The next morning at eight o'clock, after having breakfast at the bathhouse, Xia Jing once again acted as the guide, leading Bai Yu and the other three away.
This time, their destination was a snow park, and Xia Jing was going to take Bai Yu and the others skiing.
The moment skiing was mentioned, Wang Hai, Bai Yue, and Li Xue, three members of the five-person team, immediately became excited.
As a southerner who only saw snow for the first time yesterday, skiing is a sport I really long for. Regardless of whether they can ski or not, they genuinely want to try it.
More than an hour later, they arrived at a snow-covered mountain in the ice and snow world. The mountain was not very high, only about forty or fifty meters high, but its slope was quite long.
After being covered by heavy snow, this place becomes a natural ski resort, surrounded by netting, presumably to prevent beginners from skiing too far.
Soon, Bai Yu and his friends paid the money, rented ski equipment, and prepared to ski.
Of the five of them, only one could ski, and that was Xia Jing; the other four were all beginners.
In order to teach Li Xue and Bai Yue how to ski, Xia Jing chose the same ski equipment as Bai Yu and the others—double skis.
As for Bai Yu and Wang Hai, in Xia Jing's words, they are both men, so they don't need to be taught how to ski; they'll learn after falling a few times.
Just as Xia Jing said, the first time Bai Yu went skiing, she landed on her stomach and slid down the slope; the second time, she used her buttocks as skis.
On the third attempt, he was able to half-squat, although he still fell in the end. But this at least proved one thing: Bai Yu had made progress.
After falling five or six times, Bai Yu was able to slide down the slope standing up. Although he was eventually stopped by the net, at least he stopped falling.
After skiing a few more times, Bai Yu felt that skiing down the slope was no longer interesting, so he wanted to ski somewhere else. Then, Bai Yu took Wang Hai with him, and the two of them staggered towards a larger ski resort nearby.
The ice and snow park that Xia Jing brought Bai Yu and the others to wasn't themed around ice sculptures like the Ice and Snow World; instead, it was themed around skiing.
The previous small slope was for beginners. There are several other ski resorts, including alpine ski resorts, but ordinary people are not allowed to go up there.
The place Bai Yu and Wang Hai arrived at was a flat ski resort. There were quite a few people playing there, with snowboards, skis, longboards, and shortboards all available.
Bai Yu even saw dog sleds here. Here, the huskies are not the destructive huskies, but dutiful sled dogs.
In the end, Bai Yu and his friends stayed at the Ice and Snow Park until 11 o'clock, experiencing all the worthwhile attractions and taking a lot of photos and videos.
At noon, Xia Jing took Bai Yu and the others to eat barbecue. It was different from the barbecue you eat in restaurants. Xia Jing took them to a local family's home, where they ate barbecue on a heated kang (a traditional Chinese bed-and-carpet).
Meat was roasting on the grill, and Bai Yu and the others were roasting on the heated brick bed. Just imagine how pleasant that felt!
Especially when he learned that a large plate of high-quality, freshly sliced snowflake beef was only sixty yuan, Bai Yu ordered three plates without saying a word.
He and Wang Hai each had a plate, while Li Xue and the other two shared a plate. It wasn't that Bai Yu was reluctant to share with Li Xue and the others, but rather that the portion was too large, at least a pound per plate.
Moreover, they don't just eat this one kind of meat; it's just that snowflake meat is the most expensive and tastes the best.
In the end, the five of them only spent a little over two hundred yuan, but they were extremely satisfied with their meal, especially the satisfaction derived from eating meat.
In Harbin, Bai Yu and his friends witnessed the purchasing power of RMB. Food and drinks were really cheap, plentiful, and filling.
In the afternoon, they went to the Ice and Snow World, an ice park built with ice as its infrastructure.
Since the 1990s, Harbin Ice and Snow World has become a calling card for the city, and they store ice every year to build various structures.
