A Cold Week in Harbin

My husband and I had been talking about visiting Harbin for years, and our ten year old son Ethan had been begging to come along ever since he saw a video of a tiger in the snow. We kept seeing videos of the ice festival online, so we finally just booked it through China Comfort Travel and went. The consultant who helped us was very responsive, and she made sure the itinerary was family friendly.

Our guide in Harbin was a local woman in her mid thirties named Ms. Liu. She was warm and chatty, with a big smile that never seemed to fade, even when the temperature dropped below minus twenty. She had lived in Harbin her whole life and knew all the best spots, not just the famous ones. She also had a soft spot for kids, and she took an instant liking to Ethan, always making sure he was bundled up and walking on the less slippery side of the path.

We arrived in the evening and the driver picked us up right on time. Stepping outside the airport felt like opening a freezer door. My husband kept checking his phone to see the temperature and then showing it to me like I didn't already know. Ms. Liu handed each of us a warm glove warmer and told us to keep our phones close to our bodies so the batteries wouldn't die.

The next day was packed. We started at the Siberian Tiger Park, which was probably the most exciting part for Ethan. Those massive orange and white tigers paced around their enclosures, and some of them came right up to the bus windows. One let out this low growl that made everyone in our vehicle go quiet. We bought some meat to feed them through the gaps in the fence, and my husband got a little too enthusiastic, nearly dropped the whole thing, and a tiger just stared at him like it was judging his life choices. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. Ethan was completely transfixed. He pressed his face to the window and named every tiger he saw. At the end of the tour, Ms. Liu surprised him with a small plush tiger toy that she had bought from the gift shop earlier. Ethan hugged it for the rest of the day and named it "Stripes."

Then we went to the Polarland, which had beluga whales and penguins. The whales were beautiful, swimming in slow circles and making those clicking sounds. My husband was more interested in the penguins. One of them slipped on the ice and he found that hilarious. Ethan loved the penguins too, and Ms. Liu told him fun facts about each species, which he repeated to us for the rest of the afternoon. We also took the cable car over the frozen river to Sun Island. From up there, the whole city was just white, trees, ground, rooftops, all covered in snow. The frozen river stretched out below us like a giant white road. Sun Island itself was quiet and peaceful, with snow covered paths and sculptures made of ice scattered around. We walked for a while until our faces got too numb to continue. Ms. Liu kept checking on Ethan's cheeks to make sure they weren't getting frostbitten.

We spent the evening on Zhong Yang Street, which is the main pedestrian street in Harbin. The old European buildings with their colorful facades looked so pretty against the snow, and the street lights made everything glow warm and golden. Steam from the food stalls rose up into the freezing air. We shared a stick of candied hawthorn and my husband tried to bite it while it was still too hard, which was a mistake he immediately regretted. He spent the next five minutes making faces. Ethan thought that was the funniest thing he had ever seen. We also passed by the Harbin Grand Theater nearby, which looks like a giant silver ribbon wrapped around itself. My husband said it looked like a melted spaceship.

The third day we went to Volga Manor, which is this Russian style estate just outside the city. We walked around the grounds for hours. There were little wooden cottages painted in bright colors, an old church with a blue dome, and a frozen pond where some kids were skating. Outside the windows of the cottages, the birch trees stood bare and white against the gray sky, and the snow covered rooftops looked like something from a winter fairy tale. My husband said it reminded him of those Russian nesting dolls, colorful and slightly mismatched. We found a small café inside one of the buildings and sat by the window drinking hot chocolate, watching the snow fall outside. Ms. Liu told us the history of the estate and pointed out details we would have missed, like the hand painted tiles on the stoves. Ethan tried to build a tiny snowman on the café windowsill, and Ms. Liu helped him find two small twigs for arms.

The last day was completely free, so we went back to Zhong Yang Street to walk around in daylight. We also went to see the Songhua River up close, where people were sledding and riding horse drawn carts on the thick ice. My husband wanted to try the sledding but I convinced him we didn't have time to get frostbite on our last day. Ms. Liu laughed and said he was right to listen to me. We found a tiny dumpling place tucked into a side alley and ate so many that the owner gave us a funny look. Ms. Liu joined us for a bit and showed us how to dip the dumplings in the right combination of vinegar and soy sauce. She also made sure Ethan had a warm seat away from the drafty door.

We flew out that afternoon with frozen toes and full stomachs. My husband keeps saying he wants to go back in summer to see what it looks like without all the snow. I told him that defeats the whole point of Harbin. Ethan still sleeps with Stripes the tiger every night. We were really lucky to have Ms. Liu with us, she made the freezing weather feel much more bearable and turned the whole trip into something truly special for our family.