We asked the hostel to call ahead to check our next destination was open. Being New Year's Day we had already been warned the restaurants would be closed. It was so off we went to hail a cab to get there.

We were off to the Siberian tiger park. We'd heard they had a good breeding program there then trained and released back into the wild. We were first headed into a bus to go around the outer area of the park. From the map it looked like there were lots of different large enclosures where the tigers went through the process before being released.

One problem, minus temps and a bus full of people equals steamy windows. b*****. We managed to clean them off the best we could but found it really frustrating to get a photo. However when we could see one they were magnificent. They all had their winter coats so were super fluffy but much bigger than I had imagined. Some came right up to the bus and their backs were level with the bottom of the window.

One of the enclosures had African lions in. We joked they must have yearning to go back to the desert plains after the freezing temperatures here.

The bus ends at more enclosures where the tigers are kept if not being released. Here you have the chance to feed them live food. The popular choice is a chicken but sometimes it could be a goat or a cow. I'd read about this beforehand so was prepared. Don't get me wrong I have no problem with them being fed live meat, that bits natural. My only issue was that I have learnt on this trip that I don't need to see or hear another animals death. I can't handle hearing them scream or seeing fear in their eyes. I knew the boys wanted to get some pictures so I put my headphones in, turned up the tunes & kept walking.

If anything I can say it was quick as no longer than 30 seconds later a tiger ran past me in the enclosure below with the limp chicken in his mouth. Having no fear of hearing something I didn't want to now, I took my headphones out. I was greeted by his fantastic growls as he warned off the others that came too close. It was definitely HIS chicken!

We saw white tigers, jaguars as well. Also saw a Liger of which there are only about 10 of in the world. It's a cruel invention I don't believe in but here one was. To breed a liger you keep a lion & tiger in enclosure until they reach sexual maturity so that they mate. 0.01% of their offspring will survive. If a born liger does survive its completely infertile and is bound for a solitary life.
I just don't seem the point and this one certainly didn't have the best living conditions and seemed pretty sad.

That said we really enjoyed the park and got some great shots of the tigers. After another dilemma where a taxi will take us to the destination but no taxi will take us home. We teamed up with some Americans in the same predicament to pay the 100RMB extortionate fare to get back to the city. It had cost us 40RMB on meter to get there!! That afternoon I was frozen to the bone so the boys went back out to discover more of the city while I relaxed and warmed up!

The other large event we were told about was the international snow sculpture expo. Here artists globally come to create massive snow sculptures. Today I had some insoles in that I found, they're genius. They stick to your socks under your ties like a plaster. Then the action of walking warms them up to keep your toesies warm. I walked around for a few hours that day with lovely warm toes. Gutted I hadn't tried these before!

The snow sculptures were beautiful. All different kinds & still in great condition after a month if already being on display.

We got to the other side of the park and were blown away by the size of a couple of sculptures. They were taller than my office block back home! We had a great time looking around and going on the tube slide there. Although my journey down the slide was entirely backwards so I was a girl and screamed all the way down! The guys at the bottom tapped my tube sending me into a spin around the ice at the bottom. I was a bit bambi when I got off as couldn't figure out how to stand on the ice!!

We finished up in snow world and headed over to polarland......you spotting the cold theme here!!
Well there's not much I want to say about polarland, it was incredibly depressing. The fish seemed to do well but the larger animals are completely in the wrong enclosures. The polar bears were in an unbearably small area and were very stressed. The main attraction there is a beluga whale show so when we saw them in their tank I was shocked when I realised the show happened in that small tank. I figured there would be a hatch into a bigger area. All in all it was a bit sad. We had the usual argument trying to get home with a taxi driver as they all refused until another man could take us and I course for an inflated rate. For 17RMB there it cost us 50RMB back. Grrrr

Our final day in Harbin and I can safely say that I've loved it but I'm ready to warm up as the temperatures here are just a bit too hard for me. The boys went out for the afternoon & a met up with them for dinner. Sy had a mega grumpy face on and infact he'd lost his wallet. It fell out while he was on an Ice buggy and made some china mans New Years. Oh well, s*** happens. We had a great meal & gathered our things for another flight. Onwards to Beijing!! .