Harbin contd.

So not too much to say about Harbin, but I will give a little background!

Harbin is the northernmost major city in China and the capital of the Hei long Jiang Province. It is known for its beer, sausage, Snow and Ice Festival, and Russian tourists! That's about all that needs to be said I think :) Although most people go in the winter for the Snow and Ice Festival, I just don't know if I can handle sub zero temperatures, so I thought it would be nicer to go now. In fact, Harbin is way hotter than Dalian is right now because it is farther inland...the sea winds make Dalian very cold sometimes!

Although Harbin as a whole was definitely a lot dirtier than Dalian, the downtown area is really clean and they have some nice parks along the river. They even have a pedestrian only street (bu xing jie!) which is amazzzzzing! It was so nice to be able to walk and not have to worry about cars for once. I think there are probably few places in China where you can find these kinds of streets. There were many shops on this street selling 'authentic' Russian merchandise.







The river running through the city was definitely refreshing, but I was a little surprised to see how many people were fishing in it considering how dirty it probably is. I guess the Harbinese really are a "hard people".... I also saw someone swimming in it with what looked like no end in mind. I guess he was getting some exercise?



The city originally started as a railway outpost for Russian engineers who were surveying the construction of the Trans-Siberian railroad. The Russian influence can still be felt today- the downtown area has many Russian-style buildings. The most famous example of Russian architecture in the city is the Church of St. Sophia. The church was almost destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but luckily it mainly stood in disuse before being restored in the 90s. It was pretty cool to see this in China, but it was definitely a lot smaller than I thought it would be.

While I was walking around the church, a ton of Chinese people trying to sell little things were trying to speak to me in Russian. At any time, I would be walking down the street and all of a sudden I would hear a bunch of Chinese people shouting "Elousiren, Elousiren!" which means Russian in Chinese. Come on now...really?! First, I think it's a little annoying that they shout that, but it's also a little annoying that they assume that I'm Russian. The Russian population in Harbin is much smaller than it used to be, but I guess the tourist sector there still mainly consists of them. The picture is a famous little Russian cafe in the downtown area. It's pretty cute on the inside, but the coffee there was exceptionally terrible. For a little while though, I felt like I was not in China anymore. Even the waitresses were dressed in little Russian dresses. They definitely thought I was Russian in here...oh well, I guess I made the cafe seem more authentic for a while :)

















According to my travel book, in the early 1900s Harbin also used to be home to over 25,000 Jews who had fled from Russia. Most of them left after World War II ended, but there are still a few remnants of the Jewish influence in the city, including a synagogue that has been converted into a hostel. If you look closely, you can see the star of David at the top.
Last story from Harbin, when I was walking along the river I needed to use the bathroom so I found a small public toilet. I walked in, and it was one of those ones with just holes in the ground and really small division walls. There was only one hole open, and it was next to this woman who was just chilling there while she defecated. When she saw me, she immediately started trying to talk to me. It was really simple Chinese, so I could understand her...but after a while I started getting a little uncomfortable because it was unclear how much time was left before she was done. So...I finally just told her that I didn't understand her and ran to my hole. Then she started trying to peep around the corner to continue the conversation, but I just couldn't have that lol. Chinese people can be friendly in very unusual ways :)