We arrived in Harbin safely, the 32 hour train journey actually turned out to be rather easy. I only had to stand for 10 minutes which was remarkable considering it is the season where traditionally a lot of the Chinese population travel to see family. We were actually told by some Chinese people that we spoke to that this year the train was really quiet although it was actually packed, luckily though, we still managed to find at least one spare seat through the entire journey, although sleep was impossible. We arrived without a place to stay and only half expecting the freezing temperatures. It was cold, within 5 minutes Alastair slipped over on the Ice... We found somewhere to stay pretty cheaply and then decided to catch up on sleep. The next day we met up with Callum, James and Callum who were staying across town, we went to the central street in Harbin which is the longest no vehicle street in asia (3km) or something. It was packed with people and lined with Ice sculptures. However we weren't really interested in in shopping so we took a look at St Sophias church and then went and watched the latest hobbit at the cinema... it was ok, but not really the grand finale everyone was expecting.

We spent the next few days exploring the city of Harbin and recovering from our respective journeys to Harbin, it was pretty cool although at one point we did try (and fail) to find the Siberian tiger park.... a bit of advice to anyone else trying to do so... ask the hostel youre staying at, dont look on the internet. We did enjoy some of the famous harbin sausage, although I have to say, it still has nothing on anything from back home.

We finally got round to visiting the ice festival, which is what Harbin is famous for in the winter, we spent 6 hours walking in the freezing temperatures (-25ish). We walked from the city across the frozen river to the city, which was literally a city built of ice. It was particularly spectacular when it got dark because of the fantastic lighting. Besides those some of the snow sculptures were also amazing and fantastic to see. However overall I would rate Harbin as less exciting than Xi'an; it may be the freezing temperatures or the fact that we were there too long, but by the end of our stay I was desperate to move on....

To Nanjing - - only a 20 hour train... easy..