China is packed with internationally famous tourist sites. We all know about The Great Wall, The Forbidden City and most people have heard about the Summer Palace. However, it also has hundreds of massive, amazing and sometimes bizarre spots that are well-visited by Chinese tourists, but are virtually unknown to the western world.
Stumbling upon these attractions is one of the best parts of traveling in China. Who knew just outside of Harbin there are acres and acres of flowers? If this was in Canada, it would be an international tourist attraction and would be well known to anyone living nearby. But since China has so much to do and see with 1000s of years of history to explore, this place is barely a blip on the radar in the grand scheme of Chinese tourism.
Less tourists meant more room to frolic in the flowers for us!
Since coming to China, we've eaten so many delicious new things that they've become a blur. A tasty parade of BBQ meat, hot pot and dumplings dancing through my memory. From the familiar flavors of steamed pork buns to more adventurous dishes like deep fried silk worm pupa, I'd eat them all again.
That is, I'd eat them all again minus two specific items.
In this week's vlog I discuss what those two items are, how they tasted and what we learned from the experience. If you know me in real life, you know that I'll pretty much eat anything twice. In fact, even if it's not my favorite I'll give it a few more tries to see if I can convince myself otherwise.
It's not often that I make an effort to avoid something, but if I see these two things for sale in the future, there's no way they'll end up in my shopping cart.
(If you'd rather see the delicious Chinese food we've been chowing down on, hop over to my Instagram where it's all good eats all the time.)
PS: This photo is NOT one of the worst things we ate. You'll need to watch the video to find out what the worst things were ;)
These are the aforementioned silk worm pupas, they look a little strange, but are fairly flavorless. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
In cities like Beijing and Shanghai, they're sold in night markets along with other scary looking bugs as a novelty food. However, here in Harbin, they are a popular dish at both BBQ joints and hot pot places so naturally we had to try some.
The verdict: I don't feel too strongly either way. The flavor is very mild and the texture is interesting so I'd definitely try them again, although wouldn't go out of my way to order them.
Harbin is famous for their snow and ice festival in the winter, but there are hidden gems scattered across the entire city. Did you know Harbin is home to both the most evil building in China AND the most beautiful building in China? If not, come with us! We've put together a two day itinerary that packs in Harbin's top 5 must-see places.
In our latest vlog we take you along for the weekend to see all five places. Is the grand theater the most beautiful building in China? Who is Harbin's most famous park named after? How many servings of ice cream can we eat in one day? Can you drive a tiny toy car around famous scenic buildings? These and other extremely important questions are all answered in the video above.
When we were planning our move to Harbin, it wasn't easy to determine how much to budget per month for two people. The cost of living in China varies greatly from city to city and a lot of the information we found on Harbin was outdated (or maybe it was new and just completely incorrect).
I think people are always secretly, or not so secretly, curious about how much other people spend and on what... so here you go! A complete breakdown of our expenses which we have been tracking for the past three months.
In our latest vlog we take you along with us for a day to see how much we spend, where we spend it, and to show you a bit of the city. Afterwards we discuss the things that are surprisingly WAY more expensive in China than they would be in Canada. It's clear from our budget below that we don't buy those things.
Plus I share a sad story about the price of coffee. Fascinating.
All the prices below are in Canadian dollars and Chinese Yuan (sorry American friends).
(Read on for our list of the top five dishes or check out the video above to see them in action!)
Harbin is tucked way way up in the far most North Eastern province of China alongside the Russian border. Like many Chinese cities, it has a vibrant street food culture that is uniquely it's own. The food is salty and rich and strangely.....familiar. Compared to the street food in other provinces, Harbin's street food looks like they knew my dad was coming to visit so they curated a menu just to his tastes. Piles of savory grilled meats, fried potatoes and mushrooms, ice cream stalls, and skewers of seafood. Plus a bottle of cold beer(they actually sell ice cold beer here, a rare thing in China) is only 60 cents. (Read on for our list of the top five dishes or check out the video above to see them in action)
Everything is seasoned with a little bit of cumin, salt and (if you want it) a spicy red powder. You won't find many complex sauces here or what westerners might consider to be "strange" flavors. They serve their meat and seafood salty with tons of garlic. Or, alternatively with a bit of honey or a sprinkle of sugar on the chicken wings to give them that sweet and salty flavor that keeps you eating and eating.
If you visit Harbin, you absolutely must visit the night markets. These are comprised of stall after stall after stall of street food vendors all shouting their offerings to the crowds. They are scattered throughout the city and are open from 5pm-ish to 10pm-ish. Wherever there is a university, there is sure to be a night market close by. It's a popular activity for the university students. The markets get fairly crowded in the evenings with students eating, shopping and hanging out with their friends. You can avoid the crowds by arriving early.. but people watching is half the fun.
The biggest night market has the typical Harbin street food plus some more trendy/adventurous fare such as black stinky tofu, deep fried durian (surprisingly delicious), grilled pig's feet, and scorpions on sticks. The smaller night markets carry the tried and true staples that Harbin university students (and the rest of Harbin) know and love. No matter which market you end up at, you shouldn't leave until you've eaten these five things:
