Harbin Off The Beaten Path

Hongbo Square is the hub of modern Harbin, with Xi/Dong Dazhi Jie stretching away, and Harbin's original raison d'etre - the railway station - down the slope to the north. Today, a modernistic water sculture sits in the middle of the roundabout isolated from Harbin by the roaring and rushing traffic. Until 1966, one of the region's most charming churches sat here, the wooden St Nicholas Church. It was burnt to the ground during the Cultural Revolution.
Along the north-western quadrant, curving around two street frontages is the spectacularly beautiful Heilongjiang Provincial Museum. However, advertising hoardings have completely covered the upper half of the building and much of the lower levels, so its charms can only be seen from photographs in St Sofia's Church.
The big square modern building to the west is the Northern Theatre, constructed in 1983 and a surprisingly graceful glass building considering the rubbish that China was constructing in the early 1980s.
The south-eastern quadrant of Hongbo Square holds some interesting buildings, but we didn't have the time to get to see them. The most notable building on that side is the small building knowns as the Soviet Experts House, which was built in 1908 for use as railway offices then taken over by the Japanese invaders in 1932. It was used by Soviet technical experts during the 1950s and 1960s.

A classic Eastern Orthodoxchurch was built by the Ukrainian architect Tidanov for the small Ukrainian community living in Harbin. Originally a wooden structure dating from 1922, the present brick church was completed in 1930, just two years before the Japanese occupation.
It is the sole remaining Eastern Orthodox church in Harbin, and is the focal point for the Russian ethnic minority. Back in the late 1940s there were 23 Orthodox churches in Harbin and 128,000 worshippers, but that has dwindled through the ravages of Communist influence to a mere hundred or so today.
The red brick and green domed church is, in many ways, that much more elegant than St Sofia's downtown, and its continued use brings a warmth utterly missing from the latter church.
Opposite is the Nielai Church.

Possiby one of the most intriguing churches in Harbin is the Nielai Church, built by the Russian architect Feorob in 1916 as a lone Protestant Church among the many Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches of the city.
Although there were a great many Protestat missionaries in China and Harbin at that time, they were not particularly successful. The Danish Lutheran Missionary Society is reputed to have had more than 20 missionaries working in Harbin alone. Quite why so many, and why Danish, is a mystery. Could these Danes speak Chinese or Russian?
This elegant little church is now 'managed' by the Harbin Christian Association.
Opposite is the Ukrainian Church of St Mary.

Just before reaching Zhingyang Jie is a cluster of older buildings. To the left of the first low yellow building is a small alleyway. Go down this alleyway, which twists right then left. You are in a courtyard of old Harbin: the bit the pictures and tour guides never show. The brick is unpainted, the windows original, and at the end the wrought-iron canopy sits where it has done since the building was put up in the 1920s. The courtyard, full of lumber, piles of bricks, bicycles and bits of equipment has probably been like this just as long. This is old Harbin at its best.
Hongzhuan Lu appears on Zhongyang Lu by the magnificent Baroque-style Xinhua Educational Bookstore with its huge red dome. It was originally constructed in 1909 for the Songpu Company.
At this point turn right towards the bright pink Moderne Hotel, actually Harbin's oldest hotel or left for the riverbank and the parks.

Until forty years ago, Harbin had a thriving Jewish community, one of the largest in China after Shanghai and Kaifeng. Now no more, although it is heartening to see that a Jewish visiting professor was appointed at Harbin University in 2003, hopefully reopening ties with Israel and the Jewish diaspora elsewhere.
Just one hundred metres west of the Holiday Inn hotel is a modern synagogue, clearly constructed recently as it lacks grace, elegance or any real charm. It stands opposite the head of Tongjiao Jie, which forks to the right from Jingwei Lu heading towards the riverbank. Just one hundred metres down on the left hand side of Tongjiao Jie are two remarkable buildings: next to each other are two more synagogues. I know nothing about the bigger, nearer building but the smaller building (now a Korean high school) was built in 1919, but only two years later was relegated to being a music school. (was the bigger synagogue next door constructed then? If so, they missed a trick, as the smaller one is a considerably more beautiful building!)
Truning right at this point into Hongzhuan Lu, most of the first stretch is 1950s appartment blocks, but as Zhongyang Lu is approached, a few surprises are in store......
[Continued in Part 2]
The newer structure

The slope down from Hongbo Square to the station is a particularly interesting street, architecturally (although I discovered later that photographs of the Russian Officers Club building didn't come out!)

