Harbin

For other uses, see Harbin (disambiguation).

Harbin (/hɑːrˈbɪn, -biːn/;^[4][5] Manchu: ᡥᠠᡵᠪᡳᠨ, Möllendorff: Halbin; simplified Chinese: 哈尔滨; traditional Chinese: 哈爾濱; pinyin: Hā'ěrbīn) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China,^[6] as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest city by metropolitan population (urban and rural together) in Northeast China.^[7] Harbin has direct jurisdiction over nine metropolitan districts, two county-level cities and seven counties, and is the eighth most populous Chinese city according to the 2020 census. The built-up area of Harbin (which consists of all districts except Shuangcheng and Acheng) had 5,841,929 inhabitants, while the total metropolitan population was up to 10,009,854, making it one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world.

Harbin 哈尔滨市
Prefecture-level and sub-provincial city
Clockwise from top: Hongbo Plaza, Saint Sofia Cathedral, Songpu Bridge, Harbin Ice and Snow World, Central Avenue, Flood control monument =
Nicknames:  Ice City, Oriental Paris, Oriental Moscow, The pearl on the swan's neck
Location of Harbin City (yellow) in Heilongjiang (light grey)
Harbin Location of the city center in Heilongjiang Show map of Heilongjiang Harbin Harbin (China) Show map of China
Coordinates (Heilongjiang Provincial Museum): 45°45′27″N 126°38′27″E / 45.7576°N 126.6409°E / 45.7576; 126.6409Coordinates: 45°45′27″N 126°38′27″E / 45.7576°N 126.6409°E / 45.7576; 126.6409
Country	China
Province	Heilongjiang
County-level divisions	18 divisions,^[1] including 9 urban districts, 2 County-level cities and 7 counties
Settled	before 1115
Incorporated  - Town	1898
- County	1905-10-31
- Municipality	1921-02-05
Municipal seat	Songbei District
Government
• Type	Sub-provincial city
• Body	Harbin Municipal People's Congress
• CCP Secretary	Wang Zhaoli
• Congress Chairman	Zhao Ming
• Mayor	Sun Zhe
• CPPCC Chairman	Qin Enting
Area ^[2]
• Prefecture-level and sub-provincial city	53,068 km^2 (20,490 sq mi)
• Urban	4,640.4 km^2 (1,791.7 sq mi)
• Metro	10,204.8 km^2 (3,940.1 sq mi)
Elevation	150 m (488 ft)
Population  (2020 census)^[3]
• Prefecture-level and sub-provincial city	10,009,854
• Density	190/km^2 (490/sq mi)
• Urban	6,976,136
• Urban density	1,500/km^2 (3,900/sq mi)
• Metro	5,841,929
• Metro density	570/km^2 (1,500/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Harbinite, Harbinese
Time zone	UTC+08:00 (China Standard)
Postal code	150000
Area code	451
ISO 3166 code	CN-HL-01
License plate prefixes	黑A, 黑L
GDP (2013)	CNY 501.08 billion
– Growth	8.9%
– per capita	CNY 49,565
GDP (PPP)	2013
– Total	US$117.99 billion
– Per capita	US$ 11,671
Climate	Dwa
City flowers	Lilac
Website	Harbin Official Website

Harbin
"Harbin" in Simplified Chinese (top), Traditional Chinese (middle), and Manchu (bottom) characters
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	哈尔滨
Traditional Chinese	哈爾濱
Hanyu Pinyin	Hā'ěrbīn
Literal meaning	(Manchu) "Place of drying fishnets"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hā'ěrbīn Bopomofo ㄏㄚ   ㄦˇ   ㄅㄧㄣ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Ha'eelbin Wade–Giles Ha^1-êrh^3-pin^1 IPA [xá.àɚ.pín] Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Haa1ji5ban1
Manchu name
Manchu script	ᡥᠠᡵᠪᡳᠨ
Romanization	Halbin
Russian name
Russian	Харби́н
Romanization	Kharbin

Harbin, whose name was originally a Manchu word meaning "a place for drying fishing nets",^[8] grew from a small rural settlement on the Songhua River to become one of the largest cities in Northeast China. Founded in 1898 with the coming of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the city first prospered as a region inhabited by an overwhelming majority of immigrants from the Russian Empire.^[9] In the 1920s, the city was considered China's fashion capital since new designs from Paris and Moscow reached here first before arriving in Shanghai.^[10] From 1932 until 1945, Harbin was the largest city in the Imperial Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.

Known for its bitterly cold winters, Harbin is heralded as the Ice City (冰城) for its winter tourism and recreations.^[11] Harbin is notable for its ice sculpture festival in the winter.^[12] Being well known for its historical Russian legacy and architecture—the city is famed for its European influence,^[13] and serves as an important gateway in Sino-Russian trade today.^[14] Harbin serves as a key political, economic, scientific, cultural and communications hub in Northeast China, as well as an important industrial base of the nation.^[8] The city was voted "China Top Tourist City" by the China National Tourism Administration in 2004.^[8]

Harbin is one of the top 100 cities and metropolitan areas in the world by scientific research output as tracked by the Nature Index.^[15] The city hosts several major universities in Northeast China, including Harbin Engineering, Harbin Medical, Northeast Agricultural, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin Normal, Northeast Forestry, and Heilongjiang.^[16] Notably, Harbin Institute of Technology is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in the world for engineering.^[17]

History

Early history

 

Monument of Wanyan Aguda in Acheng District

Human settlement in the Harbin area dates from at least 2200 BC during the late Stone Age. Wanyan Aguda, the founder and first emperor (reigned 1115–1123) of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234), was born in the Jurchen Wanyan tribes who resided near the Ashi River in this region.^[18] In AD 1115 Aguda established Jin's capital Shangjing (Upper Capital) Huining Prefecture in today's Acheng District of Harbin.^[19] After Aguda's death, the new emperor Wanyan Sheng ordered the construction of a new city on a uniform plan. The planning and construction emulated major Chinese cities, in particular Bianjing (Kaifeng), although the Jin capital was smaller than its Northern Song prototype.^[20] Huining Prefecture served as the first superior capital of the Jin empire until Wanyan Liang (the fourth emperor of Jin Dynasty) moved the capital to Yanjing (now Beijing) in 1153.^[21] Liang even went so far as to destroy all palaces in his former capital in 1157.^[21] Wanyan Liang's successor Wanyan Yong (Emperor Shizong) restored the city and established it as a secondary capital in 1173.^[22] Ruins of the Shangjing Huining Prefecture were discovered and excavated about 2 km (1.2 mi) from present-day Acheng's central urban area.^[19][23] The site of the old Jin capital ruins is a national historic reserve, and includes the Jin Dynasty History Museum ^[zh]. The museum, open to the public, was renovated in late 2005.^[23] Mounted statues of Aguda and of his chief commander Wanyan Zonghan (also Nianhan) stand in the grounds of the museum.^[24] Many of the artifacts found there are on display in nearby Harbin.

After the Mongol conquest of the Jin Empire (1211–1234), Huining Prefecture was abandoned. In the 17th century, the Manchus used building materials from Huining Prefecture to construct their new stronghold in Alchuka. The region of Harbin remained largely rural until the 1800s, with over ten villages and about 30,000 people in the city's present-day urban districts by the end of the 19th century.^[25]

International city

See also: Harbin Russians

A small village in 1898 grew into the modern city of Harbin.^[26][27] Polish engineer Adam Szydłowski drew plans for the city following the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which the Russian Empire had financed.^[9] The Russians selected Harbin as the base of their administration over this railway and the Chinese Eastern Railway Zone. The railways were largely constructed by Russian engineers and indentured workers. The Chinese Eastern Railway extended the Trans-Siberian Railway: substantially reducing the distance from Chita to Vladivostok and also linking the new port city of Dalny (Dalian) and the Russian naval base of Port Arthur (Lüshun). The settlement founded by the Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railway quickly turned into a "boomtown", growing into a city within five years. The majority of settlers in Harbin came from southern Ukraine (Russian Empire). In addition to Ukrainians, there were many Russians, Poles, Georgians, and Tatars.^[28]

The city was intended as a showcase for Russian imperialism in Asia and the American scholar Simon Karlinsky, who was born in Harbin in 1924 into a Russian family, wrote that in Harbin "the buildings, boulevards, and parks were planned—well before the October Revolution—by distinguished Russian architects and also by Swiss and Italian town planners", giving the city a very European appearance.^[28] Starting in the late 19th century, a mass influx of Han Chinese arrived in Manchuria, and taking advantage of the rich soils, founded farms that soon turned Manchuria into the "breadbasket of China" while others went to work in the mines and factories of Manchuria, which become one of the first regions of China to industrialize. Harbin became one of the main points through which food and industrial products were shipped out of Manchuria. A sign of Harbin's wealth was that a theater had established during its first decade and in 1907 the play K zvezdam by Leonid Andreyev had its premiere there.^[29]

 

St. Nicolas Orthodox, a Russian Orthodox church in Harbin, circa 1940, demolished during the Cultural Revolution

During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), Russia used Harbin as its base for military operations in Manchuria. Following Russia's defeat, its influence declined. Several thousand nationals from 33 countries, including the United States, Germany, and France, moved to Harbin. Sixteen countries established consulates to serve their nationals, who established several hundred industrial, commercial and banking companies. Churches were rebuilt for Russian Orthodox, Lutheran/German Protestant, and Polish Catholic Christians. Chinese capitalists also established businesses, especially in brewing, food, and textiles. Harbin became the economic hub of northeastern China and an international metropolis.^[25]

The rapid growth of the city challenged the public healthcare system. The worst-ever recorded outbreak of pneumonic plague was spread to Harbin through the Trans-Manchurian railway from the border trade port of Manzhouli.^[30] The plague lasted from late autumn of 1910 to spring 1911 and killed 1,500 Harbin residents (mostly ethnic Chinese), or about five percent of its population at the time.^[31] This turned out to be the beginning of the large so-called Manchurian plague pandemic, which ultimately claimed 60,000 victims. In the winter of 1910, Dr. Wu Lien-teh (later the founder of Harbin Medical University) was given instructions from the Foreign Office, Peking, to travel to Harbin to investigate the plague. Dr. Wu asked for imperial sanction to cremate plague victims, as cremation of these infected victims turned out to be the turning point of the epidemic. The suppression of this plague pandemic changed medical progress in China. Bronze statues of Dr. Wu Lien-teh are built in Harbin Medical University to remember his contributions in promoting public health, preventive medicine, and medical education.^[32]

The first generation of Harbin Russians were mostly the builders and employees of the Chinese Eastern Railway. They moved to Harbin in order to work on the railroad. At the time Harbin was not an established city. The city was almost built from scratch by the builders and early settlers. Houses were constructed, furniture and personal items were brought in from Russia. After the Manchurian plague epidemic, Harbin's population continued to increase sharply, especially inside the Chinese Eastern Railway Zone. In 1913 the Chinese Eastern Railway census showed its ethnic composition as: Russians – 34,313, Chinese (that is, including Hans, Manchus etc.) – 23,537, Jews – 5,032, Poles – 2556, Japanese – 696, Germans – 564, Tatars – 234, Latvians – 218, Georgians – 183, Estonians – 172, Lithuanians – 142, Armenians – 124; there were also Karaims, Ukrainians, Bashkirs, and some Western Europeans. In total, 68,549 citizens of 53 nationalities, speaking 45 languages.^[33] Research shows that only 11.5 percent of all residents were born in Harbin.^[34] By 1917, Harbin's population exceeded 100,000, with over 40,000 of them being ethnic Russians.^[35]

