Harbin is a city with particular scenes. With comfortable climate in summer, it is a famous summer resort. Rich and colorful winter activities turn cold and bleak winter into an advantage, as is her graceful summer. Harbin people change ice and snow into miraculous effects: cold to happy, winter to grand festival. Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, beginning in 1985, has been successfully held for 13 times. Now, it has become a traditional grand festival with trade , science and technology, tourism, culture, and sports as a whole. Harbin Ice Lantern Gala Party, the key program of Ice and Snow Festival, has been held for 23 times. Ice sculpture and snow carving competition are the expressions of ice and snow art essences. Ice and snow tour in Harbin is also splendid. It is listed as one of 35 national best scenic spots in China by the national government. Yuquan Hunting resort is currently the largest closed hunting resort in China. Yabuli Skiing Ground is just two-hour drive away, where tourists can get much pleasure from skiing, In '97 China Tour Year, Harbin brought out more than 10 tour items with particular style such as ice and snow tour, hunting tour, summer tour, and so on. The beautiful Sun Island is confirmed " The Bordary Scenic Spot " by National Tour Bureau, and ice and snow scenic tour as "Special Line Tour". Harbin keeps a long-term contact with more than 60 tour agencies from over 20 countries and regions. Around Harbin,Zalong Red-crowned Crane Nature Protection Zone,Jingpo Lake Scene, and the like are attracting many more tourists both at home and abroad for their unique charming. In 1996 Harbin had 82 travel agencies,33 foreign-related travel hotels, 20 travel shopping centers, 74 travel companies supplied buses, boats and taxis, more than 60 natural landscapes, more than 20 artificial landscapes, forming a good service system for touring and entertaining.

Ice Lantern and Sculpture

Making ice lanterns and sculptures in winter is a folk art long enjoyed by the local people. In the early 20th century, when Harbin was a developing city, electricity was available only to a few Russian-controlled establishments. In the middle of the winter, some Chinese workshops and local people would fill iron sheet buckets with water and leave them out until they were half-frozen. The chunks of ice were then taken out, carved into lamp shades, lit with a candle, and hung outside of shops as signs to attract customers. This was the beginning of the ice lantern.

Nowadays, ice sculpting has become a major seasonal event enjoyed by residents. Each year, in the depths of winter, tourists descend onto the city to view the spectacular works of ice art created by local and foreign ice sculptors.

This annual event starts on January 5th at Zhao Lin Park, which is named after an anti-Japanese general buried in the park. The festival runs for two months. Scattered in the park are sculptures of various motifs, which ingeniously combine ice and snow with the illuminating effects of lighting to create a winter fantasyland at night. One can see lively human and animal figures, imposing buildings and ancient castles, awe-inspiring icebergs and caves, plus various kinds of ice lanterns and lights hanging high and low, making the whole park look like a crystal palace. On average, there are 1,000-plus ice works organized in groupings with such themes as Ice Architecture, Early Harbin, Ice City Tour and Children's Garden. Over the past few years, new themes have regularly been added and the standard for more clever and ingenious designs has been elevated, making the annual event a popular occasion for locals and tourists alike.

Sun Island and Song Hua River

Sun Island lies on the other side of the Song Hua River. During summer, the whole island is covered with thick plants and lush foliage. The island boasts white sand and water, fun for swimming and lazing on the beach. Artificial flower terraces and artistic sculptures juxtapose the unspoiled rustic surroundings. Tucked in the grove are several resorts. Located on the southwestern part of the island is the Sun Island Restaurant, which from afar looks like a cruise ship docked on the wharf.

During winter, the river is frozen to a thickness of 70-80cm, becoming a winter playground. Popular activities include winter swimming, skating, ice sailing, sledding, and sleighing.

Ya Bu Li Ski Resort

China's first large-scale skiing region, the Ya Bu Li Ski Resort, is located in the mountainous outskirts of Harbin at an altitude of 1374.8 meters. The resort is covered with snow over one meter thick for half the year, making it an ideal skiing place. It was the official venue during the 1996 Asian Winter Sports Games.

Each winter, the charming natural scenery and modern facilities attract a host of local and foreign skiers. It is often filled to capacity on weekends. Apart from skiing, there are also other recreational activities like snow motor racing, and horse-drawn sledding and sleighing. For overnight stays, there are several hotels at the resort, and room rates range from several hundred to over CNY1,000 per night.

Church of St. Sophia

The Russian influence in Harbin, including a continuing strong Russian population here, is no better felt than a wander around the streets that make up the Daoli district, in the northwest of the city.

