The nicest part of staying at Harbin is that we were up on the Domes road. We weren’t staying in the actual domes (pictured below, very funky and fun, thanks to the nurses (see below) for letting me take pics of their rooms), though perhaps slightly less space than the squared-off rooms we actually stayed in next door.
But this area has only about 8-10 bedrooms sharing a nice body-temperature pool and a cool pool (a little colder than I wanted, but nice for lap swimmers and when it warms up in the summer, I’d guess).
The main Harbin pools are more extensive, but also much more crowded — I often had the Domes warm pool to myself, or just with 1-2 other people, and folks are very respectful of silence; if you don’t seem like you feel like chatting (and I mostly didn’t), they leave you alone.
There WAS a group of five nurses there on one night who were having a bit of a raucous good time in the supposedly quiet area, but I cut nurses a lot of slack. They need their down time!
The big downside to staying up here is that we basically had no internet — we had to go down to the main area to get some. (A 15-minute walk down, but then it’d be a somewhat strenuous hike back up, so while Mary and I did a lot of walking down for the pleasant exercise, we mostly drove back up with Alex.) So you’d want to plan your stay somewhat carefully, if you want / need internet / phone access for contacting family, work meetings, etc.
If you’re on a writing retreat and DON’T want internet to tempt you, it is, of course, perfect.
If I were coming back with a few friends, I’d probably try to get the big dome, which has two bedrooms on the second floor, a bedroom with a desk and great views on the third floor (we’d have to fight for it), and a shared lounging area and full kitchen on the first floor. The domes aren’t wheelchair accessible for the bedrooms, but after the fire, they’ve rebuilt so much more of the site is accessible, including the rooms we stayed in, the pools up there, etc.
If people haven’t booked the full big dome, the shared kitchen is for the use of everyone down there (and one of the domes has a big shared bathroom with showers for everyone visiting that area — I think you can camp nearby and come use those pools too).