 

Harbin's Kitayskaya Street (Russian for "Chinese Street"), now Zhongyang Street (Chinese for "Central Street"), before 1945

After Russia's Great October Socialist Revolution in November 1917, more than 100,000 defeated Russian White Guards and refugees retreated to Harbin, which became a major center of White Russian émigrés and the largest Russian enclave outside the Soviet Union.^[35] Karlinsky noted that a major difference with the Russian émigrés who arrived in Harbin was: "Unlike the Russian émigrés who went to Paris or Prague or even to Shanghai, the new residents of Harbin were not a minority surrounded by a foreign population. They found themselves instead in an almost totally Russian city, populated mainly by people with roots in the south of European Russia."^[28] The city had a Russian school system, as well as publishers of Russian-language newspapers and journals. The Russian Harbintsy^[a] community numbered around 120,000 at its peak in the early 1920s.^[36] Many of Harbin's Russians were wealthy, which sometimes confused foreign visitors who expected them to be poor, with for instance the American writer Harry A. Franck in his 1923 book Wanderings in North China writing the Russian "ladies as well gowned as at the Paris races [who] strolled with men faultlessly garbed by European standards", leading him to wonder how they had achieved this "deceptive appearance".^[37]

The Harbin Institute of Technology was established in 1920 as the Harbin Sino-Russian School for Industry to educate railway engineers via a Russian method of instruction. Students could select from two majors at the time: Railway Construction or Electric Mechanic Engineering. On 2 April 1922, the school was renamed the Sino-Russian Industrial University. The original two majors eventually developed into two major departments: the Railway Construction Department and the Electric Engineering Department. Between 1925 and 1928 the university's Rector was Leonid Ustrugov, the Russian Deputy Minister of Railways under Nicholas II before the Russian Revolution, Minister of Railways under Admiral Kolchak's government and a key figure in the development of the Chinese Eastern Railway.

The Russian community in Harbin made it their mission to preserve the pre-revolutionary culture of Russia. The city had numerous Russian language newspapers, journals, libraries, theaters, and two opera companies.^[38] One of the famous Russian poets in Harbin was Valery Pereleshin, who started publishing his intensely homoerotic poetry in 1937 and was also one of the few Russian writers in Harbin who learned Mandarin.^[39] The subject of Pereleshin's poetry caused problems with the Russian Fascist Party, and led Pereleshin to leave Harbin for Shanghai, and ultimately to the United States.^[39] Not all of the Russian newspapers were of high quality, with Karlinsky calling Nash put', the newspaper of the Russian Fascist Party "the lowest example of gutter journalism that Harbin had ever seen".^[40] Nikolai Baikov, a Russian writer in Harbin was known for his novels of exile life in that city together with his accounts of his travels across Manchuria and the folklore of its Manchu and Chinese population.^[40] Boris Yulsky, a young Russian writer who published his short stories in the newspaper Rubezh was considered to be a promising writer whose career was cut short when he gave up literature for activism in the Russian Fascist Party and cocaine addiction.^[40] Moya-tvoya (mine – yours), a pidgin language that was a combination of Russian and Mandarin Chinese that had developed in the 19th century when Chinese went to work in Siberia, was considered essential by the Chinese businesspeople of Harbin.^[41]

In the early 1920s, according to Chinese scholars' recent studies, over 20,000 Jews lived in Harbin.^[42] After 1919, Dr. Abraham Kaufman played a leading role in Harbin's large Russian Jewish community.^[43] The Republic of China discontinued diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1920, leaving many Russians stateless.^{[further explanation needed]} When the Chinese Eastern Railway and government in Beijing announced in 1924 that they agreed the railroad would only employ Russian or Chinese nationals, the emigres were forced to announce their ethnic and political allegiance. Most accepted Soviet citizenship.^{[citation needed]}

The Chinese warlord Zhang Xueliang, the "Young Marshal" seized the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1929. The Soviet military force quickly put an end to the crisis and forced the Nationalist Chinese to accept the restoration of joint Soviet-Chinese administration of the railway.^[44]

Japanese invasion period

See also: Defense of Harbin and Unit 731

 

Headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army's covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit (Unit 731)

Japan invaded Manchuria outright after the Mukden Incident in September 1931. After the Japanese captured Qiqihar in the Jiangqiao Campaign, the Japanese 4th Mixed Brigade moved toward Harbin, closing in from the west and south. Bombing and strafing by Japanese aircraft forced the Chinese army to retreat from Harbin. Within a few hours, the Japanese occupation of Harbin was complete.^[45]

With the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo, the so-called "pacification of Manchukuo" began, as volunteer armies continued to fight the Japanese. Harbin became a major operations base for the infamous medical experimenters of Unit 731, who killed people of all ages and ethnicities. All these units were known collectively as the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army.^[46] The main facility of the Unit 731 was built in 1935 at Pingfang District, approximately 24 km (15 mi) south of Harbin urban area at that time.^[47] Between 3,000 and 12,000 citizens including men, women, and children^[48][49]—from which around 600 every year were provided by the Kempeitai^[50]—died during the human experimentation conducted by Unit 731 at the camp based in Pingfang alone, which does not include victims from other medical experimentation sites.^[51] Almost 70 percent of the victims who died in the Pingfang camp were Chinese, including both civilian and military.^[52] Close to 30 percent of the victims were Russian.^[53] The Russian Fascist Party had the task of capturing "unreliable" Russians living in Harbin to hand over to Unit 731 to serve as the unwilling subjects of the gruesome experiments.^[54] Some others were South East Asians and Pacific Islanders from then-colonies of the Empire of Japan, and a small number of the prisoners of war from the Allies of World War II^[55] (although many more Allied POWs were victims of Unit 731 at other sites). Prisoners of war were subjected to vivisection without anesthesia, after being infected with various diseases.^[56] Prisoners were injected with inoculations of disease, disguised as vaccinations, to study their effects. Unit 731 and its affiliated units (Unit 1644 and Unit 100 among others) were involved in research, development, and experimental deployment of epidemic-creating biowarfare weapons in assaults against the Chinese populace (both civilian and military) throughout World War II. Human targets were also used to test grenades positioned at various distances and in different positions. Flame throwers were tested on humans. Humans were tied to stakes and used as targets to test germ-releasing bombs, chemical weapons, and explosive bombs.^[57][58] Twelve Unit 731 members were found guilty in the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials but later repatriated; others received secret immunity by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur before the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in exchange for biological warfare work in the Cold War for the American Force.^[59]

 

Three different nationalities – Chinese, Japanese and Russian – on Kitaiskaia Street

Chinese revolutionaries including Zhao Shangzhi, Yang Jingyu, Li Zhaolin, Zhao Yiman continued to struggle against the Japanese in Harbin and its administrative area, commanding the main anti-Japanese guerrilla army-Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army—which was originally organized by the Manchurian branch of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The army was supported by the Comintern after the CCP Manchurian Provincial Committee was dissolved in 1936.

 

Anti–communist Russian Fascist Party Blackshirts, inspired by Italian Fascism, at Harbin Railway Station, 1934, waiting for arrival of their leader Konstantin Rodzaevsky

Under the Manchukuo régime and Japanese occupation, Harbin Russians had a difficult time. In 1935, the Soviet Union sold the Chinese Eastern Railway (KVZhD) to the Japanese, and many Russian emigres left Harbin (48,133 of them were arrested during the Soviet Great Purge between 1936 and 1938 as "Japanese spies"^[60]).^[35] Most departing Russians returned to the Soviet Union, but a substantial number moved south to Shanghai or emigrated to the United States and Australia. By the end of the 1930s, the Russian population of Harbin had dropped to around 30,000.^[61]

Many of Harbin's Jews (13,000 in 1929) fled after the Japanese occupation as the Japanese associated closely with militant anti-Soviet Russian Fascists, whose ideology of anti-Bolshevism and nationalism was laced with virulent anti-Semitism.^[62] The Kwantung Army-sponsored and financed the Russian Fascist Party, which after 1932 started to play an over-sized role in the Harbin's Russian community as its thugs began to harass and sometimes kill those opposed to it. Most Jews left for Shanghai, Tianjin, and the British Mandate of Palestine.^[63] In the late 1930s, some German Jews fleeing the Nazis moved to Harbin. Japanese officials later facilitated Jewish emigration to several cities in western Japan, notably Kobe, which came to have Japan's largest synagogue.

After World War II

 

Monument to Soviet soldiers in Harbin's Nangang District, built by Soviet Red Army in 1945

The Soviet Army took the city on 20 August 1945^[64] and Harbin never came under the control of the Nationalist Government, whose troops stopped 60 km (37 mi) short of the city.^[65] The city's administration was transferred by the departing Soviet Army to the Chinese People's Liberation Army in April 1946. On 28 April 1946, the communist government of Harbin was established, making the 700,000-citizen-city the first large city governed by the communists.^[25] During the short occupation of Harbin by the Soviet Army (August 1945 to April 1946), thousands of Russian emigres who had been identified as members of the Russian Fascist Party and fled communism after the Russian October Revolution,^[36] were forcibly deported to the Soviet Union. After 1952 the Soviet Union launched a second wave of immigration back to Russia.^[36] By 1964, the Russian population in Harbin had been reduced to 450.^[61] The rest of the European community (Russians, Germans, Poles, Greeks, etc.) emigrated during from 1950 to 1954 to Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, and the US, or were repatriated to their home countries.^[36] By 1988 the original Russian community numbered just thirty, all of them elderly. Modern Russians living in Harbin mostly moved there in the 1990s and 2000s, and have no relation to the first wave of emigration.^{[citation needed]}

Harbin was one of the key construction cities of China during the First Five-Year Plan period from 1951 to 1956. 13 of the 156 key construction projects were aid-constructed by the Soviet Union in Harbin. This project made Harbin an important industrial base of China. During the Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1961, Harbin experienced a very tortuous development course as several Sino-Soviet contracts were cancelled by the Soviet Union.^[66] During the Cultural Revolution many foreign and Christian things were uprooted. On 23 August 1966, Red Guards stormed into St. Nicholas Cathedral, burned its icons on the streets while chanting xenophobic slogans before destroying the church.^[67] As the normal economic and social order was seriously disrupted, Harbin's economy also suffered from serious setbacks. One of the main reasons of this setback is with its Soviet ties deteriorating and the Vietnam War escalating, China became concerned of a possible nuclear attack. Mao Zedong ordered an evacuation of military and other key state enterprises away from the northeastern frontier, with Harbin being the core zone of this region, bordering the Soviet Union. During this Third Front Development Era of China, several major factories of Harbin were relocated to Southwestern Provinces including Gansu, Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou, where they would be strategically secure in the event of a possible war. Some major universities of China were also moved out of Harbin, including Harbin Military Academy of Engineering (predecessor of Changsha's National University of Defense Technology) and Harbin Institute of Technology (Moved to Chongqing in 1969 and relocated to Harbin in 1973).^[68]

 

Huang Shan Jewish Cemetery of Harbin

National economy and social service have obtained significant achievements since the Chinese economic reform first introduced in 1979. Harbin holds the China Harbin International Economic and Trade Fair each year since 1990.^[25] Harbin once housed one of the largest Jewish communities in the Far East before World War II. It reached its peak in the mid-1920s when 25,000 European Jews lived in the city. Among them were the parents of Ehud Olmert, the former Prime Minister of Israel. In 2004, Olmert came to Harbin with an Israeli trade delegation to visit the grave of his grandfather in Huang Shan Jewish Cemetery,^[69] which had over 500 Jewish graves identified.^[36]

On 5 October 1984, Harbin was designated a sub-provincial city by the Organization Department of the CCP Central Committee. The eight counties of Harbin originally formed part of Songhuajiang Prefecture whose seat was practically located inside the urban area of Harbin since 1972. The prefecture was officially merged into Harbin city on 11 August 1996, increasing Harbin's total population to 9.47 million.^[70]

Harbin hosted the third Asian Winter Games in 1996.^[71] In 2009, Harbin held the XXIV Winter Universiade.

