Central Street Sight-Seeing

I took a circuitous route from the flat, for about 3 miles, through the dodgy-looking streets around the railway station reaching 中央大街 (Central Big Street), a pedestrianised shopping street, just as the sun set.

High above both sides was some interesting, if plastic-looking, architecture, comprising plenty of curves, domes and spires which appeared to be some sort of fusion between Russian and local design.

I finally saw my first ice carving - two miniature turrets guarding a giant LCD television advertising Skyworth, a television company.


This was my first sighting of McDonald's here. The Chinese name is 麦当劳 (mai dang lao, literally "wheat serves as labour") which seems a reasonable rendition of the sounds, especially spoken quickly, and evokes a suitably noble but food-based sensation. My dictionary also has it as slang for snack bar although it's not clear what the etymology is on this.

[Edit: The blog here explains why "mai dang lao" doesn't sound much like ''McDonald's" in Mandarin (in short, it sounds much closer in Cantonese which is where McDonald's first got a foothold in the Greater China area), and goes on to explain the Chinese name for Chicken McNuggets to boot!]

Kentucky Fried Chicken here is 肯德基 (ken de ji, literally "willing virtue foundation") which is also the place name for Kentucky, the State. I think it would have been neat if the 'ji' used in the place name was instead 鸡 the character for 'chicken' but I've been told that this would be obvious and clumsy.

The name for Pizza Hut, 必胜客, in my opinion, is just terrible. 必胜 (bi sheng) means "cannot fail to" and is, at best, a passable imitation in turn of the Chinese phonetic transliteration of the word 'pizza', 比萨 (bi sa). 客 means guest, and in no way evokes the meaning of hut. Maybe it works better in Cantonese.


Opposite, across from a fountain also carved from ice, was Euro Plaza - another Chinese brand masquerading as foreign for that extra brand value - notable chiefly for its frankly excessive display of lanterns.

Further along was another ice carving advert, this time for CNC - a telecommunications company.

A lot of English-speakers here laugh at the poor 'Chinglish' translations that abound - a result, again, of the foreigner cachet, combined with poor training and lazy checking. There is an excellent Wall Street Journal about the phenomenon here. What gets me is when this continues to happen today. Technically, the sign below is a correct, literal translation (the word 万 is usually 10,000 but can also mean 'many' in a more figurative sense, hence 'myriad'), but Myriad Elephant City is stupid. Just stupid.

The French cafe I was looking for was no longer there, replaced by a sports shop, so I went to the next place on my list - a Russian Cafe called Russian Coffee & Food. Hmmm... I wonder what it serves? Well, better go in and find out!

The facade was nice and authentic looking and the interior was stuffed with Russian tat - busts, cups, clocks and paintings. It's a bit dark but then again, it was all mood-lighting inside. I didn't want to ruin the atmosphere by using the flash.

I ordered a plate of Russian Sausage (俄罗斯红肠） which was great. Meaty and firm with enough fat for flavour, but not too rich.

It was meant as an accompaniment to the croquette which was a doughy ball with a hint of crunch, filled with minced pork and carrot. It was something of a relief to have a bread-based product in China which wasn't sweetened!

I ordered Russian tea which the menu promised would come with jam, but was told that they only had English tea, so I opted instead for a Harbin HaPi Beer.

I think this is the best beer in China but it's a close run with TsingTao. HaPi is crisp and clean but with a noticeably malty flavour. I think it was cousin Adrian, in a fit of trivia, who told me that Russians drink a lot because it helps them digest all the meat that they eat. To be sure, the beer went down a treat with the sausage. A bit of trivia of my own: HaPi is China's oldest-brewed beer. I've cheated a bit here though, because it says as much on every bottle.

I sneaked a snap of a waitress because they had these unusual uniforms on, but it didn't come out well at all. The shot I did get is of a waitress peeling potatoes which then went into a hefty portion of some sort of potato salad - not something I've ever seen before in this country.


Opposite the Russian cafe was a 避风塘 ("evade wind pool" which means something like "safe harbour"). In Shanghai, chains of milk tea shops, dim sum restaurants, and 24-hour social clubs/coffee shops all carry this name. I'm actually not sure if they're related or if it's just a common and popular name, like calling your Italian restaurant something like "Marco's". This branch seemed to be similar enough to the dim sum chain to a knock-off of the brand, but not so similar as to really be part of the same chain.


I spotted a Walmart near the end of the street which seems strategically placed like Carrefour - namely an upmarket hypermarket. It seems ironic that the cheap Chinese goods that have built up the company have come full circle and that the chain has come to China as an American brand.

At the end of the road is the flood control memorial which is dedicated to lives lost due to the flooding of the Songhua river. People were selling sparklers nearby and happy punters were waving them around. Words can't express how much I hate sparklers so I won't even try.


This is a carving of a pig. Technically I think it falls under snow sculpture - densely packed snow on a frame made from carved ice.

The hat, the ball in its lap, the big flappy ears - I'm sure it's all got some sort of cultural significance but I'm much too poorly educated to know what.

Several days of barely sub-zero temperatures have taken their toll, but still, the scale alone is amazing.


These shots are of a slide made out of ice. For 5RMB you can sit on one of these fat Ikea place mats and shoot down at a surprising clip out a decent distance onto the frozen Songhua river.

When I was there, the operator was busy assuring a nervous mother that their slide was "Number one in safety".

I was tempted to have a go but figured I could fall over on my backside on ice for free any day of the week in this city - why pay for the privilege?