Adam Nebbs

Travellers' Checks | Where to stay in Harbin for the Ice Festival

From the brand new Songbei Shangri-La to the 110-year-old Modern Hotel, you have plenty of options to choose from in Harbin. Meanwhile, Chiang Mai’s 137 Pillars House announces plans to open 20 more properties, starting with Bangkok in January

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Adam Nebbs

Published: 1:04pm, 10 Nov 2016Updated: 1:19pm, 10 Nov 2016

Northern exposure Winter temperatures are now well below zero in the Manchurian city of Harbin, and the river that runs through it, the mighty Songhua, has – as it does every year in this coldest corner of China – frozen over. The brand new 344-room Songbei Shangri-La hotel is scheduled to start taking guests next month, though its older sister property, the Shangri-La Hotel, is located closer to the historic, largely Russian-built centre of town.

The 110-year-old Modern Hotel has an even more central location, near the grand Russian Orthodox St Sophia Cathedral, offers cheap rooms, and employs a lobby pianist to play the theme tune from Doctor Zhivago at tea time. (It also gets mixed online reviews – you really do get what you pay for at the Modern, but I usually stay there anyway.)

The famous Ice Festival, which runs from January 5 to February 25, doesn’t seem to have an official English-language website this year (icefestivalharbin.com) looks to be run by a travel agent of the same name), but you can just show up and enjoy the bone-chilling weather, cheap Russian vodka and city-wide ice sculptures on your own.

There are, sadly, no non-stop flights currently operating between Hong Kong and Harbin (they’ve been on and off since the 1990s) but Shenzhen Airlines can get you there a few times a week via Jinan, in just under seven hours in total. Speak to a travel agent or try your luck at global.shenzhenair.com. It’s also possible to reach Harbin by train from Hong Kong, via Beijing. The journey takes about 36 hours each way, and is worth doing once. See www.seat61.com/china for details.

Change of direction The 137 Pillars House, in Chiang Mai, has earned a reputation as one of the best resorts in northern Thailand since it opened almost five years ago. It’s been so successful, in fact, that its Thai owners created an eponymous hotel group earlier this year (137 Pillars Hotels & Resorts), with plans to open 20 more properties in the next decade, starting with one in Bangkok in January. The resort claims a strong connection to what it calls the East Borneo Trading Company (or sometimes just the East Borneo Company) and offers themed accommodation including East Borneo suites. There are also suites named after former employees Louis Leonowens (son of Anna Leonowens, of The King and I fame) and William Bain.