My Winter Vacation Part 10 - Shangri-La Hotel Harbin

Part 1 click HERE

Part 2 click HERE

Part 3 click HERE

Part 4 click HERE

Part 5 click HERE

Part 6 click  HERE

Part 7 click HERE

Part 8 click HERE

Part 9 click HERE

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Destination:  HeiLongJiang (黑龙江), China

Duration: 23 - 30 Dec 2015 (8 days)

Mode of travel: Package with Chan Brothers Travel

Flight: Air China  (via Beijing)

Damage: S$1,878/pax, Tour Guide Tip: RMB200  Local Guide Tip: S$16, other compulsory/optional tours: RMB1,420 (slit throat + heart bleed)

Currency: RMB (we rough divide by 4.5 to convert to S$)

Time Difference:  Same as Singapore

Weather: -22 to -30°C

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29.12.2015

Last day in Harbin, staying at Shangri-La Hotel.

NO.555, Youyi Road, Dao Li, 150018 Harbin, China.

Pic stolen from web site.   I had to get across the road if I had to take the pic of the hotel.  Not risking being run over by cars and it's pitch dark when we reached, it's still pitch dark when we left lolxx...

The room is almost fully occupied by 2 super singles, probably the smallest room in the hotel.

But never mind, bed and pillows were the most comfortable here through the entire trip.

Advertising of the The Ice Bar and Ice Palace steamboat on the door knob hang tag.

We paid RMB270/pax for the Ice Palace Hot Pot which we really shouldn't had.

The service crew usher us through a couple of heavy fridge doors to enter into the Ice Bar and Ice Palace.

The bar was "warm" at -16 degrees, heehee....

Shelves, bar counter, tables, stools, all made of ICE.

The Ice Bar and Ice Palace were connected, however the Ice Palace felt colder.  Photo taking continued.

I explored around of course, the Ice Palace was build outside the hotel's building.

Ice Palace = Igloo

Dining in the Ice Palace was as good cold as dinning outdoor.

Common dining area.

Our VIP "room".  Steamboat steamed the whole cave.  But nothing melt, it was still freaking cold.

Steamboat inside an igloo.

 Looked fun, looked fascinating to most people.  As in: "Wow!!  Pipping hot steamboat inside an ice igloo!  How COOL!!"  It's "How COLD" not cool in reality, suffered much -____-

Beef and pork were limited and tasteless, chicken meat was weird.

Individual pot with fire so small that the pot hardly reach boiling point, ie.  it took forever to get food cooked.

We had been outdoors at Central Street and Harbin Ice Festival the entire afternoon, enough was enough.  Eat also cannot eat warmly was horrible.  My fingers were numbed throughout the meal.  With the same price, we could had 海底捞 with better soup bases, better meat quality, better dip sauces, better everything.  Eating in the cold with thick heavy outfit and freezing fingers was the last thing I want to experience in winter, darn.

The only fun part was perhaps the steam went up and fell on our chairs as snow flakes.  I wasn't amused any way.

Did not enjoy the Ice Palace Hot Pot at all.  But that's my personal experience lah, I am sure there are people who loves it.

Could had just settle with a normal buffet in the hotel, at least I could eat comfortably.

It's a pity that we didn't use or even see the other facilities in the hotel.  Only managed to snap pics of the hotel lobby.  It was posh, like what a 5 star hotel should be.

Christmas and Chinese New Year decors together, ready for transition.

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30.12.2015

Next morning's flight to Beijing was 8.30am.  The hotel "ta bao" breakfast for us with kor song croissants and raisin buns, we left the hotel around 6am.

Reached Harbin airport just to bump into another flight delayed.  We could had enjoyed the international breakfast if we were to know the flight delay in advance.  Tragedy I tell you TT____TT

Harbin Airport

We were finally on board after about 2 hours of delay.

Simple breakfast on board.

Some scrambled eggs and potatoes.

Porridge with instant salted veg and instant braised egg, quite nice actually.

We reached Beijing's airport with plenty of time to kill before catching the flight back to Singapore at 3.25pm.

Beijing's airport is comparable with our beloved Changi Airport, seriously.  It's spacious, polished and spotlessly clean.

That includes the washrooms.

There were quite a few restaurants in the airport.  I had no idea why of all we chose Pizza Hut for lunch.

One of the tour mate had lunch with us, so we thought this 3pax set meal would be good.

The set includes 3 drinks but the rest of the items came in 1 pax portion.

The 3 of us stared at one bowl of soup with a few seconds of awkwardness, how to share???  So stupid right?

Another awkward item, one slice of tiramisu >.<

Thank goodness the rest of the dishes were possible to share.  Taste wise was some how different from Singapore.

  We requested for 3 empty plates so that we could share the food which we were given of course, but very unwillingly.  We were the easiest bunch of customers, but what we gotten were black faces from the service crews.  No "欢迎光临 or  谢谢光顾", not even "你好 or 再见".

Tibit shopping was however a happy experience, sales were friendly enough to help me to chose and recommend which products to buy.

Finally on board, meals were fish and chicken set to chose from, we ordered both to share.

4 hours later, we were transported from -20 to 30+ degrees.

With this, my 8 days trip in Harbin has all been blogged (at long last).

If you are planning to go Harbin, please do not hesitate any longer, it's a once in a life time experience.  The younger you are the more energy and endurance you have to enjoy all the ice and snow!