A memorial hall honoring Korean nationalist and independence activist^[72] Ahn Jung-geun was unveiled at Harbin Railway Station on 19 January 2014.^[73] Ahn assassinated four-time Prime Minister of Japan and former Resident-General of Korea Itō Hirobumi at No.1 platform of Harbin Railway Station on 26 October 1909, as Korea on the verge of annexation by Japan after the signing of the Eulsa Treaty.^[74] South Korean President Park Geun-Hye raised an idea of erecting a monument for Ahn while meeting with Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping during a visit to China in June 2013.^[75] After that China began to build a memorial hall honoring Ahn at Harbin Railway Station. As the hall was unveiled on 19 January 2014, the Japanese side soon lodged protest with China over the construction of Ahn's memorial hall.^[76]

Geography

 

Map including Harbin (HA-ERH-PIN 哈爾濱) (AMS, 1955)

 

Map of Harbin

Harbin
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D     4.2     −12 −23     4.9     −6 −18     12     3 −9     20     14 1     39     22 9     88     27 15     148     28 19     123     27 17     56     21 9     23     12 1     13     0 −10     6.9     −9 −19 Average max. and min. temperatures in °C Precipitation totals in mm Source: CMA^[77]
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     0.2     10 −9     0.2     21 −1     0.5     37 17     0.8     57 35     1.5     71 48     3.5     80 59     5.8     82 65     4.8     80 62     2.2     70 49     0.9     54 34     0.5     32 15     0.3     15 −2 Average max. and min. temperatures in °F Precipitation totals in inches

 

Harbin and vicinities, LandSat-5 satellite image, 2010-09-22

Harbin, with a total land area of 53,068 km² (20,490 sq mi), is located in southern Heilongjiang province and is the provincial capital. The prefecture is also located at the southeastern edge of the Songnen Plain, a major part of China's Northeastern Plain.^[78] The city center also sits on the southern bank of the middle Songhua River. Harbin received its nickname The pearl on the swan's neck, since the shape of Heilongjiang resembles a swan.^[79] Its administrative area is rather large with latitude spanning 44° 04′−46° 40′ N, and longitude 125° 42′−130° 10' E.^[80] Neighbouring prefecture-level cities are Yichun to the north, Jiamusi and Qitaihe to the northeast, Mudanjiang to the southeast, Daqing to the west, and Suihua to the northwest. On its southwestern boundary is Jilin province. The main terrain of the city is generally flat and low lying, with an average elevation of around 150 metres (490 ft). The territory that comprises the 10 county-level divisions in the eastern part of the municipality consists of mountains and uplands. The easternmost part of Harbin prefecture also has extensive wetlands, mainly in Yilan County, which is located at the southwestern edge of the Sanjiang Plain.^[81]

Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification, Harbin features a monsoon-influenced, humid continental climate (Dwa). Due to the Siberian high and its location above 45 degrees north latitude, the city is known for its cold weather and long winter.^[79] Its nickname Ice City is well-earned, as winters in the city are dry and freezing cold, with a 24-hour average in January of only −17.6 °C (0.3 °F), although the city sees little precipitation during the winter and is often sunny. Spring and autumn constitute brief transition periods with variable wind directions. Summers can be hot, with a July mean temperature of 23.1 °C (73.6 °F). Summer is also when most of the year's rainfall occurs, and more than half of the annual precipitation, at 538 millimetres (21.2 in), occurs in July and August alone. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 52 percent in December to 63 percent in March, the city receives 2,571 hours of bright sunshine annually; on average precipitation falls 104 days out of the year. The annual mean temperature is +4.86 °C (40.7 °F), and extreme temperatures have ranged from −42.6 °C (−45 °F) to 39.2 °C (103 °F).^[82]

Climate data for Harbin (1981–2010 normals, extremes 1961–2000)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	4.2 (39.6)	9.9 (49.8)	20.7 (69.3)	29.4 (84.9)	34.6 (94.3)	36.7 (98.1)	39.2 (102.6)	35.6 (96.1)	31.0 (87.8)	26.5 (79.7)	17.2 (63.0)	8.5 (47.3)	39.2 (102.6)
Average high °C (°F)	−12.0 (10.4)	−6.3 (20.7)	2.8 (37.0)	14.0 (57.2)	21.5 (70.7)	26.5 (79.7)	27.8 (82.0)	26.5 (79.7)	21.2 (70.2)	12.3 (54.1)	−0.1 (31.8)	−9.2 (15.4)	10.4 (50.7)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−17.6 (0.3)	−12.4 (9.7)	−2.8 (27.0)	7.8 (46.0)	15.3 (59.5)	21.0 (69.8)	23.1 (73.6)	21.6 (70.9)	15.1 (59.2)	6.4 (43.5)	−4.9 (23.2)	−14.3 (6.3)	4.9 (40.7)
Average low °C (°F)	−22.9 (−9.2)	−18.3 (−0.9)	−8.5 (16.7)	1.4 (34.5)	8.8 (47.8)	15.2 (59.4)	18.6 (65.5)	16.9 (62.4)	9.3 (48.7)	0.9 (33.6)	−9.5 (14.9)	−19.0 (−2.2)	−0.6 (30.9)
Record low °C (°F)	−38.1 (−36.6)	−33.7 (−28.7)	−28.4 (−19.1)	−12.8 (9.0)	−3.8 (25.2)	4.6 (40.3)	9.5 (49.1)	6.6 (43.9)	−4.8 (23.4)	−16.2 (2.8)	−26.5 (−15.7)	−35.7 (−32.3)	−42.6 (−44.7)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	4.2 (0.17)	4.9 (0.19)	11.9 (0.47)	20.1 (0.79)	39.3 (1.55)	88.2 (3.47)	147.8 (5.82)	122.6 (4.83)	56.3 (2.22)	23.0 (0.91)	12.7 (0.50)	6.9 (0.27)	537.9 (21.19)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	5.8	5.7	5.7	6.7	10.3	13.5	14.2	12.3	9.9	7.1	6.0	7.2	104.4
Average relative humidity (%)	71	66	55	48	51	62	76	78	69	61	63	69	64
Mean monthly sunshine hours	155.9	179.9	230.9	231.4	264.1	260.2	254.2	247.2	230.5	206.8	170.2	139.9	2,571.2
Percent possible sunshine	56	62	63	57	58	56	54	57	61	61	60	52	58
Average ultraviolet index	1	2	3	5	7	8	8	7	5	3	1	1	4
Source 1: China Meteorological Administration (sunshine data 1971–2000),^[83]^[77] Weather China (precipitation days 1971–2000)^[84]
Source 2: Weather Atlas^[85]

Administrative divisions

The sub-provincial city of Harbin has direct jurisdiction over 9 districts, 2 county-level cities and 7 counties.

Map
Daoli Nangang Daowai Pingfang Songbei Xiangfang Hulan Acheng Shuangcheng Yilan County Fangzheng County Bin County Bayan County Mulan County Tonghe County Yanshou County Shangzhi (city) Wuchang (city)
Division code^[86]	Division	Area in km^2^[87]	Population(2010)	Seat	Postal code	Subdivisions^[88]
						Subdistricts	Towns	Townships	Ethnic townships	Residential communities	Villages
230100	Harbin	53,523.5	10,635,971	Songbei	150000	131	107	62	12	850	1879
City proper
230102	Daoli	479.2	923,762	Fushun Subdistrict	150000	20	3			116	37
230103	Nangang	182.9	1,343,857	Dacheng Subdistrict	150000	18	1	1	1	169	20
230104	Daowai	618.6	906,421	Daxing Subdistrict	150000	22	4			114	38
230108	Pingfang	98.0	190,253	Youxie Subdistrict	150000	6	2			25	11
230109	Songbei	736.3	236,848	Songbei Subdistrict	150000	7	2			33	48
230110	Xiangfang	339.5	916,408	Xiangfang Avenue Subdistrict	150000	20	4			117	46
Suburbs
230111	Hulan	2,185.9	764,534	Limin Subdistrict	150500	16	7	3		48	170
230112	Acheng	2,452.1	596,856	Jincheng Subdistrict	150300	12	7			76	108
230113	Shuangcheng	3,112.0	825,634	Xinxing Subdistrict	150100	10	6	11	5	18	246
Satellite cities
230183	Shangzhi Ct.	8,824.9	585,386	Shangzhi Town	150600		10	7	2	21	163
230184	Wuchang Ct.	7,502.0	881,224	Wuchang Town	150200		12	12	3	21	261
Rural
230123	Yilan Co.	4,616.0	388,319	Yilan Town	154800		6	3	1	12	132
230124	Fangzheng Co.	2,968.6	203,853	Fangzheng Town	150800		4	4		15	67
230125	Bin Co.	3,844.7	551,271	Binzhou Town	150400		12	5		5	143
230126	Bayan Co.	3,137.7	590,555	Bayan Town	151800		10	8		35	116
230127	Mulan Co.	3,600.0	277,685	Mulan Town	151900		6	2		7	86
230128	Tonghe Co.	5,675.5	210,650	Tonghe Town	150900		6	2		6	81
230129	Yanshou Co.	3,149.6	242,455	Yanshou Town	150700		5	4		12	106

Economy

Harbin has the largest economy in Heilongjiang province.^[8] In 2013, Harbin's GDP totaled RMB501.08 billion, an increase of 8.9 percent over the previous year.^[89] The proportion of the three industries to the aggregate of GDP was 11.1:36.1:52.8 in 2012. The total value for imports and exports by the end of 2012 was US$5,330 million.^[8] In 2012, the working population reached 3.147 million. In 2015, Harbin had a GDP of RMB 575.12 billion.^[90]

The chernozem soil in Harbin, called "black earth" is one of the most nutrient rich in all of China, making it valuable for cultivating food and textile-related crops. As a result, Harbin is China's base for the production of commodity grain and an ideal location for setting up agricultural businesses.

