***哈尔滨冰雪大世界***
期末以后，我考试结束了。回家以前，因为我要打发一个星期的时间，所以我坐高铁从北京到哈尔滨。那个城市是黑龙江省的首都———中国最东北的省。 有一个同学和我一起去，我们住在我哈尔滨语友的家里。跟他的父母练习中文非常有意思。
Harbin Ice and Snow World
每个冬天哈尔滨有“哈尔滨冰雪大世界”———世界上最大最有名的冰雪节。冰雕师从很多地方来参加，做冰雕。第一天我们去参观，逛了几个小时。阳光灿烂，就是温度特别特别低，可能零下十度，所以我们常常得找个咖啡店暖和暖和。冰雪节像一个大游乐园，不但有冰雕，而且有滑梯和其他活动———我们滑冰！我们看了很多的冰雕，又雄伟又漂亮。有一些是世界上最有名的建筑，比如说罗马斗兽场和伊斯坦布尔圣索非亚大教堂。
第二天我们去老虎园参观，看了东北虎，是黑龙江省的。然后我们从冰上过河，河流结冰因为天气太冷！河流很宽，可能五百米左右，我们走了十分钟。
因为哈尔滨离俄罗斯不太远，所以城市的建筑和饮食受俄罗斯的影响很大。我们去一间俄罗斯式教堂参观，还有品尝地方风味。
然后我们回北京去。去一个那样冷的地方并且感受那个地方的文化非常有意思！
Snow sculptures
***Harbin Ice and Snow Festival***
It was the end of term and I had just finished my exams. I had a week to kill before going back home so I took the high-speed train from Beijing to Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang—China’s most north-eastern province. A class mate came with me and we stayed at my language buddy’s house. It was fascinating to stay with a Chinese family and chat with his parents in Chinese.
Ice scultpures
Every winter Harbin hosts the “Harbin Ice and Snow World”—the world’s largest and most famous snow and ice sculpture festival. Ice sculptors come from all over the world to make sculptures. On the first day we went there, and walked around for several hours. The sun was shining but it was extremely cold, perhaps -10 degrees, so we often had to have a coffee break and warm up. The festival is like a big theme park with not only ice sculptures but also slides and activities—we went ice skating! We looked at the sculptures which were both impressive and beautiful. There were some of the most famous buildings from around the world, such as the Colosseum in Rome and Istanbul’s Hagia Sofia.
The Colosseum (lit up!)
On the second day we went to visit the tiger park and saw Siberian tigers, which are native to Heilongjiang province. We then walked across the river which was frozen solid, because the weather is so cold. It was very wide, perhaps 500m in width, so it took nearly 10 minutes.
Because Harbin is close to the border with Russia there is also a lot of Russian influence, for example in the architecture and cuisine. We visited some Russian-style churches and tried some local delicacies.
Russian-style church
We then returned to Beijing. It was so interesting to spend time in such a cold place and to gain an insight into the culture there!
Walking across the frozen river