Indepth Exploration of Winter Landscape and Culture of Northeast China
Attending the famous Ice & Snow Festival in Harbin and enjoying the charm of snow in Northeast Chinam, including the amazing rime scenery of Jilin Wusong Island, unique imperial culture and historic relics in Changchun and Shenyang and the romantic harbor view of Dalian City! You will not only appreciate the amazing snow-white landscape of this area, but also learn more about the past, the present and the future of these cities from this tour.
(Warm Tip: Harbin Ice and Snow Festival is usually held during late December to late February or early March every year, please plan your trip accordingly. Besides, if you want to attend the Opening Ceremony of Harbin World Ice and Snow Festival and appreciate its fabulous firework show at Ice and Snow World on January 5th every year, you can enjoy the tour around that date. Furthermore, rime scenery in Jilin usually occurs during December to middle February, with January being the most frequent month, please plan your trip accordingly!)
Ni Hao! Welcome to Harbin, the Capital of Heilongjiang Province, which is well known as the "Ice City" in China. Your local guide will meet you at the arrival hall of airport / railway station. Then you will be escorted to your hotel in a private vehicle. The rest of today is on your own to explore this city.
Arrival Ideas:
Harbin Taiping International Airport is 41 km’s driving distance from downtown area. It has flights from Beijing (2 hrs), Dalian (1.5 hrs), Qingdao (2 hrs), Jinan (2 hrs), Xian (3 hrs), Shanghai (3 hrs), Chengdu (3.5-4 hrs), Ordos (2.5 hrs), Hangzhou (3 hrs), Guangzhou (4-4.5 hrs), Xiamen (4-4.5hrs), Wuhan (3-3.5 hrs), Sanya (5 hrs) and more destinations in China, and more international cities like Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Moscow, Phuket Island, etc. While Harbin West Railway Station has high speed trains linking Harbin with Beijing (7~8 hrs), Changchun (1 hr), Shenyang (2.5~3 hrs), Dalian (4~5 hrs), Jilin (2-3 hrs), Tianjin (6.5 hrs), etc.
Evening Ideas (Explore on your Own):
In this evening, you can go to Zhaolin Park to appreciate the largest scale of outdoor ice lantern fair in the world. Complimented as “the non-repetitive fairy tales”, Zhaolin Park Ice Lantern Show is one of the three exhibitions that make up the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival. Spend 1-2 hours to enjoy all the colorful ice lanterns and ice sculptures. (Important Note: It is held every year from January 5th to the end of February. It is suggested to visit after 18:00 when all the lights turning on.)
After breakfast, your guide and driver will pick you up at your hotel. Firstly, you'll visit the Sun Island Scenic Resort, which is a major venue to hold the International Snow Sculpture Art Expo on Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in winter. Walk into this vast pure lovely fairyland of 60,000 square meters and meet the incredible “white visual storm”. Have a close look at the thousands of excellent large-scaled artistic snow sculptures of landscape, cartoon, figures, buildings, etc., which will make you wow at the outstanding talent of the craftsmen who inject life into the cold snow. With so amazing backdrop, you just can’t help taking some great photos to record the nice moment (You are highly advised to wear sunglasses to visit the Snow Sculpture Art Fair since the glary from sunshine on the snow is really intense.)
Then, be escorted to the nearby Siberian Tiger Park, the largest breeding center in the world for endangered Siberian Tigers that. Over 1,300 purebred Siberian Tigers are raised there. You’ll not only pay a safe walk to observe different kinds of tigers (Siberian Tigers, White Tigers, White Lion, Leopard, Liger, etc.), but also take a tourist bus with wire-mesh protection through the park to closely see the tigers and lions and take some photos.
After dinner, you will head to the incredible gorgeous Ice and Snow World, the highlights of annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival. Start your freedom stroll in the dazzling magical world of ice where to appreciate over 2,000 pieces of sculptures of ice and snow including pagodas, towers, famous world architectures, landscapes, and so forth dyed with romantic colorful LED lights, which can easily make you want to stay longer in such an “Ice Wonderland in Harbin”. Besides the sightseeing, if you would like to enjoy the festive atmosphere to the fullest, you can choose to have fun with the world longest sliding, or other winter activities on ice, such as ice maze, ice climbing, skating, etc.
Note: 1) Please wear enough layers of proper clothes and warm shoes to keep you away from the freeze especially when you want to stay here longer to enjoy the beautiful scenery. 2) An indoor Ice and Snow Paradise with smaller scale is built in the scenic area of the Ice and Snow World, and tourists could also enjoy the ice and snow there as well when the festival ends. 3) There may be long queues in front of some hot activity items in the Ice and Snow World during traditional Chinese Lunar New Year and weekends, and you could visit there during other dates to avoid crowds.
