Two weeks ago, I went to Harbin, Heilongjiang, China for five days.
During my stay there, I went to Sun Island, Jin Hewan Wetland, Central Street, The Memorial Tower of Fighting Against the Floods, Harbin Chinese Baroque Block, Saint Sophia Church, Harbin Electric Machinery Company, Binjiang Wetland, New Industry Town, Volga Manor, and Jinshangjing History Museum.
Harbin is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China. Harbin is originally a Manchu word meaning “a place for drying fishing nets”. It is known for its bitterly cold winters and is often called the “Ice City”.
Harbin, popularly known as Ice City, features humid summers and very cold winters. The temperature there drops at around -40 °C. During my stay, I think the temperature was around 20 °C during the day and around 10 °C during the night.
And since it wasn’t winter yet, I was months early for the famous Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, where ice sculptures, big and small, can be seen throughout the city. I needed to go to an Ice Center somewhere in Central Street just to tease myself of some ice sculptures. Quite chilling, but they’re a beauty!
The city’s architecture and culture shows a combination of oriental and European architecture styles. Most notably for its unique, Russian influence. I saw some of the wonderful architectures when I went to Volga Manor, where I stayed for two nights.
I’ll tell you more about the places I visited in Harbin in the following posts. 🙂