might never need again.

Where would you stay? Harbin has large international five-star hotels. Indoors you might warm up on winter food. What kind of food is unique to Harbin? A red sausage. Sweet and sour pork, deep fried.

Where to Go - After the ice?

South of an adjoining sister city is an ancient 11th century walled city. An excursion for those more into culture than sport.

Summer Celebrations In Sunny Weather

The good news is that Harbin has summer alternative cultural attractions. Reading about the previous years with the world record for the number of pianos playing - more than 600 simultaneously, I knew the festival would be fun. The music mentioned included the Radestsky March, one of my all-time favourites, jolly upbeat music, rather than dismal dirges, made my eyes open and my mouth widen in a smile.

The music festival is held in alternate years, the even years, 2, 4, 6. 8, 10, so the next one is 2020. That gives me and you  plenty of time to learn to write and read and speak Mandarin Chinese. Rather than relying on the tedious method of using Google translate with taxi drivers, I can practise my conversations using Earworms, and FutureLearn.

Two new underground railway lines will be finished, we hope, by 2012. The underground will have bilingual signs. Elsewhere, much is in Chinese. Now would be a good time to start cultivating some Chinese friends, penfriends and Facebook friends. They could be mentors in learning Chinese, translators, and enthusiastic travelling companions. Remember the winegrowers' saying, the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now.

Harbin Railway station, photo by Prince Roy from Flickr used in Wikimedia. 

As you can see, major signs are in Chinese. If I had not been told this was a railway station, I would have thought it was a department store. Would the clock have been a hint that it was a railway station? Yes. But other buildings also have clocks.

Tasty Summertime Food

In Singapore my new Chinese friend's father grew up in Harbin and she has family there. In summer, she recalled, "In Harbin you eat watermelon, sweet melon, honeydew melon, corn, apricots, fresh peaches - much tastier than the ones we get in Singapore." Watermelon sounds refreshing for hot weather.

Harbin's summertime cultural attraction is the music festival held every two years in the 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 years, so the next event is the year after next in 2020.

Worldwide - Ice Is Nice!

This place, Harbin, has been on my winter wish list for years, along with the ice hotels of the USA and Canada and Scandinavia.

If you don't have the time and money to travel to China this winter-spring and would like a winter ice resort nearer your base elsewhere, alternatives are winter celebrations in Quebec City, Canada. Alternatively, over in Europe, go north to Norway.

Meanwhile, back in Harbin:

Confucius Temple, Harbin, China. Photo from Wikimedia, article on Harbin.

See and Do Top Ten Checklist
1 Ice Festival - 2 locations
2 Chinese New Year
3 Summer Music Festival
4 Russian St Sophia Cathedral (and synagogue and Jewish area)
5 Confucian Chinese Temple
6 Siberian Tiger Park
7 Organic Winery
8 War Museum (Chinese victims of Japanese)
9 Harbin sausage
10 Side trip to 11th century walled city

Another excellent photo by Lin Yang. St Sophia Cathedral. From wikimedia. The picture of the Baroque Eastern cathedral with its green domes, gold spires, and ornate windows has been 

photobombed by the birds. I believe they are pigeons.

Siberian Tigers Watching and Waiting in the Siberian Tiger Park. Photo by Carla.Antonini in Wikimedia.

Accommodation
Major hotels such as Shangri La. Budget places include a hostel in a former synagogue. That's a novelty. See Tripadvisor for photos of the hostel and reviews.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Harbin

https://www.bh.org.il/jews-harbin/

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Wine Connection - French Food and Alsace Wine in Singapore

Problem
Where is Wine Connection? They have several branches. We had a jolly evening experiencing an Alsace 5 course wine dinner with six wines. The restaurant manager wanted us to be photographed with these funny props.

HillV2
One branch of Wine Connection is on the upper floor of HillV2 shopping mall a few steps from Hillview MRT on the Downtown line. The shopping area is so small that you can't miss Wine Connection, on the right as you walk from the up escalators to the supermarket. The supermarket is pricey Market Place (another upmarket branch in Tanglin, part of the Cold Storage group, different brand). We had passed the Wine Connection branch in HillV2 many times but not gone in because we are great fans of IO Italian restaurant next door. However, we were lured to their branch in the downtown area by an Alsace wine dinner featuring a 1998 vintage to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

Wine Connection

The Wine Connection branch we went to is near Telok Ayer MRT station, exit B.

After walking along a street surrounded by skyscrapers, we turned into a short cosy, romantic little pedestrian mall lit by fairy lights.

Wine Connection was at the far corner.

Passing the outside tables, we went to the air-conditioned restaurant at the back. Earlier in the day, we had emailed to warn them that I was allergic to shellfish.  I was relieved to find, on arrival that they knew all about that and were prepared.

If I were to go there again, I would ask for a seat on one of the banquettes along the wall, in order to have my bag beside me, conveniently, when I needed a pen or business card, instead of on the dirty floor.

Bar Stools With Backs
The dining chairs are squared high bar stools with backs, surprisingly comfortable once you manoeuvre yourself onto them. There's even a horizontal metal bar under the high table on which you can rest your feet, making you feel more secure.

I must admit that I do not understand the modern trend for perching tipsy people on bar stools which are likely to tip over, or tip the tipsy people off. I sat musing on the fact, bar stools for bars seem an idea which should have been stopped at the planning era by health and safety, here and worldwide.

However, perhaps I was being over cautious or pessimistic. Well into the 5-course meal, and seven assorted matched drinks, I congratulated myself on getting up onto the stool, and off it, and on again. Then we heard an alarming crash! A gentleman had fallen off his perch in the next room.