Among the many Orthodox churches and Russian style facades in this region, the St. Sophia Orthodox Church (Shengsuo feiya dajiaotang) is the most impressive, and imposing, structure.

In 1903, with the completion of the Sino-Russia railway, connecting Vladivostok to northeast China, the Russian No.4 Army Division arrived in this region. After Russia's shameful failure against the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), a plan to reconsolidate the confidence of the army by building a imposing spiritual symbol was proposed. Thus the magnificent St. Sofia Church was born, completed in 1907. Large scale expansion and renovation then started in 1923, and after a nine years' intensive job, the biggest Orthodox church in the far east was finally completed and stood much as it does today.

The 53m tall church is a perfect example of Byzantine architecture: the main structure of the church is laid out as a Latin Cross with the main hall topped with a huge green tipped roof. Under the bright sun, the church, together with the square around it, reminds the Chinese, bizarrely, of the Red Square in Moscow. Although there are still several hundred Orthodox believers in Harbin, the religious activities are usually conducted in other smaller churches. St. Sofia Church is nowadays used as the Municipal Architecture and Art Museum with exhibitions of the architectural history of the city, a photographic survey with captions all in Chinese.

Jile Temple

Jile Temple (Jile si) is one of the four most important Buddhist temples in northeast China. The temple is characterized by its age, its architecture and its lay out and all are designed strictly after the Chinese Buddhist style.

The temple is therefore looked upon as the model for visitors to understand and appreciate the art of Chinese temple building.

The temple was built in 1920 by Master Yanxu, a famous disciple of the Tiantai Buddhist clan. The complex of the temple consists of the Heavenly King's Hall, the Grand Hall, the Three Bodhisattva Hall, and the Buddhist Book Storage Hall. The main halls are fronted by a Drum Tower and a Bell Tower and other subordinate structures. The most imposing building of the temple is probably the Futu Pagoda on the eastern tip of the grounds, a 37m tall stone structure building dotted with caves engraved with Buddhist embossed sculptures. At the bottom of the pagoda is a large hall with Buddhist statues.

Every 8th, 18th and 28th of April according to the lunar calendar, major Buddhist festivals are held in the temple. Massive rites and celebrations are organized, while the temple area is surrounded with bazaars and various folk activities.

Japanese Germ Warfare Base Museum

Further evidence of the dubious nature of the Japanese role during their occupation of parts of China in the 1930s and 40s is highlighted here in Harbin.

The Japanese army took the city in 1932, part of the colonization policy that had already claimed Korea and other parts of the newly set up Manchukuo state (Manchuria) with its puppet emperor.

Many Japanese historians even today refute much of the evidence that has been mounting up since the war years, although it is now fairly commonly accepted that the strictly drilled Japanese forces and seemingly polite civilians were less than civil.

The Japanese Germ Warfare Experimental Base (Riben xijun shiyan jidi) was set up in 1939 to "research", presumably, the capabilities of the soul and the endurance of the human body. Run by the Japanese army's Unit 731 (Qi san yao budui), the research center experimented upon many of the captives of the viscous war in Northeast Asia, including Soviet, Korean, British, Mongolian and mostly Chinese prisoners of war (POWs). As with other examples of the demonic brutality that such oppressive authoritarian societies can be stretched to doing, from Auschwitz to Nanjing, the Germ Warfare Experimental Base nowadays shows little of the grisly senselessness that its recent past should emphasize. The sight is said to have witnessed the execution of over 3000 POWs in the most horrific way: frozen, bombed, roasted, infected, injected, dissected...alive until dead.

Almost as chilling and sad as the events themselves is the umbrella of denial that now has spread over much of this period of history, with allegations and misinformation coming from many sides. Just before the 1945 retake of the city by the Soviets the Japanese apparently did their utmost to cover up the evidence of this area, blowing up the site. Allegedly, the Americans also gave the Japanese scientists who worked in the base, prominent in their respective fields, immunity from prosecution in return for research findings. It was not until the 1980s that a Japanese journalist published his findings of the role of the army in the Northeast that, seemingly, the whole truth came out. Nowadays many Chinese are adamant, and with good but possibly overzealous reasons, in their hatred of the Japanese. "Is said to", "apparently", "allegedly", "seemingly", "possibly" are words that appear with frequent maddening regularity here.

The museum that now commemorates this site is situated near to the spot that the original base stood, some 30km south-west of Harbin, near to the little town of Pingfang. The site is interesting for those into history, although the museum is small (two rooms) and has, see above, little evidence of the true past. There are, however, a few photographs, with Chinese captions, and the unearthed site of the original base that could be worth a look.