Today, after breakfast, your guide and driver will meet you at your hotel. You’ll go to Sophia Square to admire the holy appearance of the St. Sophia Cathedral from 1907. This must-visit site is a typical Byzantine architecture with a large green dome and was once the largest Orthodox Church in the Far East. The cathedral is the symbolic architecture in Harbin and at present is used as Harbin Architectural Art Gallery and displays some souvenirs. Then, you’ll visit the nearby exotic Zhongyang Pedestrian Street from 1900. Stroll along this 1,400 meters long historic street to appreciate the 71 precious buildings in different styles with long history, including Renaissance, Baroque, etc. (The Stalin Park is very close to the pedestrian, so if you are interested and time permits, you could walk there to admire the Russian architectures and enjoy many creative artistic sculptures.)
After that, you’ll go to visit Heilongjiang Provincial Museum that keeps the European Baroque outside building from 1906. In this museum, a great number of valuable cultural relics of bronze, gold, jade, ceramics, paintings, etc. are on display to tell the 40,000-year long human history and culture of the whole Heilongjiang Province, from the remote era, to the rising and declining of different ethnic minorities, from the origin of the last empire era in Chinese history, to the modern time changes and development with the whole nation. Besides, you will see a rich array of imitating scenes and historical relics to know the life of Russian immigrants and their influence to make Harbin rich of Russian flavor today.
Then, you will be escorted to Jilin city about 215 kilometers away with about 5.5 hours' drive (about 310km), the second largest city in Northeast China.
You will get up early today! After your breakfast at the hotel, your guide and driver will meet you at the hotel and then drive about 1.5 hour to visit Wusong Island (Rime Island for its beautiful rime scenery). With the best type of rimes with outstanding thickness, density and structure, much more beautiful than those in the rest of China, Wusong Island is the best place to see the natural miracle of rimes in the whole country.
Walk to say hello to the sunrise of the day. As the sun rises, more radiance sends out to to change the sky into golden, orange, pink, rose, purple, etc., and the mists over the water rise gradually to make the outline of the trees partly hidden and partly visible, which is a superb dreamy visual feast of this winter! Press your shutter as free to record such gorgeous natural masterpiece. Then, after the sky gets bluer, walk around the snow covered path, along the water and under the trees to admire the white and silver rimes decorating like the special winter jade flowers on the new dressing from winter. Enjoy your romantic dating with the fabulous sightseeing and take more amazing photos!
(Best Time for Wusong Island rime photography: rimes usually occur from December to middle February in winter, and January is the month with more frequent rime days. As rimes drops after noon hours, 07:00-11:30 is the best time for shooting the rimes and the sunrise of the day with 10:00-11:30 being the best time for rimes with blue sky.)
After that, you'll continue to visit Songhua River, enjoy the outlook of Catholic Church and discover Sika Deer Farm in the city.
After the tour, be driven to Changchun.
Today's tour starts from the Puppet Emperor's Imperial Palace, the official residence created by the Imperial Japanese Army for China's last emperor Puyi to live in as part of his role as Emperor of the puppet state of Manchukuo. Next, visit The Eight Ministries of Puppet Manchuguo Regime from the outside, which were established as a way for the Japanese to legitimize their claim to the territory of Northeast China.
After that, moving on to Shenyang for 4 hours and check in Hotel.
Today, you will first go to Shenyang Imperial Palace, the most ancient imperial architectural complex of Qing Dynasty next to the Forbidden City in Beijing. Then, visit the Former Residence of General Zhang Xueliang nearby the Imperial Palace.
Then, take a walk in Beiling Park, the largest park in the downtown of Shenyang, which is the tomb garden of the second emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
After today's tour, transfer to Dalian, a vibrant economic center and tourist city of Liaoning Province.
After breakfast, you will first visit the Xinghai Square, the landmark of Dalian City. Here you can enjoy an awesome view of the city as well as the sea. Then move on to Tiger Beach Scenic Park (Laohutan Scenic Park), the biggest modern lido in China with four parts: the Tiger Park, Singing Birds Woods, Tiger Square and an Aquarium.
After that, you will visit Dalian Harbor, which is reputed as the Bright Pearl of Northern China, and Russian Street to experience the exotic culture of this city.
Today, you are free till our guide takes you to the airport for the flight for your next destination.
Harbin / China Snow Town / Harbin
Harbin / China Snow Town / Jingpo Lake / Dunhua / Changbai Mountain / Jilin
Beijing / Harbin / Shanghai
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