I am so glad I made the right decision to stay in Snow Valley (Xue Gu) instead of Snow Town (Xue Xiang). It was a memorable 4 nights stay at Guanlin Snow Residence Inn. My children and I had the best time of our lives experiencing this winter wonderland which is a peaceful little village. We were greeted by Mr Liu and his wife after a 4.5 hour bus ride from Harbin. It's a door to door service. If you are interested in experiencing a genuine village life, this is the right place to stay. The room is basic with traditional style heated bed, called “kang”. It has a small bathroom cum toilet with hot water. The room and bathroom has underfloor heating as well. The entire house is very cosy with temperature around 25C all the time.
Mr and Mrs Liu are very friendly and able to communicate via cell phone translation app if you can't speak Mandarin. They are very approachable and down to earth. We were given 3 packets of rice as complimentary gifts the moment we arrived. This is a special type of rice from Mr Liu's paddy field. We enjoy eating this rice as it's being served at the in-house cafe everyday. We normally order our lunch and dinner 2 or 3 hours before meal. They also have Halal food catered for Muslims.
The atmosphere in the Inn is very relaxing and homely, where guests are free to hang out at the lounge enjoying sunflower seeds and tea. I also enjoy chatting with Mr and Mrs Liu and other guests. Mr and Mrs Liu are also very generous, sharing complimentary Dongbei (Northeastern) frozen pears and persimmons with guests after dinner. I'm glad I got to experience something new. Oh yes, firecrackers are allowed in the village. They even have a shop selling all sorts of firecrackers. We had a chance to play some sparklers out in the subzero temperature. Good fun!!!
Another thing worth mentioning is Mr Liu would go the extra miles by making sure every guest gets to experience splashing boiling water in the air to create the stunning visual effect, turning into a cloud of ice crystals. He’d personally record it and send the video to us. I’m impressed by his patience and dedication in making sure everyone gets it right and have the best outcome.
What we love the most is, the Inn is very close to two major tourists attractions ie. The Bear Mountain (CNY400 per person, about 30 min car and snowmobile ride) and Local Amusement Park (CNY200 per person, 5 min car ride). Here you get to try snow-tubing, banana boat, snowmobiling, skiing etc. The scenery on the Bear Mountain is breath-taking. When not busy, Mr Liu would even take pictures and drone shots for us. We’re very thankful for that.
Even though you have the option to try skiing on the Bear Mountain, it's better to do it in the Local Amusement Park because they have the travelator facility, whereas on the Bear Mountain, you have to walk up the slope after skiing down each time, which is extremely tiring!
The best thing about the Local Amusement Park is….it’s not crowded at all, so it’s ideal for beginner level skiing or snowboarding. Since it’s so close to Guanlin Inn, we even went back to the inn for lunch break, and then continued skiing after lunch. The staff at the Amusement Park gave us complimentary car ride to and fro our inn. Talking about great service…..we experienced it all in Xue Gu !!! I heard so much about the Dongbei hospitality and I’m glad to experience it here.
Thank you Mr and Mrs Liu for your exceptional service, for looking after me and my two children. And I’d like to thank Mrs Liu’s father too for serving us everyday at the cafe (3 meals per day). Finally, I’d like to thank the chef for cooking yummy food for us.
Our time in Guanlin Inn and Xue Gu is unforgettable !!
