History & Facts of Harbin

Harbin, originally named with a Manchu word meaning "a place for drying fishing nets", grew from a small rural settlement on the Songhua River to become the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province. Nowdays the city serves as a key political, economic, scientific, cultural and communications hub in Northeast China. Benefited from Trans-Manchurian Railway (now the Chinese Eastern Railway) since 1898, Harbin still plays an important part in Sino-Russian trade. Today, the city is notable for its beautiful ice sculptures in winter and its legacy Russian and Jewish immigrants and was declared a UNESCO "City of Music" in 2010.         

Quick Fact Sheet
Simplified Chinese Name: 哈尔滨  
Traditional Chinese Name: 哈爾濱
Mandarin Chinese Pinyin: hā ěr bīn
English Name: Harbin/Haerbin
Russian Name: Харбин
City Tree : Elm
City Flower : Lilac
Zip & Postal Code : 150000
Harbin Time: UTC+08:00
Phone Area Code: (+86) 0451
Population : 12,000,000
Languages : North Eastern dialects of mandarin Chinese
Area Coverage : 53,100 square kilometers
Administrative Division Area: 12 Districts & 10 Counties
Administrative Division Code : 230100
Airport: Harbin Taiping International Airport
Vehicle License Prefix : 黑A
Government Resident : 1th Century Avenue Songbei District
Climatic Conditions : Continental monsoon temperate zone with distinctive seasons.
Railway Stations : Harbin Railway Station, Harbin East Railway Station, Harbin West Railway Station
Major Universities : Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering University, Heilongjiang University
Fame & Honor Names: the Oldest Son of the P.R China, Ice City, City of Music, A Pearl City under the Swan Neck, Oriental Moscow, Oriental Little Paris.
Top Tourist Attractions: Sun Island, Central Street, Gogol Street, Harbin Summer Music Concert, Harbin Beer Festival, St.Sophia Church, Siberian Tiger Park, Yabuli Ski Resort, Ice and Snow World, Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival.


History of Harbin  
Though human settlement in the Harbin area dates from at least 4000 years ago, Harbin started to be known as the capital of Jin Dynasty called Shangjing (Upper Capital) Huining Fu (today's Acheng District of Harbin) in 1115 AC. Later, Harbin became a birthplace of the Qing Dynasty. However, the region of Harbin was still largely rural with over ten villages and about 30,000 people until the 1800s.

From 1896 to 1903, Harbin grew from a small village into the modern city due to the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway financed by Russian Empire and was extended to connect the Trans-Siberian Railway.

During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), Russian used Harbin as its base for military operations in Northeastern China. After Russian arrival, several thousand nationals from 33 countries, including the United States, Germany, and France moved to Harbin. Sixteen countries established consulates to serve their nationals, who established several hundred industrial, commercial and banking companies.

After Russia's Great October Socialist Revolution in December 1918, over 100,000 defeated Russian White Guards and refugees retreated to Harbin, which became a major centre of White Russian emigres and the largest Russian enclave outside the Soviet Union. The city had a Russian school system, as well as publishers of Russian language newspapers and journals. After 1919, Dr. Abraham Kaufman played a leading role in Harbin's large Russian Jewish community.

Japan invaded Manchuria outright after the Mukden Incident in September 1931. The Japanese completed occupation of Harbin soon and established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Then Harbin became a major operations base for the infamous medical experimenters of Unit 731, who killed people of all ages and ethnicities.

The Pacification of Manchukuo began, as volunteer armies continued to fight the Japanese. Under the instruction of Marxism in 1919, worker and student movements of the anti-imperialism and patriotic struggle were organized in Harbin and led by Zhou Enlai, Li Dazhao, Qu Qiubai, Lu Zhanglong and more other comrades. In 1923, the first organization of the Communist Party in Northeastern China was founded and then Harbin became the leading center where the Communist Party of China led the people in Northeastern China to wage revolutionary struggles and later wage war against Japanese invaders.      

