Welcome to Harbin!

A couple weeks ago I took a couple fast trains to the north east part of China.  After around nine hours I ended up in my new home called Harbin.  Harbin is located in Heilongjiang providence and is actually the capital of this particular providence.  So needless to say it is a bigger city than Jining with a lot more things to see and do.  Harbin does have a lot of Russian influence and it is evident on some of the buildings around here.  Somethings that I will be able to see include a Russian Orthodox Church, Central Street with Russian looking architecture, Siberian Tiger Park, Sun Island, Buddhist temples and other sites.  This list is a sample of the highlights of the city but I did leave one of the biggest attractions out of this list. 

Harbin is known as the “Ice City” and there is a very good reason for this nickname.  In the winter months it gets extremely cold and so they are able to host something known as the “International Ice and Snow Festival.”  When most people hear of Harbin that is the first thing that comes to mind because of how popular and well known it is.  Since I am living here I will be able to go that festival most likely more than once with it being held over a couple months.  During that time it will be normal to be in negative degrees for both the high and low temperatures.  When that time comes I will be bundled up good so I can go out and enjoy the sites. For now though it has been great clear days and still in the mid-twenties Celsius (about 68-78 Fahrenheit) so nothing to complain about.

 

Up here in Harbin I am still teaching English.  It is another language school and very similar to the school I was at in Jining.  With the bigger city means more students and in fact there are about eleven different schools found throughout the city.  I shouldn’t be teaching at all of them especially since there are in total about 31 foreigners.  So far I have been doing a lot of training getting used to the curriculum and how the school is structured.  My first classes should be this weekend.  I will let you know how the teaching and students are up here in northern China in a future post. 

Below are some pictures that I have been able to take so far.  It will be a little taste of what Harbin kind of looks like.  Of course more pictures and details to follow about the various things that happen here.  For now I am in the process of catching up on my Chinese vocabulary on a program that I use.  Obviously staying in China I still want to keep learning and improving. I will write later.