The Russian Officers Club stands on the corner opposite the station at the bottom of the hill. The building was constructed in 1904 as the China Eastern Railway Hotel before being converted into the Tsarist Officers Club just three years later. Then after the 1932 Japanese invasion, the club became the residence of the senior Japanese officers.
The most striking part is not the building itself, but the beautiful wrought-iron entrance shelter to protect people from the rain, snow or sun as they arrived at the front doors.
Just above this building are several more, constructed later and used at various times as offices of the military and the railway company.
Side streets to the east contain more beautiful old buildings, many now abandoned but at least (hopefully) protected for the future.
If vernacular or industrial architecture switches you on, ask the friendly gatekeeper at the gateway at the far western end of the station courtyard to let you in to the railway goods yard. The long low sheds are original and remarkably seem to have not a single brick changed since they were built around 1910. To the north, across the railway tracks, the old engine sheds also look completely unchanged and still have the 'triangular' track behind to allow steam engines to be turned around without needing a turntable. Steam engines are no longer seen on the mainline in Harbin, but the water-towers and facilities remain.

Dongdazhi Jie is the main boulevard running north-east from Hongbo Square, the centre of the commercial district - and point zero - in Harbin. While the western end by the great roundabout of Hongbo Square is filled with modern skyscrapers, there are plenty of older buildings in among the glass, concrete and white tiles. Heading east along Dongdazhi, the older buildings become more numerous, including the substantial green-painted department store [full ref?] on the north side. The streets either side of this long street have some wonderful art-deco structures, often filling the same purpose as originally intended. Dongdazhi eventually ends up at the Jile temple complex and the Harbin amusement park. This park is reputed to have some very nice original Russian wood and brick pavilions. It can be recognised from afar by the vast ferris-wheel dominating the whole sky in this part of the city.

To the west of Hongbo Square, Xidazhi Jie rolls doen the slope, with huge stone buildings either side, including the beautiful Railway Cultural Palace at Number 84. Others are still used, and are probably unchanged internally since the day they were constructed.
In some respects, the buildings in this area are easier to see and appreciate than many in the Zhingyang Jie area because these are not covered in all kinds of advertising clutter and shop hoardings.

See separate reviews of the two churches, Hongbo Square and the Provincial Museum.

To the west of the Flood Control Monument at the end of Zhongyang Jie is Jiuzhan Park, a long thin park atop the levee of the Songhuajiang, and less visited than Stalin Park to the east. In the winter, the first few hundred metres are filled with ice sculptures, but then it becomes just a quiet linear park. In winter, the water level is very low, and at several points, pleasure boats and ferries are laid up on the icy banks down below the levee. Some are restaurant boats and the stone steps are swept clear and carpets laid down for the diners to get access. Upturned rowing boats are lined up waiting for the next summer season.
Near here, a roadway goes down onto the iced over river, and it is great fun to watch vehicles slither around trying - usually unsuccessfully - to get up the icy ramp. A short stretch of the river is free of ice here, but close exploration is not advised: the smell suggests that the warm sewage of the city is discharged into the river here.
The park continues all the way down the river to the rainbow bridge, the long bridge connecting Harbin with its north-bank suburbs and Taiyingdao. At the far end, a clutch ofbuildings, including the Shangri-La Hotel sit behind the levee watching over the snowy, white wilderness of the Songhuajiang.