SOME LIKE IT COLD: WINTER IN MANCHURIA, SIBERIA AND MONGOLIA

An extraordinary insight into how the people of Manchuria, Siberia and Mongolia celebrate winter when temperatures range from minus-29 to a maximum of just 4-plus is on offer from Far Horizons in February of next year.

The unusual 19-day tour will include the spectacular Harbin Ice Lantern Festival in China’s Dong Bei Province (formerly Manchuria) with its fairy-tale landscape of life-size buildings and cartoon characters created from ice and snow, and the one-time Cossack settlement of Irkutsk where there’ll be a traditional troika ride in this most-popular tourist attraction in Siberia.

As well, New Year will be celebrated in Mongolia with a stay with a local family in a traditional ‘ger,’ competitions between eagle hunters in traditional costumes, and displays of archery on horseback by Chinggis Khan soldiers.

Other highlights will include a camel polo competition in the South Gobi Desert, the largest and most important Monastery in Mongolia, Prince Volkonsky’s mansion in Siberia including a “Romantic Concert” of Russian, French and Italian songs accompanied on a rare vertical piano, the world’s largest ice-skating rink on the frozen Lake Baikal, and Mongolia’s International Skating Marathon and Ice Festival with horse-drawn sleighs, reindeer competitions – and wrestling on ice.

The 19-day tour is priced from $15,000pp from Sydney including return air, twin-share in hotels and traditional ‘gers’ at tourist camps, all meals, local guides, ground transport, excursions, entries, gratuities and services of a Far Horizons escort; full details on 1800 083 141 or www.farhorizons.com.au