Harbin also has industries such as light industry, textile, medicine, food, aircraft, automobile, metallurgy, electronics, building materials, and chemicals that help to form a fairly comprehensive industrial system. Several major corporations are based in the city. Harbin Electric Company Limited, Harbin Aircraft Industry Group and Northeast Light Alloy Processing Factory are some of key enterprises. Power manufacturing is a main industry in Harbin; hydro and thermal power equipment manufactured here makes up one-third of the total installed capacity in China.^[91] According to Platts, in 2009-10 Harbin Electric was the second largest manufacturer of steam turbines by worldwide market share, tying Dongfang Electric and slightly behind Shanghai Electric.^[92] Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, which mainly focus on research, development, manufacture and sale of medical products, is China's second-biggest pharmaceutical company by market value.^[93]

Harbin International Trade and Economic Fair has been held annually since 1990.^[94] This investment and trade fair cumulatively attracting more than 1.9 million exhibitors and visitors from more than 80 countries and regions to attend, resulting over US$100 billion contract volume concluded according to the statistics of 2013.^[95] Harbin is among major destinations of FDI in Northeast China,^[8] with utilized FDI totaling US$980 million in 2013.^[89] After the 18th regular meeting between Sino-Russian Prime Ministers between Li Keqiang and Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev in October 2013,^[96] two sides come to make an agreement that the Harbin International Trade and Economic Fair will be renamed "China-Russia EXPO" and be co-sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Heilongjiang Provincial government, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Russia's Ministry of Trade and Industry.^[97]

 

Headquarters of Harbin Bank

In the financial sector, Longjiang Bank and Harbin Bank are some of the largest banks in Northeast China, with headquarters in Harbin. The latter ranks fourth by competitiveness among Chinese city commercial banks in 2011.^[98]

In commerce, there is Qiulin Group, which owns Harbin's largest department store.

Economic development zones and ports

• Harbin Economic & Technology Development Zone (National), mainly focus on telecommunications equipment, chemicals production and processing, automobile production/assembly, electronics, textiles, medical equipment and supplies.^[8][99]
• Harbin High and New Technological Development Zone, focus on optical-mechanical-electrical integration, biology, medicine, electronics and information technology.^[8]
• Harbin Pingfang Automobile Industrial Zone (Provincial), mainly focus on automobile production/assembly, electronics assembly & manufacturing, heavy industry, instruments & industrial equipment production.^[100]
• Harbin Limin Economic Development Zone (Provincial), mainly focus on trading and distribution, food/beverage processing, medical equipment and supplies, shipping/warehousing/logistics.^[101]
• Harbin Port

Harbin Songbei Economic Development Zone

Songbei Economic Development Zone is located in Songbei District of Harbin. The zone has a planned area of 5.53 square kilometers. Electronics assembly & manufacturing, food and beverage processing are the encouraged industries in the zone.^[102] Many regional and provincial headquarters of large enterprises such as the China Datang Corporation, China Netcom and China Telecom have joined in this district, preliminary constituting the economy concentration zone of the local headquarters. Regional Scientific research centers including Harbin Science and Technology Innovation Center and Harbin International Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Center are also located in this development zone. Profit from these major research institutes, Harbin ranked ninth among 50 major Chinese cities in scientific and technological innovation ability in scientific and technological competitiveness ranking in 2006, as well as ranking sixth among Chinese cities in the amount of scientific and technological achievements.^[103]

Harbin Economic and Technological Development Zone

 

Office Buildings around Harbin ICE Center

Harbin Economic and Technological Development Zone (HETDZ) is one of the 90 national economical development zones of China. It was set up in June 1991, and was approved by the State Council as a national development zone in April 1993. In December 2012, Harbin High Technology Development Zone was merged into HETDZ. In 2009, the hi-tech zone was separated from HETDZ again.^[104] The area now has a total area of 18.5 square-kilometers in the centralized parks, subdivided into Nangang and Haping Road Centralized Parks. The 12.2 square-kilometers Yingbin Road Hi-tech Centralized Park, which was formerly part of HETDZ, is currently under the administration of Harbin High and New Technology Industry Development Zone since 2009.

• Nangang Centralized Park: Designated for the incubation of high-tech projects and research and development base of enterprises as well as tertiary industries such as finance, insurance, services, catering, tourism, culture, recreation and entertainment, where the headquarters of large famous companies and their branches in Harbin are located.
• Yingbin Road Centralized Park: mainly focus on high-tech incubation projects, high-tech industrial development.
• Haping Road Centralized Park: Designated for a comprehensive industrial basis for the investment projects of automobile and automobile parts manufacturing, medicines, foodstuffs, electronics, textile; Automobile production and assembly raw material processing are the encouraged industries in this region.

Harbin High and New Technology Industry Development Zone

Harbin High and New Technology Industry Development Zone is one of the 56 national High and New Technology Industry Development Zones of China.^[105] The zone was first set up as a provincial level development zone in 1988, and was approved by the State Council as a national development zone in 1991 respectively.^[106] It has 23.9 square-kilometers of built-area totally, and subdivided into two parts: Science and Technology Innovation Town and High-tech Industrial Development Zone.^[105]

Demographics

Population

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1934	500,526	—
1944	711,818	+42.2%
1953	1,162,962	+63.4%
1964	1,962,000	+68.7%
1982	2,542,832	+29.6%
1990	4,219,516	+65.9%
2000	9,413,359	+123.1%
2010	10,635,971	+13.0%
Population size may be affected by changes on administrative divisions.

The 2010 census revealed total population in Harbin was 10,635,971, representing a 12.99 percent increase over the previous decade.^[107] The built-up area, made up of all urban districts but Acheng and Shuangcheng not urbanized yet, had a population of 5,282,083 people.^[108] The encompassing metropolitan area was estimated by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) to have, as of 2010^[update], a population of 10.5 million.^[109]

The demographic profile for the Harbin metropolitan area in general is relatively old: 10.95 percent are under the age of 14, while 8.04 percent are over 65, compared to the national average of 16.6% and 8.87 percent, respectively. Harbin has a higher percentage of males (50.85 percent) than females (49.15 percent).^[110] Harbin currently has a lower birth rate than other parts of China, with 6.95 births per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to the Chinese average of 12.13 births.^[111]

Ethnic groups

Most of Harbin's residents belong to the Han Chinese majority (93.45 percent). Ethnic minorities include the Manchu, Hui, and Mongol. In 2000, 616,749 residents belonged to minority ethnicities, among which the vast majority (433,340) were Manchu, contributing 70.26 percent to the minority population. The second and third largest minority groups were Koreans (119,883) and Hui nationalities (39,995).

Ethnic groups in Harbin, 2000 census^[112]
Ethnicity	Population	Percentage
Han Chinese	8,796,610	93.45%
Manchu	433,340	4.6%
Koreans	119,883	1.27%
Hui	39,995	0.43%
Mongols	13,163	0.14%
Xibe	4,741	0.05%
Russians	938	0.01%
Others	4,689	0.05%

Religion

The Catholic minority is pastorally served by its own Latin rite Apostolic Administration of Harbin, a missionary pre-diocesan jurisdiction. It also has the Eastern Catholic former cathedral of the Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Harbin (pre-diocesan, Byzantine Rite in Russian language). The badly damaged Church of the Iver Icon of the Mother of God was previously used by Russian soldiers of the Outer Amur Military Region, then garrisoned in Harbin.^[113] A small percentage of the city's population consists of Muslims.^[114] Daowai Mosque is located in Harbin and is the largest mosque in Heilongjiang province. Harbin had a small Jewish community centered on Zhongyang Main Street, which was home to many European Jewish refugees.^[113]

Culture

The Harbin local culture is based on Han culture, combined with Manchu culture and Russian culture.^[8] This combination of cultures influences the local architecture style, food, music, and customs. The city of Harbin was appointed a UNESCO City of Music on 22 June 2010 as part of the Creative Cities Network.^[115]

Cuisine

 

Traditional Guo Bao Rou

Harbin is renowned for its culinary tradition. The cuisine of Harbin consists of European dishes and Northern Chinese dishes mainly typified by heavy sauce and deep-frying.^[116]

One of the most famous dishes in Northeastern Chinese cuisine is Guo Bao Rou, a form of sweet and sour pork. It is a classic dish from Harbin that originated in the early 20th century in Daotai Fu (pinyin: Dàotái Fǔ).^[117] It consists of a bite-sized pieces of pork in a potato starch batter, deep-fried until crispy. They are then lightly coated in a variation of a sweet and sour sauce, made from freshly prepared syrup, rice vinegar, sugar, flavoured with ginger, cilantro, sliced carrot and garlic. The Harbin Guobaorou is distinct from that of other areas of China, such as Liaoning, where the sauce may be made using either tomato ketchup or orange juice. Rather the Harbin style is dominated by the honey and ginger flavours and has a clear or honey yellow colour. Originally the taste was fresh and salty. In order to fete foreign guests, Zheng Xingwen, the chef of Daotai Fu, altered the dish into a sweet and sour taste. Usually, people prefer to go to several small or middle size restaurants to enjoy this dish, because it is difficult to handle the frying process at home.^[117]

Demoli Stewed Live Fish is one among other notable dishes in Harbin, which is originated in a village named Demoli on the expressway from Harbin to Jiamusi. The village is now Demoli Service Area on Harbin-Tongjiang Expressway.^[118] Stewed Chicken with Mushrooms, Braised Pork with Vermicelli, and quick-boil pork with Chinese sauerkraut are also typical authentic local dishes.

Since Russia had a strong influence on Harbin's history, the local cuisine of Harbin also contains Russian-style dishes and flavor.^[8] There are several authentic Russian-style restaurants in Harbin, especially alongside the Zhongyang Street.^[119]

 

Harbin-style smoked sausage

A popular regional specialty is Harbin-style smoked savory red sausage.^[116] This product, which is similar to mild Lithuanian and German sausages, tend to be much more of European flavours than other Chinese sausages. In 1900, Russian merchant Ivan Yakovlevich Churin founded a branch in Harbin, which was named Churin Foreign trading company (pinyin: Qiulin Yanghang; Russian: Цюлинь Янхан) selling imported clothes, leather boots, canned foods, vodka, etc., and began to expand sales network in other cities in Manchuria.^[120][121] The influx of Europeans through the Trans-Siberian Railway and Chinese Eastern Railway, increased demand of European flavor food. In 1909, Churin's Sausage Factory was founded, and first produced European flavor sausage with the manufacturing process of Lithuanian staff. Since then European style sausage become a specialty of the city.^[116]

A Russian style large round bread 大列巴 dà liě ba, derived from the Russian word khleb for "bread" is also produced in Harbin's bakeries. Dalieba is a miche like sourdough bread. First introduced to the locals by a Russian baker, it has been sold in bakeries in Harbin for over a hundred years.^[122] Dalieba's sour and chewy taste is different from other traditional soft and fluffy Asian style breads in other parts of China.

