View from my room - you can make out the faint snow falling to the ground below
Strobe lights covered in snow - the white speckles are snow fallingSo what's Harbin like? Hmm....first thoughts, even though there are ski resorts here, lots sights to see and they have an annual ice sculpture show that is said to be one of the best, I think it's not quite a tourist destination. When I say tourist, I mean non-native Chinese who don't speak English kind of place. Let me explicate...
- Arrive Harbin airport, get in taxi to hotel - get cheated by taxi driver who had $198.00 showing on the meter when it should be $98.00.
- Walk into hotel, nobody speaks a word of English.
- Try to check-in, lady does not understand I don't need a visa because I have an APEC travel card. She finally relents and lets me check in.
- Buy a map (yes, I have to buy one) which reception passes to me.
- Walk into hotel room hungry so open up room service menu, it's ALL in Chinese!
- Turn on TV, 120 channels, only 2 are English (Nat Geo and Discovery)
- Open up the map, it's all in Chinese.
- Next day, try to walk to St Sophia Church, no clue and no help from any locals. Caught a cab there and he was trying to sell me other destinations in Mandarin ALL the way to the church. It's like peddlers who chase you down the street to sell something except I can't escape this one!
- Went to the TV broadcast tower to check out the observation deck. Internet says $50 for observation deck and $200 for the dinner package which I should avoid. Ticket lady pushes $200 dinner package to me which I promptly refused. She then told me observation deck was $145 so I left.
- Walked around and found a noodle place for dinner. English? Of course not. So pointed at a noodle dish that another guy was eating. It came, it was nice but it was cold noodles! Not exactly best dish in below zero temperature!
- Decided to walk outside and look around, lots of street peddlers here. Seems like there's someone peddling something on every street! Was looking around and then realised I'm in some housing estate somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Right...time to call a taxi!
- Tried to explain my hotel name in Mandarin to the cabbie. Showed no comprehension until he saw my room key. Ahhh "Power Hotel" he says in English (doh!) He then proceeds to shortchange ($1) me after he drops me off to which when I complained, he pretends not to hear or comprehend.
Despite all this, there are a few highlights:
Saint Sophia Church 
Food!
Local folks taking a break (old people who have completely taken over the children's playground)
TV Broadcast Tower - the view would have been nice if the tickets weren't so expensive!
Siberian Tiger Park - definitely a highlight! I've not seen so many tigers in my life before! There were hundreds! But no white tiger...
Tourists can pay RMB20 for a chicken that is fed to the tigers. Poor chickens must have heart attacks! You can even buy a cow for RMB1,500. I didn't pay for any of this. 
Beautiful cats and their paws are humongous! I am definitely not going to mess with them!
Lion pride keeping each other warm - so cute! Makes me want to crawl in and sleep with them too...
The tigers go crazy when this truck is moving about - it's the truck that carries the poor cow that people pay to be fed to them
The aforementioned chicken's fate
This leopard scared the beegeezers out of me when it leaped four metres with consummate ease (eat your heart out Jackie Chan) to say hello to me - this photo was taken two seconds before it leaptSo that's it for this posting! Tomorrow I have to head back to Beijing to catch my flight back to Singapore. It's snowing pretty heavy still so fingers crossed my flight to Beijing won't be delayed!
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