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Harbin This article discusses the city of Harbin in Manchuria. For other meanings of "Harbin", see Harbin (disambiguation).) is a sub-provincial city and the capital of the Heilongjiang Province in north-east China. It lies on the southern bank of Songhua River. Harbin is a thriving industrial city. It is also the political, economic, scientific, cultural and communications mecca of Northeast China. Harbin is known as one of the major cities in China and Northeast Asia.

Harbin is originally a Manchu word meaning 'a place for drying fishing nets.'

GDP: ¥141.48 billion (ca. US$17.149 billion) in 2004, ranked no.17 on total GDP and no.29 on GDP per capita among Chinese cities

Harbin bears the nickname 'The Pearl on the swan's neck' because the shape of Heilongjiang resembles a swan, or as 'Oriental Moscow' or 'Oriental Paris' for the architecture in the city. Harbin is also known as 'Ice City' for its long and cold winter.

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Human settlement in the Harbin area dates from at least 2200 BC (late Stone Age). It is formerly Pinkiang.

The modern city of Harbin originated in 1898 from a small village, with the start of the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway (KWZhD) by Russia, an extension of the Trans-siberian railroad, shortcutting substantially the distance to Vladivostok and creating a link to the port city of Dairen (Dalnii) and the Russian Naval Base Port Arthur.

Following the Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5), Russia's influence declined, and several thousand nationals from 33 countries including the United States, Germany, and France moved to Harbin. Sixteen countries established consulates and set up several hundred industrial, commercial and banking companies in Harbin. The Chinese also established their own businesses in brewing, foodstuffs and the textile industry. Harbin had established its status as the center of northeastern China and as an international metropolis.

In December 1918, during the Russian Civil War, defeated Russian White Guards and refugees retreated to the city: it then became a major centre of White Russian émigrés. The city became the largest Russian enclave outside Russia. The Jewish Community was formed by Russian Jews and included a group of German Jews, who fled Nazi-Germany in the late thirties. The Russians established the Russian school system and published the Russian language newspapers and journals.

In 1935, after the sale of the railway (KWZhD) to the Japanese and after 1946 the bulk of Russians returned to the Soviet Union. The rest of the European Community (Russians, Germans, Poles, Greeks etc.) emigrated during the years 1950-54 to Australia, Brazil and the USA, or were repatriated to their home countries. In 1988 the original Russian community numbered just 30 old people.

With the establishment of the Manchukuo, Japanese troops occupied Harbin from February 4, 1932. The Soviet Army took the city on 20 August 1945. Harbin never came under the control of the Kuomintang, whose troops stopped 60 km short the city and its administration was transferred by the departing Soviet Army to the Chinese People's Liberation Army in April 1946.

The eight Harbin counties originally formed part of Songhuajiang Prefecture (松花江地区), and became incorporated into Harbin on August 11, 1999, making Harbin a sub-provincial city.

Called the Oriental St. Petersburg, Harbin is one of China's most beautiful cities. The city is well-known for its unique, Russian and European-influenced architecture.

Zhong Yang Street (Central Street, a.k.a. Kitaiskaia St.), one of the main business streets in Harbin, is a perfect remnant of the bustling international business activities at the turn of the 20th century. The 1.4km long street is a veritable museum of European architectural s, including Baroque and Byzantine façades, Jewish architectural wonders, little Russian bakeries, French fashion houses, American snack food outlets, Japanese restaurants. The Russian Orthodox church: St. Sophia Cathedral is also located in this central district of Daoli.

St. Sophia took nine years to build and was completed in 1932. It has now been made into a museum as a showcase of the multi-cultural architecture of Harbin.

Many citizens believe that the Orthodox church damaged the local feng shui, so they donated money to build a Chinese monastery in 1921, the Ji Le Temple. There were more than 15 Russian Orthodox churches and two cemeteries in Harbin until 1949. Mao's Communist Revolution, and the subsequent Cultural Revolution, saw many of them destroyed. Now, about 10 churches remain, while only in one services are held.

Harbin today is still very much influenced by its Russian past. A city once under Russian rule, it is now a center of trade with that country.

It is a trading post, where goods from Russia are available. For some Chinese people, Harbin is the only place to go to acquire traditionally Russian products such as vodka, and Russian memorabilia such as Matryoshka dolls.

The local cuisine in Harbin is also Russian-influenced. Harbin's bakeries are famous, and produce bread (lie-ba in local dialect) that is better than most bread available elsewhere in China. Harbin's sausages (qiu-lin hong-chang)are another notable product, in that they tend to be of a much more European flavour than other Chinese sausages.

The Harbin dialect also retains vocabulary items which originated in the Russian language.

Harbin is one of the sources of ice and snow culture in the world. Geographically, it is located in Northeast China under the direct influence of the cold winter wind from Siberia. The average temperature in summer is 21.2 degrees Celsius, -16.8 degrees Celsius in winter. It can be as cold as - 38.1 degrees Celsius in winter.

The annual "Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival" has been held since 1985. It starts from January 5th and lasts one month. There are ice lantern park touring activities held in many parks in the city. Winter activities in the festival include Yabuli Alpine Skiing, winter-swimming in Songhua River, and the ice-lantern exhibition in Zhaolin Garden. Snow carving and ice and snow recreations are world famous.

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

The third Winter Asian Games took place in Harbin in 1996. The city of Harbin bid for hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. The Alpine skiing events would have taken place in the Yabuli ski resort. In the frame of this campaign to assert its role on the world scene, Harbin will also be the host city of the 2009 Winter Universiade. Harbin plans to spend US$ 1.5 billion in construction and renovation of its sport infrastructure for this Universiade.

A benzene plant situated upstream in the city of Jilin along the Songhua river exploded on November 13, 2005. Benzene levels reached more than 100 times normal levels, which led authorities in Harbin to shut off the water supply, and some residents left the city while others rushed to buy bottled water. After a few days the water supply was restored.