Kvass, a Russia-originated fermented beverage made from black or regular rye bread,^[123] is also popular in Harbin.^[124] Madier ("马迭尔", derived from "Modern") ice-cream provided in the Zhongyang Street is also well known in northern China. This ice cream is made from a specific traditional recipe and it tastes a little salty but more sweet and milky. Besides its headquarters in Harbin, it also has branches in other major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, etc.^[125]

Manchu cuisine has mostly disappeared from Harbin.^[126]

Tourism

Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, is situated in the northeast of the Northeast China Plain. It is a Famous Historical and Cultural City with an infusion of foreign culture. It is also popular as a city universally prestigious for its snow and ice culture. Summer and winter are the best occasions to visit Harbin as it is a cool resort in the short lovely summer and a fascinating ice kingdom in the harsh cold and long winter.^[127]

Harbin is known for its European-style structures, for example, the popular Saint Sophia Cathedral, the design on Central Street, and the Baroque compositional complex in Lao Daowai (Old Town). Harbin in winter shows a large number of ice figures and offers many ice and snow activities for sightseers.

Along with facilitating the world's greatest Ice and Snow Festival, Harbin flaunts the world's biggest indoor ski park, which is inside the Wanda Harbin Mall (counting six ski slants up to 500 meters in length).^[127]

Winter culture

 

Tower at Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, 2013

Located in northern Northeast China, Harbin is the northernmost among major cities in China. Under the direct influence of the Siberian Anticyclone, the average daily temperature is −19.7 °C (−3.5 °F) in winter. Annual low temperatures below −25.0 °C (−13.0 °F) are not uncommon. Nicknamed "Ice City" due to its freezingly cold winter, Harbin is decorated by various styles of Ice and snow Sculptures from December to March every year.^[12]

 

Snow Sculpture in Sun Island, 2011

The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival has been held since 1985. Although the official start date is 5 January each year, in practice, many of the sculptures can be seen before. While there are ice sculptures throughout the city, there are two main exhibition areas: enormous snow sculptures at Sun Island (Taiyang Dao, a AAAAA-rated recreational area on the opposite side of the Songhua River from the city) and the separate "Ice and Snow World" that operates each night with lights switched on, illuminating the sculptures from both inside and outside. Ice and Snow World features illuminated full-size buildings made from blocks of 2–3 feet thick crystal clear ice directly taken from the Songhua River, which passes through the city. The sculptures inside the exhibition ground takes 15,000 workers to work for 16 days. In early December, ice artisans cut 120,000 cubic metres (4.2 million cubic feet) of ice blocks from Songhua river's frozen surface as raw materials for the ice sculptures' show.^[128] Massive ice buildings, large-scale snow sculptures, ice slides, festival food and drinks can also be found in several parks and major avenues in the city. Winter activities in the festival include Yabuli Alpine Skiing, snow mobile driving, winter-swimming in Songhua River, and the traditional ice-lantern exhibition in Zhaolin Garden, which was first held in 1963.^[129] Snow carving and ice and snow recreations are famous nationwide, especially among Asian countries including Korea, Japan, Thailand and Singapore.^[128]

The "Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival" is one of the four largest ice and snow festivals in the world, along with Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada's Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway's Holmenkollen Ski Festival.^[8]

Every November, the city of Harbin sends teams of ice artisans to the United States to promote their unique art form. It takes more than 100 artisans to create ICE!, the annual display of indoor Christmas-themed ice carvings in National Harbor, Maryland; Nashville, Tennessee; Kissimmee, Florida; and Grapevine, Texas.

The Music City

 

Harbin Music Park, located in Youyi West Road.

Founded in 1908, the Harbin Symphony Orchestra was China's oldest symphony orchestra. Harbin No.1 Music School was also the first music school in China, which was founded in 1928. Nearly 100 famous musicians have studied at the school since its founding, said Liu Yantao, deputy chief of Harbin Cultural, Press and Publication Bureau. Every year, thousands of youngsters start their music dreams in this city, and the "Harbin Summer Music Concert" serial activities that always be held in the every year's summer present the music passion of the locals. UNESCO recognizes China's Harbin as "The Music City" as part of the Creative Cities Network in 2010.^[115]

Harbin Summer Music Concert

Harbin Summer Music Concert ('Concert' for short) is a national concert festival, which is held on 6 August every two years for a period of 10~11 days. During the concert, multiple evenings, concert, race and activities are held. The artists come from all over the world.

The 'Harbin Summer Music Month', which was then renamed as 'Harbin Summer Music Concert', was held in August 1958. The first formal Concert was held on 5 August 1961 in Harbin Youth Palace, and kept on every year until 1966 when the Cultural Revolution started in China.^[130] In 1979, the Concert was recovered and from 1994, it has been held every two years. As a part of 2006 Harbin Summer Music Concert's opening ceremony, a 1,001-piano concert was held in Harbin's Flood memorial square located at the north end of Central Street (Chinese: 中央大街; pinyin: Zhōngyāng Dàjiē) on 6 August 2006.^[131][132] Repertoires of the ensemble consisted of Triumphal March, Military March, Radetzky March and famous traditional local song On The Sun Island. This concert set a new Guinness World Record for largest piano ensemble, surpassing the previous record held by German artists in a 600-piano concert.^[115] In 2008, the 29th Harbin Summer Music Concert was held on 6 August.

 

Harbin Grand Theatre, designed by MAD Studio. Located in Harbin's Songbei District, the opera house is surrounded by wetlands and waterways of Songhua River.

Media

 

Dragon Tower (Long Ta), a 336-meter-tall freestanding lattice tower, serves as the headquarter of HLJTV.

Television and radio

• Heilongjiang Television (HLJTV) serves as the media outlets of this region, broadcasts on seven channels as well as a satellite channel for other provinces.
• Harbin Television ^[zh] (HRBTV) serves as a municipal station, which has five channels for specialized programming.
• Long Guang, Dragon Broadcast, formerly Heilongjiang People's Broadcasting Station, the radio station group that serves the whole Heilongjiang region, providing seven channels including a Korean language broadcast station.
• Harbin People's Broadcasting Station ^[zh] (HPBS), broadcasts music, news, traffic, economy and life in Harbin and adjacent areas including Daqing, Suihua and Fuyu.

Architecture

Harbin is notable for its combination of Chinese and European architecture styles. Many Russian and other European style buildings are protected by the government. The architecture in Harbin gives it the nicknames of "Oriental Moscow" and "Oriental Paris" in China.^[79]

Historical architecture

 

European-style building in Central Street.

Central Street, one of the main business streets in Harbin, is a remnant of the bustling international business activities at the turn of the 20th century. First built in 1898, The 1.4 km (0.87 mi) long street is now a veritable museum of European architectural styles: Baroque and Byzantine façades,^[8] little Russian bakeries and French fashion houses, as well as non European architectural styles: American eateries, and Japanese restaurants.^[133]

The Russian Orthodox church, Saint Sophia Cathedral, is also located in the central district of Daoli.^[8] Built in 1907 and expanded from 1923 to 1932, it was closed during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution periods. Following its designation in 1996 as a national cultural heritage site (First class Preserved Building),^[134] it was turned into a museum as a showcase of the history of Harbin city in 1997.^[135] The 53.35 m (175.0 ft)-tall Church, which covers an area of 721 square meters, is a typical representative of Byzantine architecture.^[136]

 

Ji Le Temple (Temple of Bliss), a Buddhist temple in Harbin.

Many citizens believe that the Orthodox church damaged the local feng shui, so they donated money to build a Chinese Buddhist monastery in 1921, the Ji Le Temple. There were more than 15 Russian Orthodox churches and two cemeteries in Harbin until 1949. The Communist Revolution, and the subsequent Cultural Revolution, and the decrease in the ethnic Russian population, saw many of them abandoned or destroyed. Today, about 10 churches remain, while services are held only in the Church of the Intercession in Harbin.^[137]

The Harbin Railway Administration, formerly known as the Middle East Railway Administration, commonly known as the "big stone house", was built in 1902, destroyed twice and rebuilt in 1904 and 1906.^{[citation needed]}

Modern architecture

Harbin Grand Theatre is located in the cultural center of Songbei District, Harbin. It provides 1600- and 400-seat venues. The architecture uses the external design of the heterogeneous hyperbolic surface.^[138]

The Harbin Grand Theatre is a landmark building in Harbin. It is built in accordance with the water and is consistent with the surrounding environment. It embodies the concept of the landscape and landscape of the north. As a public building facility, the theatre provides people and visitors with different spatial experiences from the theatre, landscape, square and stereoscopic platform. During the design process, architect Ma Yansong has set up a unique sightseeing corridor and viewing platform in the Grand Theatre. Visitors are able to overlook the surrounding wetland and enjoy the unique natural wetland scenery of Harbin.

After the completion of the Harbin Grand Theatre, the public can enjoy opera, symphony, ballet and drama performances in various function rooms.

Sports

 

Division B of the 2018 Bandy World Championship was played at the Harbin Sport University Stadium

As the center of winter sports in China, Harbin has hosted the 1996 Winter Asian Games and the 2009 Winter Universiade. Along these events, many famous winter sports athletes come from Harbin. Olympic medalists include short track star Wang Meng (six-time medalist); long track skater Zhang Hong (2014 Sochi, gold medal); and pairs figure skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo (2002 Salt Lake City, bronze medal; 2006 Turin, bronze medal; and 2010 Vancouver, gold medal), Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao (2006 Turin, silver medal), Pang Qing and Tong Jian (2010 Vancouver, silver medal),^[139] and Sui Wenjing and Han Cong (2022 Beijing, gold medal; 2018 Pyeongchang, silver medal).^[140][141]

Harbin has an indoor speed skating arena, the Heilongjiang Indoor Rink.^[142] Opened in 1995, it is the oldest one of seven in China.

Mutual cooperation of the Far Eastern State Academy of Physical Culture and the Harbin Institute of Physical Education started an exchange of sports and cultural delegations, holding of sports, training of Chinese students in Khabarovsk, Russia and Harbin. Russian side started to have plans to introduce bandy to China while Harbin has good preconditions to become one of the strong points of this sport in China.^[143] The national team is based in Harbin,^[144][145] and it was confirmed in advance that they would play in the 2015 Bandy World Championship.^[146] The Chinese team came 16th in a field of 17 teams, edging out Somalia. Mr Zhu, president of the sport university, is a member of the Federation of International Bandy council.^[147] In December 2017, an international student tournament will be played.^[148] While Chinese bandy is still in its initial stages, it is expected that Harbin even more will become the driving force behind the domestic development,^[149] for example via opening the Federation of International Bandy office for development and promotion in Asia.^[150][151]

Heilongjiang Ice City Football Club currently play their home soccer matches at Harbin International Conference Exhibition and Sports Center, a 50000-seater stadium. The team gained promotion to China's second tier for the 2018 season when they came first in the 2017 China League Two division.

KRS Heilongjiang^[152] are a professional ice hockey team based in the city. A member of the Russian-based Supreme Hockey League and one of two Chinese teams in the league. The team is affiliated with the Kontinental Hockey League side, also based in China, HC Kunlun Red Star.

