44. How the ice city melts my heart. By Yolande Deane

44. How the ice city melts my heart. By Yolande Deane

My name is Yolande Deane and I come from London in the UK, I have been living in China for ten years, and I have been living in the city of Harbin for eight of those ten years, and I teach English to young learners. The northeast of China has burrowed itself into my heart, this story is about how I settled in the ice city.

By 2012 I had five years teaching experience teaching English, I was broke and living at home with my parents. Being broke in any big city is not fun but being broke in one of the most expensive cities in the world, is beyond draining.  I had credit card debt and an overdraft, in addition to monthly student loan payments, along with a dream to get to China. But how could I go to China with all that debt on my head?

Something told me to just go, and it would all work out – so I did. On October 12^th, 2012, I boarded a flight to Guilin via Hong Kong, not knowing my unconscious compass was actually heading to northeast China!

 

I ended up staying in a beautiful old house in a small village outside Guilin city with a bunch of younger teachers from an array of countries, I was there for about a month having random lessons about teaching, which I didn’t really need, but I enjoyed my time there. The woman who organised teaching placements, told me about her friend in the small city of Siping, whose school needed a teacher. For some strange reason, her warning me about the bitterly cold winters seemed to heighten my interest.

“It gets how cold?” I asked, unsure of what I was hearing.

“It can drop to -25 in the winter.” I remember she giggled as she told me.

“Wow!” I said, it sounded like respite from the southern heat I had been enduring at that point.  I arrived in Siping in November 2012, the temperature was already falling, and within a few days it was snowing. I lived there for two years, and just as my contract was nearing the end date, I went to visit Harbin, the capital of the neighbouring province of Heilongjiang.

 

I remember hearing snippets of conversations about Harbin from the other teachers when I was in Guilin, I think it somehow snuck into my sub-conscious and mysteriously popped into my consciousness as it got closer to the end of my contract.

I remember arriving at Harbin station with my two colleagues just before the 2013 Chinese New Year, and it was fingertip numbing cold. I could tell Harbin was not a flashy city, but it just grabbed me in its tight north-eastern embrace, and dragged me into its intriguing history, I knew I was going to return.

Just before the new year we went to see the ice sculptures, which were lit up at night and looked amazing. After the new year, Walking Street (中央大街) was thronging with tourists admiring the old European style architecture and cobbled stones, reminders of the Russian influence. Sofia church, no longer a working church, but all the hallmarks of a Russian orthodox church was such a juxtaposition with typical high rise apartment buildings from the 1980’s, I knew I was going to return.

Return is what I did in November 2014, it was one of my happiest moments, I did not hate Siping, Siping was also full of the dongbei people warmth and massive food portions, but I needed to go to a bigger city, in which I could grow as a teacher and meet new people. I needed to go to Harbin.

This is how I have lived most of my life – I go where I am “pulled “and I trust it is heading in the general direction of where I need to be going, even if I am not always sure where that might be.

So why have I stayed in Harbin for eight years? A mixture of things, in terms of work I have developed my skills as a young learners ESL teacher, and I am grateful for the friends I have made, who I can rant and rave to when I am in a grumpy mood, especially if students have been driving me crazy that day! There also seems to be an honesty and a “what you see is what you get” with Harbiners, a generosity that could sometimes be lacking in a big city like London, where people are generally rushing to get somewhere. I have also started playing the ukulele, obviously I could have done that in London, but I didn’t, I did that here in Harbin, China, that means something to me. It really adds meaning to my time here.

I love that Harbin has seasons, summertime is short and sharp, and spring lasts possibly a couple weeks, and if you blink you will miss autumn. However, winter here suits me, I feel like a hedgehog getting ready for hibernation. The feeling of looking up into a blue sky with the sun shining, and venturing out, into a -20 degrees December day, gives me a jolt, but a feel-good jolt.

I would rather be in a dry Harbin in -25 degrees than a damp London at -4, I know, it’s crazy. I think I am braver because of China; I have never seen myself as an adventurous person, I don’t want to climb mountains, or bungee jump or swim with sharks, but I am braver and more adventurous in my own way now, thanks to this ice city.

 

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