Shopping Harbin-Style

Well Tim and I had two afternoons of Harbin shopping. Wanting to pick up some trinkets and Christmas gifts, we ventured into downtown Harbin near the Sophia (Russian) Church to find some stores on Saturday afternoon. We had a couple tour guides with us, two of our younger players, Yu Bai Wei and Liu Bo Lu. They took us into places we would never have found without their help.

First off, it was a nice sunny crisp cold day in Harbin. As you can see from the picture, the ice sculpting has begun and they were working on building some in the square near the church. My guess is that they won’t even begin to melt until about May! Because of the cold, to enter most stores was a rat maze of heavy army green tarp/blankets that hang behind the doorway’s so you cannot see into any stores. After going through three or so of these you were in. We entered three places all like indoor flea markets. The place was jam packed with booths of stuff from toothbrushes to TV’s. It was packed with people too. Each one we entered had three to six stories of these huge indoor flea market style places. One place we walked down into what I assumed was a subway took three turns and went through four tarps into another place, the same as the others. We found some things, the girls bartered for us and told us when to walk away because it was too expensive. Most of the time, two or three booths away, we would find the same thing for much less. All in all the girls probably saved me 40%-50% on the items I bought (or about $2 american money). Things are very inexpensive here. A nice heavy lined windproof jacket that would cost $100-$150 in the U.S. you can buy for 200 Yuan (about $25).


We took the girls out for an early dinner as a thanks, and had Baozi (like a large dumpling type thing stuffed with meat or vegetables). They were very good. We stopped at the market on the way home to pick up some snacks and we were back. You can see our tour guides here (Liu Bo Lu left and Yu Bai Wei right), posing with the Santa in the front of the restaurant.


On Sunday, we decided to take the two block walk down to the Carrefour. It is a big department/grocery store. It is two stories with the department store on top and grocery store on the bottom. It also has some kiosk type stores surrounding it and a food court with a KFC and some Chinese restaurants. Near the outside of the Carrefour, are many street vendors selling everything from peanuts to gloves to baby books on the sidewalk. We looked through the vendors but found nothing of interest and ventured into the Carrefour. We both spent about 2 hours browsing an shopping. For the entire time, the same version of “Jingle Bells” played loudly over the store stereo system.

Again, the place was packed with people. It really is amazing the number of people in Harbin. Even compared to my visits to NY and Chicago, it seems like so many more people are everywhere here. The sun was setting on the way home and we are easy to find, just look for the big ferris wheel and you can find it!


Tomorrow, I will continue my player introductions with the “Black Line”… good night from Harbin!