An indoor ski resort opened in Harbin in 2017 and laid claim to be the world's largest of its kind. It will make it possible to enjoy down-hill skiing all year round.^[153]

Events

The 1996 Asian Winter Games were held in Harbin. While ice games were mainly held in Harbin city, the skiing events were held in Yabuli ski resort, Shangzhi City. In the frame of this campaign to assert its role on the world scene, Harbin hosted the 2009 Winter Universiade. Local Government spent 3.6 billion yuan for this event, with 2.63 billion used in construction and renovation of its sport infrastructure for this Universiade.^[154]

Harbin hosted the Asian Basketball Confederation Championship in 2003, in which China won the championship on their home court for the thirteenth time.^[155]

Harbin bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, which was ultimately awarded to Vancouver, Canada.^[156]

The second China-Russia University Winter Sports Carnival was inaugurated 12 December 2017.^[157] This marked the first international bandy in Harbin.^[158] The Russian participation came from DVGAFK ^[ru] in Khabarovsk among men and IrGTU in Irkutsk among women.^[159]

Being the national centre of bandy, Harbin organised Division B of the 2018 Bandy World Championship and China improved its placing to 12th from a total field of 16 teams.^{[160][161][162]}

Transport

Railway

 

Railway system in Northeast China.

Located at the junction of "T-style" mainline system, Harbin is an important railway hub of the Northeast China Region.^[163] Harbin Railway Bureau is the first Railway Bureau established by People's Republic of China Government, of which the railway density is the highest in China. Five conventional rail lines radiate from Harbin to: Beijing (Jingha Line), Suifenhe (Binsui Line), Manzhouli (Binzhou Line), Beian (Binbei Line) and Lalin (Labin Line). In addition, Harbin has a high-speed rail line linking Dalian, Northeast China's southernmost seaport. In 2009, construction began on the new Harbin West Railway Station with 18 platforms, located on the southwestern part of the city. In December 2012, the station was opened, as China unveiled its first high-speed rail running through regions with extremely low winter temperatures. with scheduled runs from Harbin to Dalian.^[164] The weather-proof CRH380B bullet trains serving the line can accommodate temperatures from minus 40 degrees Celsius to 40 degrees Celsius above zero.^[165] China's most northerly high-speed railway, Harbin–Qiqihar Intercity Railway, opened for revenue service on 17 August 2015. The rail links three largest principal cities in Heilongjiang including Harbin, Daqing and Qiqihar. Harbin–Jiamusi and Harbin–Mudanjiang Intercity railways both opened for public service in 2018, connecting the provincial capital to major prefectural level cities Mudanjiang and Jiamusi.

The city's main railway stations are the Harbin Railway Station, which was first built in 1899 and expanded in 1989. The main station is rebuilt in 2017, and now is still under construction; the Harbin East Railway Station, which opened in 1934; and the Harbin West Railway Station, which was built into the city's high-speed railway station in 2012.^[163] Another main station, Harbin North Railway Station, opened for public service in 2015, along with new built Harbin-Qiqihar Passenger Railway.^[166]

Direct passenger train service is available from Harbin Railway Station to large cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Jinan, Nanjing and many other major cities in China.^[91] Direct high-speed railway service began operation between Harbin West and Shanghai Hongqiao stations on 28 December 2013, and shorten the journey time to 12 hours.^[167]

• Harbin railway system
•  

  North terminal of Harbin Railway Station

•  

  Harbin West Railway Station

•  

  Harbin East Railway Station

•  

  Harbin South Railway Station.

•  

  A CRH High-Speed train enters Harbin West railway station

Road

 

Haping road, one of the main municipal roads in the south of Harbin.

As an important regional hub in Northeast China, Harbin has an advanced highway system. Major highways that pass through or terminate in Harbin include the Beijing–Harbin, Heihe–Dalian, Harbin–Tongjiang, Changchun–Harbin, and Manzhouli–Suifenhe highways.

 

Hexing Road, western part of Harbin's 2nd ring road.

• G1 Beijing–Harbin Expressway
• G10 Suifenhe–Manzhouli Expressway
• G1001 Harbin Ring Expressway
• G1011 Harbin–Tongjiang Expressway, a spur of G10 that extends west to Tongjiang, formerly part of China National Highway 010
• G1111 Hegang–Harbin Expressway, a spur of G11 Hegang–Dalian Expressway
• G1211 Jilin–Heihe Expressway, a spur of G12 Hunchun–Ulanhot Expressway that extends north to Heihe
• China National Highway 102
• China National Highway 202
• China National Highway 221
• China National Highway 222
• China National Highway 301

Air

Main article: Harbin Taiping International Airport

Harbin Taiping International Airport, which is 35 kilometres (22 miles) away from the urban area of Harbin, is the second largest international airport in Northeast China. The technical level of flight district is 4E, which allows all kinds of large and medium civil aircraft. There are flights to over thirty large cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Qingdao, Wenzhou, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shenyang, Dalian, Xi'an and Hong Kong.^[91] In addition there are also scheduled international flights between Harbin and Russia, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea. In June 2015, The first LCC international air routes to Japan, specifically the city of Nagoya was to begin.^[163] Because of the freight capability limitation, construction of the T2 Terminal began on 31 October 2014. The 160,000-square-meter T2 Terminal was scheduled to be finished in 2017, and will increase the freight capacity of the airport to three times of the previous.^[168] Harbin is also working on T3 which would be shaped like a snow flake, signifying Harbin as an ice city famous for their annual International Ice & Snow Sculpture Festival which places during the heavy winter season.^[169]

Metro

Main article: Harbin Metro

 

Entrance of Taipingqiao Station of Line 1, Harbin Metro

Construction of Harbin Metro started on 5 December 2006. The total investment for the first phase of Line 1 is RMB5.89 billion. Twenty stations were planned to be set on this 17.73 km (11.02 mi) long line starting from Harbin East Railway Station to the 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University in the west of the city. A metro depot, a command centre and two transformer substations will be built along the line. Most of the line's route follows the air defence evacuation tunnel left from the "7381" Project, which started in 1973 and ended in 1979. The 7381 project was intended to protect Harbin from the former Soviet Union's possible invasion or nuclear attack.

 

Yidaeryuan (2nd Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University) Station, interchange station between Line 1 and Line 3.

The Line 1 of Harbin Metro opened on 26 September 2013.^{[citation needed]} It is oriented along the east–west axis of the urban area of Harbin: from north-east (Harbin East Railway Station) to south-west (2nd Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University).^[170] Line 2 and Line 3 are under construction. Line 2 runs from Songbei District to Xiangfang District and ringlike Line 3 runs through Daoli, Daowai, Nangang and Xiangfang Districts of Harbin. On 26 January 2017, Phase I of Line 3 opened for public service. Line 3 links Harbin West Railway Station to Yidaeryuan Station, the transfer station between Line 1 and Line 3.^[171] In the long term, the city plans to build nine radiating metro lines and a circle line in downtown and some suburban districts, which account for 340 km (211.3 mi) by 2025.^[172]

Picture References:

• Harbin Metro Map, Line 1

Ports and waterways

There are more than 1,900 rivers in Heilongjiang, including the Songhua River, Heilong River and Wusuli River, creating a convenient system of waterway transportation. Harbin harbor is one of eight inland ports in China and the largest of its type in Northeast China. Available from mid-April until the beginning of November, passenger ships sail from Harbin up the Songhua River to Qiqihar, or downstream to Jiamusi, Tongjiang, and Khabarovsk in Russia.^[91]

Education and research

 

The main building of Harbin Institute of Technology. Note the Stalinist "tier-cake" façade, reminiscent of the "Seven Sisters" in Moscow.

Harbin is one of the top 100 cities and metropolitan areas in the world by scientific research output as tracked by the Nature Index.^[15] As Harbin serves as an important military industrial base after PRC's foundation, it is home to several key universities mainly focused on the science and technology service of national military and aerospace industry.^[173] Soviet experts played an important role in many education projects in this period. Due to the threat of possible war with the Soviet Union, however, several colleges were moved southwards to Changsha, Chongqing, and several other southern cities in China in the 1960s. Some of these colleges were returned to Harbin in the 1970s.

The city hosts several major universities in Northeast China, including Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin Medical University, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin Normal University, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin University, Heilongjiang University of Science and Technology, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin Sport University, and Heilongjiang University.^[16][174]

Notably, Harbin Institute of Technology is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in the world for engineering.^[17] HIT was ranked fifth globally in the Best Global Universities for Engineering by U.S. News in 2022.^[175] Founded in 1920 with strong support by the Russian diaspora connected with the Chinese Eastern Railway, the university has developed into an important research university mainly focusing on engineering (e.g. in space science and defense-related technologies, welding technology and engineering),^[176][177] with supporting faculties in the sciences, management, humanities and social sciences. The institute's faculty and students contributed to and invented China's first analog computer, the first intelligent chess computer, and the first arc-welding robot. In 2010, research funding from the government, industry, and business sectors surpassed RMB1.13 billion, the second highest of any university in China.^[91]

Military

Harbin is now headquarters of the 78th Group Army of the People's Liberation Army, one of the three group armies that comprise the Northern Theater Command responsible for defending China's northeastern borders with Russia, Mongolia and North Korea. 23rd Group Army of the PLA used to garrison in Harbin before it was disbanded in a cycle of reductions in 2003.

International relations

Harbin has town twinning and similar arrangements with approximately 30 places around the world, as well as some other cities within China. For a list, see List of twin towns and sister cities in China → H.

In 2009 Harbin opened an International Sister Cities museum. It has 1,048 exhibits in 28 rooms, with a total area of 1,800 square metres (19,375 square feet).^[178]

On 3 September 2015, China and Russia signed an agreement to re-open the Russian consulate in Harbin, as the former Soviet consulate was closed in 1962 after the Sino-Soviet split. China will also establish a corresponding consulate in Vladivostok.^[179]

See also

• Dragon man
• Harbin Ferris Wheel
• Harbin Siberian Tiger Park
• List of cities in the People's Republic of China by population
• List of colleges and universities in Harbin
• List of current and former capitals of subnational entities of China
• List of universities and colleges in Heilongjiang

Notes

1. "Harbintsy" is the Russian word for "people of Harbin", cf. Berliners, New Yorkers, Muscovites. It applies to any nationality, not just Russians. While the paper focuses on Russian Harbintsy, many of their experiences were shared by Russians living elsewhere in "Russian Manchuria".

