Harbin’s Siberian Tiger Park & Ice Festival // 哈尔滨的国际冰雪节

The next day we set out early for a full day of activities. First was the Siberian Tiger Park! It was about a 15 minute taxi ride, just on the other side of the Songhua River. The park is a protected area to preserve the Siberian Tiger, which is considered endangered. The park occupies nearly 356 acres and it has many different sections to divide the tigers accordingly. There are over 500 purebred Siberian tigers in the park, as well as white tigers, lions, lynx, leopards and black pumas. We even saw what was advertised as a liger, but they are so incredibly rare, so we weren’t 100% sure if it was just faulty Chinese advertising to draw in more tourists or what…

We were able to ride through a few of the enclosures in a kind of safari bus with bars on the windows! The tigers were literally just beside the bus roaming about. I never realized just how big they are! We also got to see a chicken get released into the tiger’s den and pretty much get torn to shreds in seconds with just a swipe of a paw… That was cray.

After we finished at the tiger park, we headed back to the hotel to get warmed up a bit and grab some lunch. We headed for the most popular main street in Harbin called Zhongyang Boulevard. All along it were designer stores, touristy souvenirs, coffee shops, small restaurants, and even an H&M. Here, we were really surprised how international Harbin was! So while we were walking along, we caught sight of some seemingly delicious ice cream, and although our fingers and noses were freezing, we decided to get some! It was soooo good and homemade, so we went back for 2nds and (some) for 3rds! You didn’t have to worry about them melting anytime soon…

Later that night, we got bundled up to the EXTREME and headed out to see the big Ice Sculptures at the Ice and Snow World! It’s the main attraction of the festival and everyone heads there at night to see the beautiful castles, sculptures and light shows. Every year they have sculptures with different themes, like one year it was famous buildings from around the world, but this year it was just an array of castles and unique designs! My pictures are a bit blurry because I was taking photos with touch-sensitive gloves (and was also bouncing up and down from the cold), so pardon the not-so-pristine photo quality.

Some of the castles were so neat, inside there were couches and chairs you could sit in. However, these were SO slippery so you had to be careful not to fall and hit your head on the ice… There were actually Chinese kids literally bouncing off the walls, falling and slipping around everywhere. But you know kids, they have like a perfect center of gravity and are indestructible so, they were perfectly fine in their cute puffy coats. I was particularly interested in finding a rumored Ice Bar, but to my disappointment, it was just a heated enclosure with normal chairs and tables…

Well, I have so many more photos but these are just a few of my favorites. We spent about 90 minutes in the park and then were lucky enough to all find taxis to get home pretty quickly. There were 9 of us total so we managed to haggle our way into getting a cheap but non-heated minibus ride home. Overall, the freezing, the lights, the music and the fun was like a full-body overload. We were all exhausted when we got back to the hotel so we just relaxed and passed out, getting ready for our next and last day in Harbin.