If you visit the Ice and Snow World during the day, it's actually quite ordinary. Apart from the transparent ice blocks, the igloos, and the various sculptures, there's not much else to see.
But once night falls, under the illumination of these lights, all the ice sculptures here will come to life, looking magnificent, just like stepping into a fairytale kingdom.
Bai Yu and the others spent an afternoon and an evening at the Ice and Snow World. After dinner, they returned to the Ice and Snow World.
It's worth mentioning that they were once again shocked by the portion sizes of the Northeastern Chinese dishes at dinner.
I had heard that the portions in Northeast China are particularly large, but what I've heard and what I've actually seen are two different things.
When Bai Yu and his friends had dinner, they specifically chose a Northeastern Chinese restaurant. They were very restrained when ordering, and the five of them only ordered four dishes.
But when the dishes arrived, they felt that one dish would be enough for them, especially the one called "iron pot stewed goose," which was enough for all five of them.
To be honest, Bai Yu, being from Hainan Province, has eaten goose quite often. Whether it's roast goose or Chengmai Bailian goose, which is known as one of the eight famous dishes of Hainan Province, he has eaten it many times, and his father can also cook it.
However, the way goose is cooked in Hainan Province is completely different from the iron pot stewed goose in Northeast China. There's no comparison between the two; both are incredibly delicious.
However, food cooked in an iron pot is especially fragrant, more appetizing, and goes better with rice.
Besides the braised goose in an iron pot, Bai Yu also ordered braised chicken with mushrooms, sweet and sour pork, and fried mushrooms, all of which can be considered famous Northeastern dishes.
These four dishes were not enough for Bai Yu and his group of five to finish. They ended up packing them up to eat as a late-night snack back at the hotel.
After spending a night at the Ice and Snow World, eating plenty of snacks, and buying many souvenirs, Bai Yu and her three companions finally dragged their tired bodies back to the hotel.
Despite their physical exhaustion, their spirits were high. Back at the hotel, the four of them got together again and ordered takeout.
The reason we say there are four people is because Xia Jing is a local, and she goes home to stay at night, not staying at a hotel with Bai Yu and the others.
They didn't return to their rooms to rest until after midnight.
Although they didn't visit many places in the past two days, they had a great time, and they didn't spend too much money. This led them to conclude that Harbin is a tourist city with a very high cost-performance ratio.
The next morning, Bai Yu and Wang Hai were woken up by Bai Yue's knocking on the door. Without a doubt, Xia Jing had arrived at the hotel and was going to take them out to play again.
Just as Bai Yu had expected, they continued their sightseeing tour of Harbin that day, visiting some of the more famous tourist spots.
Some attractions include St. Sophia Cathedral, a stroll along the Songhua River, the morning market in Northeast China, and the Dragon Tower.
There are so many attractions in Harbin that you definitely can't see them all in one day; you'll have to visit them one day at a time.
Moreover, Bai Yu and his group didn't just visit tourist attractions; they also took the time to find some local delicacies.
The second day was spent visiting tourist attractions (this second day does not include the day they set off), and the third day was all about eating, from one end of the street to the other, from snacks to main meals, from breakfast to late-night snacks.
After a whole day, Bai Yu felt like she had gained several pounds. She didn't know if it was just her imagination, but when she pinched her cheeks, she could clearly feel that she had gotten fatter.
On the fourth day, they continued to visit local attractions; on the fifth day, they continued to eat; on the sixth day, they continued to eat and explore; and the seventh day was the most important day because Bai Yu and the others were preparing to return to Sanya on the seventh day.
On the morning of the seventh day, Xia Jing arrived at the hotel early as usual and went out for breakfast with Bai Yu and the others.
During this process, Bai Yu and the others remained very silent. This silence was not because they were about to part ways today, but because they were silent about where they were going next.
One is a place that Chinese people should never forget, one is a place that reminds Chinese people of that tragic era, and one is a place that evokes anger and resentment in Chinese people—the 731 Site Museum.
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