References

Citations

1. . Harbin Municipal Government. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
2. . Basic Facts. Harbin Municipal Government. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
3. "China: Hēilóngjiāng (Prefectures, Cities, Districts and Counties) - Population Statistics, Charts and Map".
4. . Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021.
5. "Harbin". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins.
6. (in Chinese). 豆丁网. 19 February 1995. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
7. "Illuminating China's Provinces, Municipalities and Autonomous Regions-Heilongjiang". PRC Central Government Official Website. 2001. from the original on 28 February 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
8. "Harbin (Heilongjiang) City Information". hktdc.com. 28 January 2014. from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
9. "Polish Studies in China". The Warsaw Voice. 30 April 2010. from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
10. . Kzzi.com/. Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
11. Jianwei, Wabng (1 February 2014). . English.news.cn. Xinhua. Archived from the original on 24 April 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
12. . BBC. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
13. Zhao, Kiki (4 June 2017). "Chinese City With a Russian Past Struggles to Preserve Its Legacy". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
14. 王欣欣 (25 December 2013). 哈爾濱打造對俄開放中心城市 (in Chinese). Hong Kong: 香港文匯報. from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
15. "Nature Index 2021 Science Cities". www.natureindex.com. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
16. "US News Best Global Universities Rankings in Harbin". U.S. News & World Report. 26 October 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
17. . U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on 25 October 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
18. Su Jinyuan (February 1982). On Wanyan Aguda's Political and Economic Reform. Collected Papers of History Studies.
19. . China Kindness Tour. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
20. Tao (1976). Pages 28-32.
21. Tao, p. 44.
22. "A-ch'eng". (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 4 December 2006 from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
23. 金上京历史博物馆 (in Chinese (China)). Harbin People's Government.^{[permanent dead link]}
24. "Funny Games Enjoy Now" 阿骨打、粘罕雕像落成 Aguda's and Nianhan's statues completed (in Simplified Chinese). 东北网. Retrieved 15 October 2014.^{[permanent dead link]}
25. . Harbin Municipal Government. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2017. At the end of the 19th century, there were over ten villages and about 30,000 people in Harbin, and the economic elements such as transportation, trade and population began to develop, which laid the foundation for formation and development of the city.
26. Consul Hosie to Bax-Ironside. Correspondence with the United States' Government Respecting Foreign Trade in China. 8 May 1899. p. 154 – via Internet Archive.
27. 哈尔滨市地方志编纂委员会 (1998). 哈尔滨市志 [History of Harbin] (in Chinese). 黑龙江人民出版社 (Heilongjiang People's Press). ISBN 978-7-207-03841-8.
28. Karlinsky 2013, p. 311.
29. Karlinsky 2013, pp. 312–313.
30. Jing-tao, Wang. "Analysis of the Rat Plague of Northeast China and the Sanitary and Antiepidemic Condition of Yanbian in the Early 20th Century" 试析二十世纪初东北鼠疫与延边地区防疫卫生状况 (in Chinese). from the original on 30 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
31. Gamsa, M. (1 February 2006). "The Epidemic of Pneumonic Plague in Manchuria 1910-1911". Past & Present. 190: 147–183. doi:10.1093/pastj/gtj001. S2CID 161797143.
32. Article in Chinese. . Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
33. (in Polish). Sinoforum.pl. Archived from the original on 3 February 2010. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
34. Bakich, Olga Mikhailovna, "Emigre Identity: The Case of Harbin", The South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol.99, No.1 (2000): 51–73.
35. Эхо планеты № 42 [Echo of the Planet No.42] (in Russian). ИТАР-ТАСС (Russian News Agency "TASS"). p. 30.
36. "The Harbin Connection: Russians from China" (PDF). from Shen Yuanfang and Penny Edwards (eds) Beyond China: Migrating Identities, Centre for the Study of the Southern Chinese Diaspora, Australian National University, Canberra, 2002, pp7587. (PDF) from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
37. Karlinsky 2013, p. 312.
38. Karlinsky 2013, p. 313–314.
39. Karlinsky 2013, p. 315–316.
40. Karlinsky 2013, p. 315.
41. Karlinsky 2013, p. 313.
42. Patrick Fuliang Shan, "'A Proud and Creative Jewish Community:' The Harbin Diaspora, Jewish Memory and Sino-Israeli Relations", American Review of China Studies, Fall 2008, pp. 15–29.
43. Ember, Melvin; Ember, Carol R.; Skoggard, Ian (30 November 2004). Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Volume I: Overviews and Topics; Volume II: Diaspora Communities. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9. from the original on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016 – via Google Books.
44. . Archived from the original on 5 July 2008. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
45. Matsuzaka, The Making of Japanese Manchuria, 1904–1932.
46. Yuki Tanaka, Hidden Horrors, 1996, p. 136.
47. Harris, Sheldon H. (1994). Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932–45 and the American Cover-Up. California State University, Northridge: Routledge. pp. 26–33. ISBN 0-415-93214-9. Page 26: Zhong Ma Prison Camp's creation; Page 33: Pingfang site's creation.
48. David C. Rapoport. "Terrorism and Weapons of the Apocalypse". In James M. Ludes, Henry Sokolski (eds.), Twenty-First Century Weapons Proliferation: Are We Ready? Routledge, 2001. pp. 19, 29.
49. Khabarovsk War Crime Trials. Materials on the Trial of Former Servicemen of the Japanese Army Charged with Manufacturing and Employing Biological Weapons, Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1950. p. 117.
50. Yuki Tanaka, Hidden Horrors, Westviewpress, 1996, p. 138.
51. "[IAB8] Imperial Japanese Medical Atrocities". from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
52. [AII The War Crime "Unit 731" and Chinese, Korean Civilian. ci]. Korea-np.co.jp (in Japanese). 조선신보. Archived from the original on 13 August 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
53. [Seiichi Morimura, The Devil's Gluttony] (in Russian). 1981. Archived from the original on 6 September 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
54. Bisher, Jamie White Terror: Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian, London: Routledge, 2005 p.305.
55. [The devil unit, Unit 731] (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 23 September 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
56. Richard Lloyd Parry (25 February 2007). "Dissect them alive: order not to be disobeyed". Times Online. London. from the original on 28 February 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
57. Monchinski, Tony (2008). Critical Pedagogy and the Everyday Classroom. Volumen 3 de Explorations of Educational Purpose. Springer, p. 57. ISBN 1-4020-8462-5.
58. Neuman, William Lawrence (2008). Understanding Research. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, p. 65. ISBN 0-205-47153-6.
59. Hal Gold, Unit 731 Testimony, 2003, p. 109.
60. These statistics, based on research work by A. B. Roginsky and O. A. Gorlanov of Memorial's Research and Information Centre, were provided to the author in May 2002.
61. Hal Gold, Clausen, Søren and Stig Thøgersen (eds). 1995. The Making of a Chinese City:History and Historiography in Harbin. New York: M. E. Sharpe.
62. Stephan, John J. 1978. The Russian Fascists: Tragedy and Farce in Exile 192545. London: Hamish Hamilton.
63. Huang. "Shanghai Jews as seen by Chinese Jewish People in Shanghai for 138 years". The Scribe. from the original on 23 August 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
64. LTC David M. Glantz, "August Storm: The Soviet 1945 Strategic Offensive in Manchuria" 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine. Leavenworth Papers No. 7, Combat Studies Institute, February 1983, Fort Leavenworth Kansas.
65. Освобождение городов КИТАЙ(Liberation of Cities-China). Soldat.ru (in Russian). 9 May 2000. from the original on 2 July 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
66. Chinese Government's Official Web Portal (English). China: a country with 5,000-year-long civilization 2012-06-01 at the Wayback Machine. retrieved 2011-09-03.
67. Karlinsky 2013, p. 314.
68. "Japan-China Relations in the 21st Century". Kendairen.or.jp. Japan Federation of Economic Organizations. from the original on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
69. "Harbin people congratulate Olmert on Israeli election success". People's Daily. 30 March 2006. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
70. 哈尔滨市历史沿革. Xzqh.org (in Simplified Chinese). 16 May 2014. from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
71. World of Chinese Stamps and Philatelic Items 2006-12-13 at the Wayback Machine
72. "What Defines a Hero?". Japan Society. from the original on 4 October 2007. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
73. Peng, Fu (20 January 2014). . Xinhuanet English. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
74. . National Diet Library of Japan. Archived from the original on 29 January 2008. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
75. "Memorial hall for Korean nationalist Ahn Jung Geun opens in China". Kyodo News International. 1 January 2014. from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
76. "Japan protest over Korean assassin Ahn Jung-geun memorial in China". BBC News. 20 January 2014. from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
77. . China Meteorological Administration. Archived from the original on 5 September 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
78. Xiu Jun, Li (2001). "The Alkili-saline Land and Agricultural Sustainable Development of the Western Songnen Plain in China (Alkali is misspelled in the original title)". En.cnki.com. Scientia Geographica Sinica. from the original on 28 November 2013. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
79. "Harbin ( Heilongjiang ) City Information".
80. . Basic Facts. Harbin Municipal Government. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
81. 2003. Wang A., Zhang S., and Zhang B. A study on the change of spatial pattern of wetland in the Sanjiang Plain. Acta Ecologica Sinica 23(2):237–243.
82. . Harbin Municipal Government. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
83. (in Chinese (China)). China Meteorological Administration. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
84. 哈尔滨城市介绍以及气候背景分析. Weather China (in Chinese (China)). 中国气象局公共气象服务中心. from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
85. "Harbin, China - Detailed climate information and monthly weather forecast". Weather Atlas. Yu Media Group. from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
86. (in Simplified Chinese). Ministry of Civil Affairs. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
87. 哈尔滨年鉴社 (2011). 《哈尔滨年鉴2011》 (in Simplified Chinese). 哈尔滨年鉴社.
88. Ministry of Civil Affairs (2014). 《中国民政统计年鉴2014》 (in Simplified Chinese). China Statistics Print. ISBN 978-7-5037-7130-9.
89. (PDF) (in Chinese (China)). Harbin Municipal Statistics Bureau. 18 March 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
90. 2015年黑龙江各市GDP和人均GDP排名. from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
91. "China Briefing Business Guide: Harbin". China-briefing.com. from the original on 23 October 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
92. . Societe General. Archived from the original on 23 December 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
93. "Trade Intelligence, Gain valuable business insights from our searchable database of thousands of articles and reports". from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
94. 1990年创办至今 回眸哈洽会 十四年这样走过 (in Chinese). 生活报(Life Newspaper). 14 June 2004. from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
95. "The 24th China Harbin International Economic and Trade Fair will be held from June 15th to 19th in Harbin". Departamento Econômico e Comercial em Portugal. 13 May 2013. from the original on 29 October 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
96. "哈洽会"今年正式更名为"中国-俄罗斯博览会" (in Chinese). 黑龙江日报. 21 March 2014. from the original on 5 July 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
97. (in Chinese). 黑龙江新闻网-生活报. 15 May 2014. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
98. (in Chinese). 哈尔滨新闻网. 11 October 2011. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
99. "Harbin Economic & Technology Development Zone | China Industrial Space". Rightsite.asia. from the original on 4 September 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
100. "Harbin Pingfang Automobile Industrial Zone | China Industrial Space". Rightsite.asia. from the original on 4 September 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
101. "Harbin Limin Economic Development Zone | China Industrial Space". Rightsite.asia. from the original on 4 September 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
102. "Harbin Songbei Economic Development Zone | China Industrial Space". Rightsite.asia. from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
103. . Harbin Information Center. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
104. (in Simplified Chinese). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
105. "Park introduction of Harbin High and New Technology Industry Development Zone". from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
106. "Harbin Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone | China Industrial Space". Rightsite.asia. from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
107. (in Chinese). National Bureau of Statistics of China. 10 December 2011. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
108. "China: Administrative Division of Hēilóngjiāng / 黑龙江省 (Prefectures, Cities, Districts and Counties) - Population Statistics in Maps and Charts". from the original on 8 July 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
109. OECD Urban Policy Reviews: China 2015, OECD READ edition. OECD iLibrary. OECD Urban Policy Reviews. OECD. 18 April 2015. p. 37. doi:10.1787/9789264230040-en. ISBN 978-92-64-23003-3. ISSN 2306-9341. from the original on 27 March 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2017.Linked from the OECD here 2017-12-09 at the Wayback Machine
110. 哈尔滨人口突破千万 外来人口增速超本地 (in Chinese). Dongbeiwang. 13 May 2011. from the original on 24 May 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
111. (in Chinese). www.harbin.gov.cn. 11 November 2011. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
112. National Bureau of Population and Social Science and Technology Statistics Division of China (国家统计局人口和社会科技统计司); Department of Economic Development of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission of China (国家民族事务委员会经济发展司) (2003). 《2000年人口普查中国民族人口资料》 (in Chinese (China)). Beijing: Publishing House of Minority Nationalities. ISBN 978-7-105-05425-1., 2 volumes
113. Te, Ma (August 28, 2017). Haiyun, Wu; Walsh, Matthew (eds.). "Orthodox Churches, Unorthodox Histories in China's Far Northeast". Sixth Tone. Translated by Bies, Brian. from the original on January 20, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
114. "Ethnic Minority Groups, Peoples & Religions in Harbin, China Ice Festival". www.harbinice.com. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
115. 王寒露 (26 June 2010). "UN recognizes China's northeastern Harbin as "Music City"". No. Xinhua. People's Daily Online. from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
116. "31 dishes: A guide to China's regional specialties". CNN Travel. from the original on 25 February 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
117. . 生活报 (in Chinese). 25 October 2005. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014 – via Heilongjiang News.
118. . dbw.cn Heilongjiang (in Chinese (China)). 2 September 2010. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
119. "Harbin Cuisine". visitourchina. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
120. Торговая фирма «И. Я. Чурин и К^о» и табачная фабрика А. Лопато // Китайский информационный Интернет-центр 10/01/2003
121. Спутник по Сибири, Маньчжурии, Амуру и Уссурийскому краю. 1911 год (6 год издания). Составил И. С. Кларк. VII выпуск. — Иркутск. — Паровая типо-литография П. Макушина и В. Посохина. — С. 106.
122. "Recreating 大列巴 (dà liě ba) - the Chinese sourdough bread with 100+ years of history and a Russian heritage". The Fresh Loaf. from the original on 11 August 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
123. . Archived from the original on 21 August 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
124. 哈尔滨特色饮料"格瓦斯"竞相亮相哈洽会. Dbw.cn (in Simplified Chinese). 15 June 2011. from the original on 25 April 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
125. . 贺陈慧 (in Chinese). 高端旅游周刊. 31 July 2014. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
126. newman, jacqueline m. "China's Dongbei Cuisine" (PDF). Worldwide Food. (PDF) from the original on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
127. "Megacities and more: A guide to China's most impressive urban centers". CNN.
128. "Ice is money in China's coldest city". www.smh.com.au. 13 November 2008. from the original on 2 October 2009. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
129. . China National Tourist Office. Archived from the original on 2 November 2007. Retrieved 23 October 2007.
130. . Archived from the original on 1 February 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
131. 李威 封娇 李木双 (10 August 2006). 第28届中国·哈尔滨之夏音乐会琴宝隆之声·千台钢琴演奏会吉尼斯纪录申请过程. 新晚报 (in Chinese). Sina Entertainment. from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
132. 王玮 (8 August 2006). "琴宝隆之声"千台钢琴演奏会奏响华彩乐章. Sina Entertainment (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 6 February 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
133. . China National Tourist Office. Archived from the original on 2 November 2007. Retrieved 23 October 2007.
134. "Preserved Buildings" 2012-03-06 at the Wayback Machine. Harbin Urban and Rural Planning Bureau 2014-05-31 at the Wayback Machine.
135. Yukiko Koga. "The Atmosphere of a Foreign Country": Harbin's Architectural Inheritance 2016-05-15 at the Wayback Machine. In: Anne M. Cronin, Kevin Hetherington. Consuming the Entrepreneurial City: Image, Memory, Spectacle. Routledge, 2008. p. 229.
136. . China National Tourist Office. Archived from the original on 2 November 2007. Retrieved 23 October 2007.
137. "Protection (Pokrov) of the Mother of God Church of Harbin". from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
138. 美呆了！哈尔滨大剧院获评"世界最佳文化类建筑". 文汇报. 2 March 2016. from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2018 – via people.com.cn.
139. "Olympic Results - Official Records". 11 July 2016. from the original on 30 September 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
140. . International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 8 March 2022. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
141. . International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 5 February 2022. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
142. "Heilongjiang Indoor Rink (CHHA) - Rink - SpeedSkatingNews". from the original on 27 July 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
143. Хоккеем с мячом заинтересовались в Харбинском институте физической культуры (in Russian). Федерация хоккея с мячом Хабаровского края. from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
144. News - XXXV Чемпионат мира по хоккею с мячом. from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
145. Китай сыграет на ЧМ-2015 - Архив новостей - Федерация хоккея с мячом России. from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
146. News - XXXV Чемпионат мира по хоккею с мячом. from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
147. . Archived from the original on 3 May 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
148. "Google Translate". Translate.google.co.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
149. "Google Translate". Translate.google.co.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
150. "Google Translate". Translate.google.co.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
151. . Archived from the original on 20 August 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
152. "Высшая хоккейная лига - Команды". Vhlru.ru. from the original on 20 September 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
153. harbin.gov.cn, Local News: "World's largest indoor ski resort opens to public", 4 July 2017-07-04 22 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 21 October 2017
154. 第24届大冬会09年2月18举行 共设12大项82小项. www.china.com.cn (in Chinese). 19 September 2008. from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
155. "Men Basketball Asia Championship 2003 Harbin (CHN)- 23.09-01.10 Winner China". Todor66.com. from the original on 5 March 2016.
156. "Past Bid Results". Gamesbids.com. 14 December 2013. from the original on 24 July 2015. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
157. "Google Translate". Translate.google.co.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2018.^{[dead link]}
158. "Google Översätt". Translate.google.se. 12 December 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
159. "Google Translate". Translate.google.co.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
160. "Women's World Bandy Championship awarded to China". Insidethegames.biz. 3 February 2017. from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
161. https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20171204144410/http://www.worldbandy.com/filer/Agenda_for_Annual_Congress.pdf^{[bare URL PDF]}
162. "Google Translate". Translate.google.co.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
163. . China National Tourist Office. Archived from the original on 2 November 2007. Retrieved 23 October 2007.
164. . Website of Jilin Province Government. 27 November 2012. Archived from the original on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
165. . Xinhuanet. 8 October 2012. Archived from the original on 21 November 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
166. 哈尔滨北站和哈齐客专明年同步使用 (in Chinese). 东北网-黑龙江晨报. 24 October 2014. from the original on 19 June 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
167. (in Chinese). 科技日报. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
168. 周琳. 哈尔滨太平机场扩建主体工程开工 T2航站楼3年内投用. 生活报 (in Simplified Chinese). 东北网. from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
169. Rytis Beresnevicius (7 June 2019). "The Most Futuristic Airport – Harbin Taiping International Airport". i-mad. Aerotime Hub. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
170. . people.com.cn (in Chinese (China)). 26 September 2013. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
171. 哈尔滨地铁3号线一期工程通车试运营 迎来"换乘"时代. Northeast News. Heilongjiang, China: DBW.CN. 26 January 2017. from the original on 25 September 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
172. 哈尔滨市人民政府 (9 March 2011). 哈埠地铁2013年载客试运行 6月份进行铺轨工程 (in Chinese). Retrieved 25 January 2014.^{[permanent dead link]}
173. . Harbin Municipal Government. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
174. "ShanghaiRanking's Best Chinese Universities Ranking". www.shanghairanking.com. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
175. "US News: Best Global Universities for Engineering 2022". U.S. News & World Report. 26 October 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
176. "Kuaizhou – China secretly launches new quick response rocket". 25 September 2013. from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2014. Built by the Harbin Institute of Technology, the new satellite will be used for emergency data monitoring and imaging...
177. "Work at HIT as lecturer after graduation". Retrieved 22 April 2014.^{[permanent dead link]}
178. "Harbin International Sister Cities Museum". China Daily.Com. 24 May 2013. from the original on 8 August 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
179. . Russia.org.cn/ (in Russian). The Embassy of the Russian Federation in the People's Republic of China. 3 September 2015. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2015.

