Spending 50 million to travel to China, Vietnamese tourists are freezing cold, encountering a snowstorm they will never forget

Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China. With an average annual temperature of 4.25 degrees Celsius and an extreme low of -42.6 degrees Celsius, Harbin is nicknamed the "Ice City" for its thriving winter tourism industry, notably its annual ice and snow festival - one of the world's largest and oldest ice and snow festivals.

This winter, the ice festival opened on December 17, 2023, lasting until early January 2024, attracting more than three million tourists to the city during the New Year holiday. This is also a destination that attracts the attention of Vietnamese tourists.

Travel blogger Nguyen Hong Thu Trang (Trang Nem) just had an 8-day, 7-night journey to Harbin to "challenge herself against the -30 degree Celsius cold".

"The weather in Harbin is extremely harsh, the temperature is always between -27 degrees Celsius and -25 degrees Celsius. I can only stay outside for 2-3 hours before my body freezes," said Trang.

Ms. Trang traveled semi-independently. The group of Vietnamese tourists was led by a tour guide who had lived and worked in China for many years.

“Because China has many unique features such as being very large, going anywhere, doing anything is super crowded, having to wait in long lines, people not using English, strict police checks, booking rooms, contacting vehicles, places to eat, buying entertainment tickets all have to be purchased with a passport and booked long in advance. Therefore, even though I have a lot of experience traveling abroad, I still choose to go with someone who has experience to save time "getting lost", Ms. Trang said.

As expected, Ms. Trang was overwhelmed by the extremely impressive ice festival in Harbin. The festival displayed sculptures carved from ice blocks harvested from the Songhua River. The technology used to decorate the works combined modern methods (using laser lights) and traditional methods (ice lanterns). This year's famous event gathered more than 1,000 ice and snow sculptures to create a theme park for visitors from all over the world to admire. This was the 25th time the festival was held, and an estimated 250,000 cubic meters of ice and snow were used to create the works.

Besides admiring the works, visitors can enjoy many other interesting activities such as ice skating, skiing, and sleigh rides on the glacier...

“Although I myself am not a fan of beautiful man-made structures, standing here in the cold of nearly -30 degrees Celsius, with numb limbs, I am impressed by the excellence and perseverance of the artisans and workers,” Trang shared.

During the trip, Ms. Trang also visited Tuyet Huong Snow Village, a village with roofs covered in white snow like a fairy tale. The village is located about 300km southeast of Harbin city center in China, in Mudanjiang city, Heilongjiang province.

When night falls, this place becomes even more magical when lit by red and green lanterns, bringing the typical atmosphere of the year-end festival and the culture of people living in the Northeast region.

During the trip, Ms. Trang and a group of Vietnamese tourists encountered an incident at Coc Tuyet. Coc Tuyet village is quite small, it only takes about 10 minutes to wander around, however, the trekking journey through the forest here attracts many tourists.

That day, the snow was falling heavily. When Trang’s group reached the top of the mountain, the snow was falling even heavier and the wind was blowing like a blizzard. Cars could not go up or down the mountain. All the tourists were stuck on the mountain car for about 3 hours. “When the storm showed no signs of stopping, the management board was forced to use the large tracked vehicles that were only used to climb halfway up the mountain to take our group down the mountain. If we leave the tourists outside for too long, especially after 4pm when it is completely dark, it will be even more dangerous,” Trang said.

Thinking back to the feeling when sitting in the car going down the mountain, she still feels scared. The snow was so thick, covering the road completely, the driver had to feel the way while driving. “At that time, we could no longer see whether it was a slope or a cliff in front of us or on the sides. There were times when the car missed a ditch or a pothole, tipped over, and everyone was shivering. This was truly an unforgettable experience for me,” Trang said.

Ms. Trang said that the cost of this trip was about 50 million VND, of which 35 million VND was the tour fee, including tickets to amusement parks and basic transportation services. The remaining amount was for Ms. Trang to invest in warm clothes and buy souvenirs.

"This is a fairly high price compared to traveling to China, probably only after difficult-to-go destinations like Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia. The reason is that traveling to Harbin is quite far, requiring two flights. The cost of traveling in this city is quite high," said Ms. Trang.

Ms. Trang carefully prepared her clothes, such as windproof and waterproof life jackets, gloves, scarves, mittens, woolen hats, non-slip snow boots with fur lining, long woolen socks, earmuffs, and thermal clothing. The female tourist stuck heat-retaining pads on her shoulders, neck, back, stomach, soles of her feet, etc. “And even with my obsession with virtual life, I also had to stick heat-retaining pads on my phone to take pictures. Because in this weather, machines easily lose battery and shut down very quickly,” Ms. Trang said.