Harbin Travel Guide

Harbin is a sub-provincial town and the capital of the Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China. Harbin is situated on the southern bank of the Songhua River.

The city of Harbin is ranked as the tenth largest town in China, serving as a key cultural, economic, scientific, political and communications center of Northeastern China.

Harbin is northernmost major town in China, with a population of more 10 million, and over 4 million in the town center alone.

Historically, the town of Harbin has had a lot of Russian influence, in particular after the Russian Civil War of 1918, when White (Monarchist) refugees escaped the newly formed Soviet Union. Nowadays, the influence remains clearly visible in the building styles and foods.

The city of Harbin was founded in 1987 as a camp for Russian engineers surveying the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The city of Harbin is originally a Manchu word meaning 'a site for drying fishing nets.'

� Area: 53775 km�, 7086 km� urban
� City seat: Daoli District
� GDP: �209.4 billion (ca. US$26.5 billion) in 2006
� Geographic coordinates: 125�42'-130�10' east, 44�04'-46�40' N
� Mayor: Zhang Xiaolian: since February, 2007
� Population: 9.54 million, of them 4.64 million in the urban area of the town

Harbin is also known as '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 town. Harbin is also called 'Ice City' for its long and cold winter.

Subdivisions:

8 districts:	7 counties:	3 county-level towns:
Daoli District	Fangzheng	Shangzhii
Nangang District	Bin	Shuangcheng
Xiangfang Distric	Yilan	Wuchan
Daowai District	Bayan County
Pingfang District	Tonghe
Acheng District	Mulan
Songbei District	Yanshu
Hulan District

History of Harbin