What To Do When You Only Have Half A Day In Jilin City?

What To Do When You Only Have Half A Day In Jilin City? - If you’d like to see a bit more of China and you’re staying at Club Med Beidahu, you can make a day trip to the city of Jilin, which is a 90-minute drive from the resort. While we were there during a recent media trip, we went on a short tour guided by Simona Zuja, 27, a GO (gentle organiser) from Latvia, who speaks better Mandarin than me. The places we visited were:

Meteorite Museum

On the south side of Century Square, on Jilin Street, is the Meteorite Museum housed within the Jilin City Museum. It exhibits over 138 meteors, including the world’s largest meteor weighing 1,700kg. On March 8, 1976, there was a rare meteor shower in Yongji County, a northern suburb of Jilin city. Besides the exhibits, you can watch a documentary that introduces outer space, the solar system and universe, origin of meteorites and meteorite showers, as well as meteorite research.

You Shouyi Ring-Pull Can Art Gallery

This gallery is also housed within the Jilin City Museum. Famous Chinese artist You Shouyi decided to create artworks using an often taken-for-granted consumer product – the ring-pull can. Here, you can check out the history of ring-pull can art which started in 1987, view You’s sculptures, and purchase souvenirs.

Songhua River

A walk by the scenic Songhua River might reap rewards like seeing local folk twirling colourful ribbons in the air to loud and cheerful music, just like in rhythmic gymnastics. Despite the fact that Jilin is a large city, the locals are friendly, and even invited us to try our hand at the ribbon dance. Also a good place to people- (and animal-) watch, as we encountered many locals bringing their pet dogs.

Century Square

Century Square during winter time is the place where the locals go to ice-skate. It’s also a good place to people-watch. 

Jilin Catholic Church

We walked across the north bridge near the southern part of Songhua River. In front of us, a huge Gothic-style building loomed, standing out among all the modern skyscrapers. Construction of the Jilin Catholic Church started in 1917 and was completed in 1926.

Shopping

Some places to check out include East Shopping Building, Jilin Department Store and Ouya Commercial Capital. If you are looking for sports gear and sportswear, there is also Decathlon. If you like antiques, visit the Confucius Temple Museum Antique Market that spills over into the adjacent streets. Vendors sell knick-knacks, as well as real and fake antiques.

Besides the above places and activities, some others that you could explore include: Songhua Lake (south-east Jilin), North Hill (Beishan) Park (north-west Jilin), Dragon Pool Mountain Park, and Wulajie Old City, a Qing dynasty walled-town in the Longtan district.