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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

What to Wear to an Ice Festival


On my way home at the end of the month, I'll be stopping in Harbin for the Ice Festival. It's way up north, a three-hour plane ride from Beijing, & it's going to be unbelievably cold up there. Last I checked, the low was going to be about minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, the high a balmy one degree.

So I headed over to Decathlon, Shanghai's mega-super outdoor store, over the weekend to look for some ice festival gear. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea.


The store was huge! It had two massive floors full of outdoor gear, apparel & sporting equipment, & everything was pretty reasonably priced. It reminded me a lot of Big 5 but ten times bigger - more like Big 50.

For 1230 RMB (about US $186) I got a pair of really warm snow pants, a new winter jacket, some toasty winter boots, a fleece under shirt, a hat, gloves, & a few other things. Not bad, eh? The jacket alone would have cost at least $200 in the US. (Of course this skews my numbers for the 100 Thing Challenge, doesn't it?)

Armed with all this warm paraphernalia, I think I can handle any kind of weather that Harbin can muster. Bring it on Harbin - I'm ready for you!

3 comments:

scott said...

Sweet! I love the smell of new gear! :-)

Harbin? I have not heard of it. You will have to post pictures. I lived in Hokkaido for 2 years but never got to see the Sapporo Ice Festival. It is supposed to be pretty impressive. I wonder how Harbin compares?

Nancy Lewis said...

Check out this video on the Harbin Ice Festival:
http://shanghaiist.com/2011/01/05/harbin-ice-snow-show.php

scott said...

Wow! That is pretty impressive! Especially the night lights and fireworks! Not having seen Sapporo's I don't know if it compares or not, but I don't remember talk of fireworks. I did google it some, it is pretty huge as well. Says it has been going since 1950 and 2 million people visited to see it. Anyway, Harabin looks like a great show!