Harbin Daowai Mosque - Day2 pt1

On our 2nd day in Harbin, we planned to go the ice festival - the main reason we came to Harbin this month. The strategy was to be there in the evening, and stay till dark so that we'd be able to see that place during day light and night. We would not wanna miss seeing all the ice buildings and sculptures are lit up…i.e. when the sun is down and you’re at your coldest!

So before going to the ice festival, we decided to visit Harbin Daowai Mosque, which is located at the crossing of Jingyu Street, Daowai, Harbin. Waited for taxi at St Sophea cathedral.

Daylight pose at St Sophea Cathedral before taking our taxi to the mosque. 

My OOTD - 4 layers of clothing with a thicker sweater inside... all ready to keep myself warm at the cold icy festival :P

*rasa cam nak gi berperang lak! Lol!*

It is quite difficult to communicate when you're in China. Not many people can communicate good English. However, most of them who liaise with tourists, they have this cool app in their phone that could translate what they speak in Chinese in English! They just talk to their phone using the app, and voila... there's a voice translating it together with written translation! Awesome right? ;)

Well, that's how we communicate most of the time with the locals in Harbin :D Anyway, with the help of the  app, we managed to communicate with the cab driver to go to Harbin's Daowai Mosque. The cab cost us CNY36 only.

Welcome to Harbin's Daowai Mosque, the biggest mosque in Harbin :)

According to the internet, the mosque was first built in the 23rd year (1897) of Guangxu, Qing Dynasty(1644-1911). It is an outstanding construction of Islamic traditional architectural style.

The major buildings include prayer hall, bath house, Xuanli building, office room and other facilities. The prayer hall is located in the center of the temple, which is opposite to the main gate. The prayer hall, covering an area of 426 square meters and 13 meters high, can hold 500 to 600 people to do prayer. There are two tall Xuanli buildings standing in the left and right side of the prayer hall.

Harbin Daowai Mosque is the largest mosque in Heilongjiang province and it receives about 100,000 Muslim from China and some others from central Asia, Malaysia and so on. It has become a must visited sites for a Muslim trip in Harbin.So guys, if you come to Harbin, make sure you visit the mosque and perform prayers here :)

There are a few halal bakeries and butchers along the street near the mosque. We decided to drop into two of the bakeries shop for 2 reasons : 1. Buy some pastries products 2. Get ourselves heated :D Biasa lah kan... haha! Sejuk sangat babe... -22C tu!!! Too extreme for us to stay long outside :D

And look what we found inside this shop!

Looks yummy right?? :'D

After buying some buns and sweet delights in the first shop, we entered the 2nd shop (which is located opposite the road). This shop is bigger than the first shop and has tables to eat in. So we lepak for a while here for cups of coffee and tea and isi perut sket and most important of all.... panaskan badan lol!

Okay.... itu baru isi perut haha! What we really want was a hot meal for lunch before going to the Sun Islandfor the ice festival. So we decided to walk around the mosque area to look for a halal restaurant. Tak kan tak ada kan... afterall, this is obviously a Moslem area... sure got one decent halal restaurant for the Muslim after their prayers at the mosque...So, jom pusing2 dulu...

I believe these lambs are soon to be sembelih by the islamic community here... :D

Kesian pulak tenguk muka kambing tu.... huhu.

At the front entrance of the mosque.... dah pusing satu round but could not found any restaurants :(

Continue walking a bit further and found this local wet market that sell lotsa fruits, veges, ect

Gemok2 buah di sini I tell you!! But I guess you have guessed the real reason we entered this place... to warm ourselves up lah, of course! :D Sejuk siut outside... kejung kaki tangan  hokey!

After doing lotsa walking, we still could not find a halal restaurant. So we decided to turn back to the bakery shop where we lepak just now to ask the owner if there are any halal restaurant nearby. We saw him when we left his restaurant just now and he looked so nice cause he gave salam to us when he saw yours truly and Na wearing tudung :D Entered the bakery and immediately saw him at the counter. Asked him if there is any halal restaurant nearby... but he could not communicate in English. He called one of his staff who can speak English and when the girl translated our question, he smiled and said  "Follow me" (and yes, he speak this in English! Apparently he knew this sentence haha!). And we walked with him to a nearby restaurant to have lunch... alhamdulillah... :D

Alahai... dalam kesejukan, I forgot to take pics of the restaurant. But it was located not far from the mosque. A very small cosy restaurant. We actually saw it before but thought it's just a local butchery shop.

2 jejaka kelaparan :D Behind them, there are the menus. The owners do not speak english at all... so we just pointed the picture of the food we want to order.

Somehow, I did not get what I ordered. Dapat menu bawah gambar I tunjuk instead... hahaha!

Nasib baik lah boleh telan... haha! Rice and some veges... quite nice actually!

No drink served but we got bowls of soups! 

Alhamdulillah.... thank you Allah for good lunch today... halal and toyiba, insyaAllah :D

After lunch, we headed to the mosque again to perform our prayer... 

Hubby at the male prayer room

Candid this pic of Na at female's prayer room

Alhamdulillah, merasa lah kami solat di Harbin Daowai Mosque... masyaAllah, ramai juga umat Nabi Mohammad di bumi Harbin ni kan... 

Selesai solat, we took a taxi to the Sun Island to the location of Ice Festival. Hmmm... we had difficulties to a get a taxi there. Bukan tu jer... kena tipu lak tu! pftttttt!!! Well, will continue about our journey later. 

*** to be continued ***