In the winter Harbin comes alive – sculptures and buildings rise up out of the ice that grips the city. Snow, ice castles and a frozen river – it’s a glittering spectacle that’s well worth the risk of a little frostbite. If you tell a Chinese person you’re going to Harbin, they’ll most likely shudder and encourage you to alter your plans: “Too cold,” they’ll say. Despite that, it’s not too cold for the three million people who live in this city perched up in far northeastern Heilongjiang Province. Tradition has it that China is shaped like a rooster, Heilongjiang being the head and Harbin the eye and the city retains important unique features and a peculiar charm that you won’t find anywhere else in the country. 

Harbin was just a tiny town in China’s northeast for hundreds of years – until at the end of the 19th century the Russians decided they wanted to build a railway from Moscow to Vladivostok. The railway was laid in 1896 when the Chinese government was forced to grant Russia a concession at Harbin, which quickly grew to dwarf the old Chinese town. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, thousands of White Russian refugees crossed the Black Dragon River, better known in the west as the Amur River. At one stage around 160,000 foreigners from 33 countries were living in the city and they set up well over 1,000 companies, including China’s first beer brewery in 1900. The city soon became known as the “Moscow of the East,” and at only seven days train journey from Paris was proud to know the latest fashions well before Shanghai or Hong Kong. Much of the Russian architecture remains standing today and one of the prime attractions of the city is a walk along the Central Street (zhōngyāng dàjiē 中央大街). There are buildings of most European early twentieth-century styles along the length of this cobbled street, which remains today the most popular shopping area of the city. While McDonalds, KFC, and Western stores have redecorated most of the interiors, there are some buildings that have survived that kind of unfortunate modernization and still look and feel quite European. 

Central Street is found in Daoli District, which was where the majority of the foreigners settled. It is now the center of the municipal government offices and the site of most of the best sightseeing opportunities in Harbin. Strolling around the area you will find a little Russian chocolate shop, Russian gift-stores, coffee shops and some of the most expensive restaurants in town.  To the east of the Central Street, surrounded on all sides by modern department stores, you will find the Church of St. Sophia (shèng suǒfēiyà jiàotáng 圣索菲亚教堂), a lovely Orthodox church that is Harbin’s most famous landmark. It was badly damaged during the Cultural Revolution but later restored to its original 1907 splendor. Inside there is a little photographic exhibition tracing some of Harbin’s history, but most people report being disappointed with what they get to see for their RMB 10. There are a number of other Orthodox churches you will find around the city center that are worth a few minute’s look, though none are as impressive as St. Sophia’s.  Walking along the river is entertaining any time of the year and whether you’re watching the locals paddle rented boats in summer or trying to remember how to ice-skate in the winter, there’s plenty to do to occupy a few hours. There’s the odd toboggan for hire if you’re feeling brave, a more sedate pursuit is to wait for the old woman with scissors to find you – for just RMB 1 or 2 she’ll cut a perfect profile of you in some colored paper. For those with antifreeze for blood, you can speak to local guides about finding a hole in the ice for swimming– but there are no saunas here to run into after your dip, so it is fairly likely you will catch severe hypothermia. In case you were thinking that it was a tradition, then be assured that the locals think the winter swimmers are all feng le– crazy. 

Across the river, taking either the ferry or a taxi, you’ll find Sun Island Park (tàiyáng dǎo gōngyuán 太阳岛公园), which was once the retreat of choice for Harbin residents in the hot summer. A huge park with plenty of green to counteract the gray palette of the city’s apartment blocks, it’s pleasant to stroll around when sunny, though it really comes into its own when snow falls and the yearly sculpture exhibition moves in. This is the artistic high point of the winter season, with the snow sculptures (ice covered with compressed snow) being crafted by artists from around the world. From small figures to 30 feet wide panoramas, the artists try to out do each other year after year. There are also a number of “ice-games” you can play in the park, and for a few RMB you can hire sleds drawn by huskies. If animals are indeed your thing, then you might want to take a look at the Siberian Tiger Park (dōngběihǔ línyuán 东北虎林园). 15km further north than Sun Island Park, here you can find about three hundred Siberian tigers, lions and other big cats. There are only an estimated 700 Siberian tigers left in the wild, so Harbin’s park is an important breeding base, though rather unusual in that it allows visitors to purchase the food that’s thrown to the cats. You can buy a chicken, bits of beef or even a whole deer and in a circling and shaky bus, watch the tigers enjoy their meal. Critics argue that this practice associates tourists with feeding-time. 

A very important but highly unpleasant site for the people of Harbin is the Japanese Germ Warfare Experimental Base 731 (rìběn xìjūn shíyàn jīdì 731 bùduì 日本细菌试验基地731部队). Harbin and the rest of northeast China made up part of the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo after the Japanese invasion in 1931 and in 1939, Division 731 constructed a top-secret base to study germ warfare. Prisoners of war and anyone who had the misfortune of being captured were used as living subjects for horrific medical “experiments.” Over 40,000 people were tortured then killed in ways as savage and cruel as vivisection and roasting to death. Anger remains about Japan’s record during the Second World War and old chemical weapons continue to be dug up. Base 731 can be reached 20km south of Harbin and the small exhibition displays some of the implements used in the tortures. The base was only discovered in the 1980’s. 

The Ice Lantern Festival (bīngdēng jié 冰灯节) is the fun highlight of the year in Harbin. Held in Zhaolin Park (zhàolín gōngyuán 兆麟公园) in Daoli district, teams of workers transport large chunks of ice taken from further north along the Songhua River (thanks to global warming, increasingly further) and carve it into shapes or whole buildings. Neon tubes are inserted inside the ice, and then the whole thing is lit up in luminescent blues, pinks, green and yellows. It’s like a frozen Disneyworld and they often build replicas of famous buildings from around the world: Big Ben; the Eiffel Tower; the Taj Mahal; and, of course, a stretch of the Great Wall. There are also a few vertiginously high ice slides you can slide down, an ice maze, and an ‘ice forest’, where the trees are covered with a spider’s web of icicles. It is all wonderfully surreal, and there are endless photos to take, if your camera does not freeze.