Sources

• Jing-shen, Tao (1976). The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China. University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-95514-7.
• Lahusen, Thomas (15 November 2001). Harbin and Manchuria: Place, Space, and Identity (South Atlantic Quarterly (Book 99) ed.). Location: Duke University Press Books. pp. 276 pages. ISBN 0-295-95514-7.
• Karlinsky, Simon (2013). Freedom from Violence and Lies Essays on Russian Poetry and Music. Boston: Academic Studies Press. Excerpt at JSTOR j.ctt1zxsk34.29
• Walravens, Hartmut. "German Influence on the Press in China". – In: Newspapers in International Librarianship: Papers Presented by the Newspaper Section at IFLA General Conferences. Walter de Gruyter, 1 January 2003. ISBN 978-3-11-096279-6.

e**Also available at () the website of the Queens Library – This version does not include the footnotes visible in the Walter de Gruyter version

• • Also available in Walravens, Hartmut and Edmund King. Newspapers in international librarianship: papers presented by the newspapers section at IFLA General Conferences. K.G. Saur, 2003. ISBN 978-3-598-21837-8.

Further reading

• Bakich, Olga. "A Russian City in China: Harbin before 1917". Canadian Slavonic Papers 28.2 (1986): 129–148.
• Carter, James. "Struggle for the Soul of a City: Nationalism, Imperialism, and Racial Tension in 1920s Harbin". Modern China 27.1 (2001): 91–116.
• Clausen, Søren, and Stig Thøgersen. The making of a Chinese city: history and historiography in Harbin (ME Sharpe, 1995).
• Gamsa, Mark. "Harbin in comparative perspective". Urban History 37.1 (2010): 136–149.
• Guins, George C. "Russians in Manchuria". Russian Review 2.2 (1943): 81–87. Online excerpt
• Horn, Dara, People Love Dead Jews. New York: W. W. Norton. (2021) ISBN 978-0-393-53157-2. Chapter 2: Frozen Jews.
• Lahusen, Thomas. "A place called Harbin: reflections on a centennial". China Quarterly 154 (1998): 400–410.
• Meyer, Mike, "Manchuria Under Ice", Departures Magazine, Nov/Dec 2006, 292–297
• Xie, Liou, et al. "Harbin: A rust belt city revival from its strategic position". Cities 58 (2016): 26–38. Online
• Zissermann, Lenore Lamont, Mitya's Harbin; Majesty and Menace, Book Publishers Network, 2016, ISBN 978-1-940598-75-8

External links

 

Look up Harbin, Ha'erbin, or Ha-erh-pin in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Harbin Government website
•   Harbin travel guide from Wikivoyage