But what if he was not on a bar stool, just an ordinary low chair? If that's the case, how much worse if he had fallen from a height!

Although we knew nobody, we struck lucky with finding friends. We always do. I will chat about anything and everything, and after mesmerising somebody else, have the presence of mind to realise it is time to shut up and let them talk. My husband, having just got his diploma in wine, can talk or answer any question about wine, relentlessly.

I could not hear the lady at the next table so I got off my stool to stand nearer her and all four of got the same idea simultaneously. Push together the two tables for two. The result was a jolly evening.

The Water and The Wines


My Favourites Of The Food
The starter was tasty but fatty pork.












The second course was shellfish.
One big prawn each.

Sausage
I had two large sausages which I shared. They contained herbs. I think that's the mark of a superior sausage, like Cumberland sausage, something extra added, more plant life and less meat, fat or cereal. Our new Chinese friend was shocked to find herbs in the sausage. Not sure whether she disliked the taste or thought it was strange and inferior.

Potato Gratin
The main course contained potato gratin. I love potato gratin. Any meal or restaurant containing potato shoots up the list in my estimation. Anybody can boil up rice or spaghetti. Just add water. I suppose you can say the same of new potatoes. But potato gratin - that takes a cook.

Cheese
Finally cheese. The smelliest soft cheese you've ever met. Stronger than Camembert. Munster cheese  comes from the German city of Munster (known for bicycles tracks and a Picasso graphics museum).

Smiling Service
The restaurant manager was informative, the lady from Alsace came round to speak to us. The staff were to hand whenever you looked up. If you wanted another glass, a pen, a toothpick, whatever, you got it.

The starter of rillette of pork was not to my taste. I had filled up on bread so as not to be drinking on an empty stomach and four more courses to go. So I asked for half of it to be wrapped up to go.

At the end of the evening I received my leftovers in a paper tote bag. Next day we discovered the bag  contained the food, plus plastic knife and fork and paper napkins with the restaurant name. Excellent.

Wonderful Wines
My favourite wine was the Wolfberger "Signature" Pinot Gris equivalent of the grape called pino grigio in Italian) 2016. The usual retail price in Singapore was listed as $38 (Singapore dollars), with a promotional price of $29.

In Thailand, where Wine Connection started, you would be paying more, £26.80.

If you could get to France, you can get it for a bargain 7.7 Euros, showing as £6.47. But that's always the way. If you can afford the fare to France, or the country of origin of any wine, it's much cheaper than what you are charged when it has been flown half way around the world.

One day we hope to take a trip to Alsace. Then we will be able to visit to try and buy wines at local prices.

Can you visit 'the Wolfberger vineyard'? They are a co-op with 400 growers.

Useful Websites
visitsingapore.com
https://www.wolfberger.com/en/alsace-wines/
wineconnection.com.sg

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author ans speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

German Pronunciation Simplified

Problem
How do you pronounce German words?

Answers

AU is OW as HOW NOW BROWN COW
I had a friend whose surname was Blau (rhyming with now) meaning blue.
frau - woman - think of a frowning woman with brows in a brown dress , pronounced f r o w,

IE
i e pronounce the second letter W i e n e r - p r o n u n c e d v e e n e r

V and W
W is v as in the German word for sausage: w u r s h t (pronounced v e r sh t).
So now you can recognize it when a German speaker talks about a sausage from Vienna.
You can also recognize what sounds like v e e n e r schnitzel.

Frequent use of W pronounced as V
was - (vas or vuss) what
wie - what
German wir - we pronounced veer

German - English
was - what (vuss as in fuss)
wir - we (veer)
wie - how (vee)
wieviel - how many (vee feel)
w i e v i e l u h r ist es (what time is it - v e e like the letter vee, feel, i s t e s s as in yes)

German J is Y
jung - young pronounced y o o n g , the vowel as in cook


English - German
we - wir (pronounced veer)
where

Finally, when writing, go back and check you have capital letters for all the words describing things. In English we save a capital lesson for a specific name of a person, Mr Blue, but in German the word man it would be Mann.

Tips
I suggest you get a notebook or diary and write down a key to the ones which puzzle you on one page with a key word in English for the pronunciation.
Left column for the sound as it is written in German, second column for the word in English.
I shall do this and take a photo and add it later.

Websites
Wikipedia give a complete guide, letter by letter, including variations for Switzerland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Standard_German
It is so long and complicated that it's hard to find the sounds you need and remember them.

For more tips on pronunciation:
http://www.fluentu.com/german/blog/how-to-pronounce-german-words/
Long and chatty. The opposite of Wikipedia.

duolingo.com
The first page of any of their dozen or so languages gives you a guide to grammar and pronunciation of the language you have chosen to learn. Even if you are not learning, or have finished the course and want a reminder, it's worthwhile going to their page one. Notes are at the bottom of the screen and easily missed so if you are on a small screen scroll down for them.

You might like to look at my other posts on German, French, Romanian, Italian and other languages. I also have travel articles in this blog on my trips to Italy (a press trip, covering Umbria and Francis of Assisi) and Cambodia (Ankor Wat temple). I also have several posts on Singapore and restaurants in London, Central London and Hatch End and Harrow. Other blogs cover etiquette, humorous poetry and my books. I am also you YouTube, linkedIn, Facebook, Lulu.com books and Amazon. If you meet me at a meeting of Toastmasters International clubs (UK, USA and Singapore) I am a chatty person. I am always delighted to talk about travel and culture and please to meet a fan and if you want to buy a coy of one of my books I'll sign it and write you a personalised message, motivation quote or a couplet based on your name. Happy reading.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phgotarpheer, author and speaker. Please share posts.Enable GingerCannot connect to Ginger Check your internet connection
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