Cold in Harbin

We travelled to Harbin on our first sleeper train, we opted for the soft sleeper. It was surprisingly quite a pleasant experience despite the long-ness of it with no wifi! We had two others in the compartment with us who were relaxed and no issues at all. When we arrived in harbin we were hit by the bitter cold. Wandering around looking for a taxi we finally jumped in one only to be ripped off once dropped off at our hotel...but we was too tired and cold to dispute the large sum he requested for such a short journey.
That evening we went out for dinner...now this place was self proclaimed top notch dumpling restaurant. We went for the beef dumpling only to be told they have no beef...then we settled for the 'three fresh' which apparently came with pork and shrimp dumplings only to be told again...that they had run out. We then...hoping...third time lucky asked about the fried dumplings on offer and they said they are not cooking fried dumplings (bare in mind we were only asking for what was on their menu). After three attempts of trying to order dumplings in a dumpling restaurant..out of frustration we just asked for the french fries. Now sitting there with our beers awaiting our chips ..feeling awkward...they served us...Mccain oven chips! Yep folks...Mccain chips on a plate with mayo and ketchup...greasy and undercooked. We ate the chips quick and drank the beer even faster...then left. We were cold and hungry and tired from our long 11 hour journey...we struggled to order in the first place because the language barrier...in the end we went McDonald's and got a big Mac.Read more