Many of Harbin's Jews (13,000 in 1929) fled after the Japanese occupation. Most left for Shanghai, Tientsin, and the British Mandate of Palestine. In the late 1930s, some German Jews fleeing the Nazis moved to Harbin. Japanese officials later facilitated Jewish emigration to several cities in western Japan, notably Kobe, which came to have Japan's largest synagogue.

In 1932, Harbin sank into the control of Japanese-Puppet regime, and the people lived in an abyss of misery. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the people of Harbin waged a hard struggle, during which, a lot of national heroes and revolutionary martyrs such as Zhao Shangzhi, Yang Jingyu, Li Zhaolin, Zhao Yiman, whose names will go down in history, came to the fore successively. In 1945, Harbin was liberated from the control of Japanese-Puppet regime, and then the population reached 700,000. On April 28th, 1946, the people's regime of Harbin was established, and Harbin became the large city which was liberated earliest.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Harbin rapidly restored and developed national economy. During the period of the First "Five-Year" Plan, Harbin was one of the key construction cities of China. 13 of the 156 key construction projects aided and built by the Former Soviet Union were established in Harbin, which became an important industrial base of China, and quickly changed from a consuming city into a new industrial city. From 1958 to 1965, Harbin experienced a tortuous development course including "Great Leap Forward" and economic adjustment. During the period of "the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution", the national economy of Harbin suffered from serious setback so that the normal economic and social order was seriously disrupted.

However, national economy and social service have obtained significant achievements since the economic reforms first introduced in 1979. Harbin holds the China Harbin International economic and Trade Fair each year since 1990.[8] Harbin once housed one of the largest Jewish communities in the Far East. It reached its peak in the mid-1920s when 25,000 European Jews lived in the city. Among them were the parents of Ehud Olmert, the former Prime Minister of Israel. In 2004 Olmert came to Harbin with an Israeli trade delegation to visit the grave of his grandfather.

The eight counties of Harbin originally formed part of Songhuajiang Prefecture, and became incorporated into Harbin on 11 August 1999, making Harbin a sub-provincial city. On February 4th, 2004, the State Council approved the adjustment of some administrative divisions in Harbin. After the adjustment, There were eight districts including Daoli, Daowai, Dangang, Xiangfang, Dongli, Pingfang, Songbei and Hulan, seven counties including Binxian, Bayan, Yilan, Yanshou, Mulan, Tonghe and Fangzheng, as well as 4 county level cities including Wuchang, Shuangcheng, Acheng and Shangzhi under the administration of Harbin. The whole city covered an area of 53,068 km2, among which the urban area was 4,272km2. The population of the city was 9,748,400, among which the population of the urban area was 3,989,600.

On August 15th, 2006, the State Council approved the adjustment of some administrative divisions by that Harbin government, i.e. removing Dongli and Xiangfang districts to form new Xiangfang district, removing Acheng city to set up Acheng district, and dividing Yongyuan town and Juyuan town in Acheng city under the administration of Daowai district. After the adjustment, there are 8 districts including Daoli, Daowai, Nangang, Xiangfang, Pingfang, Songbei, Hulan and Acheng, 7 counties including Binxian, Bayan, Yilan, Yanshou, Mulan, Tonghe and Fangzheng and 3 county level cities including Wuchang, Shuangche and Shangzhi under the administration of Harbin. The whole city covers an area of 53,068 km2, among which the urban area is 7086km2. The population of the urban area is 4,642,400.

The municipality had 10,635,971 inhabitants at the 2010 census and its built up area now covers seven districts of Harbin municipality: all urban districts plus Hulan county who is merging with Songbei districts. The built up area is now home to 5,282,083 inhabitants spread out on 4,275 km2 (1,651 sq mi).

Harbin hosted the third Asian Winter Games in 1996. In 2009, Harbin held the XXIV Winter Universiade.