十七个星期以后，终于我才放假。北京现在零下5度，所以人们建议我可能去比较暖和的地方，比如云南、香港或澳门。可是我却决定去更冷的地方：哈尔滨！我之所以去哈尔滨是因为每年从十二月到二月哈尔滨举行国际冰雪节，是在中国最厉害、最有名旅游胜地之一。
Saint Sophia’s Cathedral
哈尔滨有坎坷的现代历史。1896年以前，只是一个很小的渔村。 可是第十九世纪末，俄罗斯工人开始建造跨西伯利亚铁路：在哈尔滨的铁路连接贝加尔湖和符拉迪沃斯托克。在日俄战争(1904-5年），哈尔滨是俄罗斯军事行动的基地。1917年，为了逃避俄罗斯改革，许多俄罗斯来到哈尔滨，因此当时哈尔滨有在苏联之外最多的俄罗斯人口。因此，在大街上俄式建筑触目皆是。比方说， 圣索菲亚教堂是城市里最大和最漂亮的教堂：它的深绿的穹顶真的让人吃惊：很容易想象站在莫斯科！我也尝了尝俄式食品， 比如罗宋汤，真的很好吃.
另外哈尔滨国际冰雪节是世界上最大的冰雪节。在1984年，第一个冰雪节，只吸引了中国人；可是那个时候以来，成为了国际的活动，吸引从天南地北的人。在2018年，一千八百万人来到哈尔滨。冰雪节由太阳岛和冰雪大世界组成。太阳岛具有各种各样的雪雕。虽然巨大，可细节非常精致。天黑了，我去冰雪大世界：拥有照明的全尺寸建筑，由直接从松花江锯开的2-3米厚冰块组成。建筑包括寺庙、大本钟和罗马圆形大剧场！虽然天气严寒所以我手机很快地没有电，但我还拍了几张照片：五颜六色的建筑和乌黑的天空的对比度真的很特殊。两三个小时以后，看到了几乎所有的冰雕，很想回宾馆：虽然我穿着三件毛衣、两件外套、四件长裤，可真的冷得要命！
在哈尔滨最可怜的是侵华日军第七三一部队遗址纪念馆。在第二世界大战，日本军队进行凶恶的实验：3000个中国人和敌人的士兵作为实验对象：科学家故意地使得俘虏人感染瘟疫、霍乱和炭疽了。一些更可怕的实验包括没有麻醉的活体解剖。看到了所有使用过的医疗设备、图片显示有最厉害的症状的俘虏以及目击者的叙述使得我非常感动。我也感到愤怒因为发现了很少进行这些实验的日本将军和士兵被绳之以法：美国战后的政府和日本政府订了一个密约，日本当事的豁免权作为对给美国实验结果的报答。
Ice sculptures
After seventeen weeks, I’m finally on holiday. It’s now -5 degrees in Beijing, so people recommended that I go to somewhere warmer like Yunnan, Hong Kong or Macao. But instead I decided to go somewhere even colder: Harbin! I decided to go because from December through to February each year Harbin hosts the International Snow and Ice Festival, which is one the best and most famous tourist attractions in China.
Harbin has an tumultuous history. Before 1896, it was just a small fishing village, but at the end of the 19th century, Russian workers started to build Trans-Siberian railway: Harbin’s railway connected Lake Baikal and Vladivostok. In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, Harbin was the base for Russian military activities. Then in 1917, many Russians came to Harbin to escape the Russian Revolution, thus Harbin had the largest Russian population outside the Soviet Union at that time. Therefore, on the streets there are Russian-style buildings everywhere. For example, Saint Sophia’s Cathedral is the city’s biggest and most beautiful church: it’s dark green dome really is jaw-dropping! I could have quite easily be standing in Moscow! I also tried some Russian delicacies, like borsch, which was tasty.
Snow sculptures
Also, Harbin’s International Snow and Ice Festival is the word’s biggest Snow and Festival. In 1984, at the first festival, it only attracted Chinese tourists. But since then, it has become an international event, attracting people from all over the world. In 2018, 18 million people came to Harbin. The festival comprises of Sun Island and Snow and Ice World. Sun Island has various snow sculptures: despite their large size, they are nonetheless very intricate. As it became darker, I headed over to the Snow and Ice world which had full-size illuminated buildings, made up of 2-3 metre thick ice cubes cut directly from Songhua River. The buildings included temples, Big Ben and the Colosseum! Although it was bitterly cold, and so my phone quickly ran out of battery, I still managed to taken some photos: the contrast between the multi-coloured buildings and the black sky really was something special. But after two or three hours, having seen nearly all the sculptures, I really wanted to go back to the hotel: even wearing three jumpers, two jackets, and four pairs of jeans, I felt absolutely freezing.
The Unit 731 Mausoleum is the most pitiable attraction in Harbin. In WW2, Japanese soldiers carried out atrocious experiments: 3000 Chinese and enemy soldiers were guinea pigs for the experiments; they were deliberately infected with the plague, choler and anthrax. Some of the more horrific experiments include vivisection without anaesthesia. Seeing all the used medical equipment, the photos showing the prisoners with the awful symptoms as well as the accounts from the prisoners moved me greatly. But I also felt angry because I learned that very few Japanese generals and soldiers who carried out these experiments were brought to justice since the post-war American and Japanese governments made a secret deal whereby those Japanese involved got immunity in return for giving the US the results of their experiments.