Long overdue -Part I - Harbin

Long overdue photos of my winter trip up to the north-east

Spent the first few days of 2009 in Heilongjiang in the north-east or “dongbei” as Chinese call it. First stop was Harbin, where it was a mind-numbing minus 15 deg celcius.

Heilongjiang has strong Russian and Japanese influences, and it was ruled by the Manchus since the beginning of the 17th century right until 1911. The Russians came in the early 20th century after the Harbin-Vladivostok railway line was built and essentially built a miniature Russian city in the heart of Manchuria. From a dusty middle-of-nowhere northern outpost, Harbin was transformed into a modern city. In its heyday, Harbin was the playground for Russians, and boasted the first movie theatres, bath-houses, and a brewery (that still churns out Harbin Beer today) in the whole of China. During summer, they swam in the Songhua river, and in winter, played/invented sports such as women’s swimsuit snow-tubing (really).

The Japanese invaded Manchuria in the 30s and Inner manchuria was then known as "Manchukuo" and became a puppet state of Japan until WW2.

In the early 50s, Harbin, together with the rest of “dongbei” became the industrial base of China. Heilongjiang became a major producer of heavy industrial machinery and vehicles. Coal-mines established, and even oil was discovered. HLJ became synonymous with smog and pollution.

Today, it still retains some of its Russian flavour, with its stately architecture and cuisine and has an exotic look and feel to it. Coming into town via the airport bus, Harbin, at first impression seemed an old, gritty city. Several of the residential buildings were dilapidated and neglected.

Here, majority of the laowais are tourists from Russia, who hope over the border from a little town called Black River via train. How do you identify Russians? They wear fur and leather - loads of it. So much so that PETA would have a field day here. Even the locals here look different – a mixture of Han, Manchu, Japanese, and perhaps Siberian. The girls have round faces, straight midnight-black hair with a short fringe, large black eyes, and double-eyelids -very pretty. They all look like they are named “Irina” for some reason.

On the whole, Harbin’s infrastructure looks like it badly needs modernizing to catch up with the rest of the 2nd tier cities. The city buses were old and sluggish and bus-stops had graffiti all over. Beau commented that even the beggars here seemed much worse-off.

We visited the provincial museum and while it boasted an array of historical artifacts and relics (including some massive dinosaur skeletons), the displays were old-school and looked like they haven’t been updated since the 80s.

“Zhongyang dajie” or “Central street” is the showcase of its “Russian-ness”. Zhongyang dajie is a pedastrianized shopping street that has been spruced up and proudly proudly shows off its stately European-style buildings. There are a multitude of shops selling 红肠 or literally “red sausages” (a Russian tradition, apparently), Russian goods (think matryoshka dolls), and fur coats.

2 bears walked past me. I had to resist the urge to hug them - they looked so warm while i froze.

Another 2 Russians looking at the St Sophia Church

The highlight of my Harbin trip was definitely the annual ice-sculpture festival. Every winter, temperatures drop well below 0 degree Celcius, and huge blocks of ice are harvested from the frozen Songhua river and transported north of the city onto Taiyang Island, where they are transformed into a themepark wonderland. Even the park itself is ringed with a 1.5m tall wall entirely made of ice.

The scale of the sculptures were, frankly beyond my imagination and one can’t help but just gawk at all the magnificence of it all. . There are 40m high castles that change colours every 20 seconds, a huge Buddha sculpture, Chinese temples, churches, etc, all cleverly in-built with flashing neon light circuitry. In addition, it also has a miniature skating rink, snack stalls that peddle bintang hulu, souvenirs and little tents where you can escape from the cold for a steaming hot drink. There was also a big tent featuring Russian cabaret dancers.

This is the 10th year the festival is held and it's the ultimate crowd pleaser for adults and children alike but for the love of god, do wear warm clothes!!





A log of what I wore (and yet still felt frost-bitten) while i was up north:

• Thermal long-sleeved top


• Fleece top


• Thick pullover


• Ski jacket


• Leggings


• Fleece trousers


• Ski pants


• Socks x 2 pairs


• Neck-warmer


• Gloves


• Hiking boots