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capital of Heilongjiang province, China
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Harbin or Hā'ěrbīn is the capital of Heilongjiang, China, and the largest city of the province—as well as the second largest urban population (after Shenyang, Liaoning province) and the largest metropolitan population (urban and rural regions together) in Northeast China. Harbin has direct jurisdiction over nine metropolitan districts, two county-level cities, and seven counties. It is the eighth most populous Chinese city according to the 2020 census. The built-up area of Harbin (which consists of all districts except Shuangcheng and Acheng) has 5,841,929 inhabitants, while the total metropolitan population is up to 10,009,854, making it one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. Harbin serves as a key political, economic, scientific, cultural, and communications hub in Northeast China, as well as an important industrial base of the nation.
Several different etymologies have been offered for the city's name. The city government says the name means "swan" in the Jurchen language, and other sources say that it comes from a Manchu word meaning "a place for drying fishing nets". The settlement grew from a small rural fishing village on the Songhua River to become one of the largest cities in Northeast China. Founded in 1898 with the coming of the Russian-built Chinese Eastern Railway, the city first prospered as a settlement inhabited by an overwhelming majority of immigrants from the Russian Empire. In the 1920s the city was considered China's fashion capital, since new designs from Paris and Moscow reached here first before arriving in Shanghai. From 1932 until 1945, Harbin was the largest city in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Well known for its historical Russian legacy and architecture, the city is famed for its European influence and serves as an important gateway in Sino-Russian trade today.
Harbin is one of the top 50 cities and metropolitan areas in the world by scientific research output. The city hosts several major universities in Northeast China, including Harbin Engineering University, Harbin Medical University, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin Normal University, Northeast Forestry University, and Heilongjiang University. Notably, Harbin Institute of Technology is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in the world for engineering.
Harbin was voted "China Top Tourist City" by the China National Tourism Administration in 2004. Though known for its bitterly cold seasons, Harbin is heralded as the Ice City (冰城) for its winter tourism and recreations, especially the ice sculpture festival. The city has hosted the 1996 Winter Asian Games, the 2009 Winter Universiade, and the 2025 Asian Winter Games.
Human settlement in the Harbin area dates from at least 2200 BC during the late Stone Age. Wanyan Aguda, the founder and first emperor (reigned 1115–1123) of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234), was born of the Jurchen Wanyan tribes who resided near the Ashi River in this region. In AD 1115 Aguda established Jin's capital, Shangjing Huiningfu (Upper Capital, Huining Prefecture), in today's Acheng District of Harbin. After Aguda's death, the succeeding emperor Wanyang Sheng ordered the construction of a new city with a uniform plan. The planning and construction emulated major Chinese cities, in particular Bianjing (Kaifeng), although the Jin capital was smaller than its Northern Song prototype. Huining Prefecture served as the first superior capital of the Jin Empire until Wanyan Liang (the fourth emperor of the Jin Dynasty) moved the capital to Yanjing (now Beijing) in 1153. Liang even went to destroy all palaces in the former capital in 1157. Wanyan Liang's successor Wanyan Yong (Emperor Shizong) restored the city and established it as a secondary capital in 1173. Ruins of the Shangjing Huining Prefecture were discovered and excavated about 2 km (1.2 mi) from present-day Acheng's central urban area. The site of the old Jin capital ruins is a national historic reserve and includes the Jin Dynasty History Museum. The public museum was renovated in late 2005. Mounted statues of Aguda and of his chief commander Wanyan Zonghan (also Nianhan) stand on the grounds of the museum. Many of the artifacts found there are on display in nearby Harbin.
After the Mongol conquest of the Jin Empire (1211–1234), Huining Prefecture was abandoned. In the 17th century, the Manchus used building materials from Huining Prefecture to construct their new stronghold in Alchuka. The region of Harbin remained largely rural until the 19th century, by the end of which over ten villages and about 30,000 people arrived in the city's present-day urban districts.
This small village in 1898 grew into the modern city of Harbin. Polish engineer Adam Szydłowski drew plans for the city following the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which the Russian Empire had financed. The Russians selected Harbin as the base of their administration over this railway and the Chinese Eastern Railway Zone. The railways were largely constructed by Russian engineers and indentured workers. The Chinese Eastern Railway extended the Trans-Siberian Railway, substantially reducing the distance from Chita to Vladivostok and also linking the new port city of Dalny (Dalian) and the Russian naval base of Port Arthur (Lüshun). The settlement founded by the Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railway quickly turned into a boomtown, growing into a city within five years. In addition to the Russians, other Russian-speaking settlers in Harbin came from all over the Russian Empire, including Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, Georgians, and Tatars, eventually making Harbin a Russian town, with the majority coming from the south of European Russia.
The city was intended as a showcase for Russian imperialism in Asia, and the American scholar Simon Karlinsky, who was born in Harbin in 1924 to a Russian-Jewish family, wrote that in Harbin "the buildings, boulevards, and parks were planned—well before the October Revolution—by distinguished Russian architects and also by Swiss and Italian town planners", giving the city a very European appearance. Starting in the late 19th century, a mass influx of Han Chinese arrived and, taking advantage of the rich soils, founded farms that soon turned Manchuria into the "breadbasket of China". Others went to work in the mines and factories, making the northeast one of the first regions of China to industrialize. Harbin became one of the main points from which food and industrial products were shipped out of Manchuria. A sign of Harbin's wealth was the theatre that was established during its first decade. In 1907 the play K zvezdam by Leonid Andreyev premiered there.
During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), Russia used Harbin as its base for military operations in Manchuria. Following Russia's defeat, its influence declined. 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. Churches were rebuilt for Russian Orthodox, Lutheran/German Protestant, and Polish Catholic Christians. Chinese capitalists also established businesses, especially in brewing, food, and textiles, making Harbin the economic hub of northeastern China and an international metropolis.
The rapid growth of the city challenged the public healthcare system. The worst-ever recorded outbreak of pneumonic plague spread to Harbin through the Trans-Manchurian railway from the border trade port of Manzhouli. The plague lasted from late autumn of 1910 to spring 1911 and killed 1,500 Harbin residents (mostly ethnic Chinese), or about five percent of its population at the time. This turned out to be the beginning of the large so-called Manchurian plague epidemic, which ultimately claimed 60,000 victims. In the winter of 1910, Dr. Wu Lien-teh (later the founder of Harbin Medical University) was given instructions from the Foreign Office in Peking (Beijing) to travel to Harbin to investigate the plague. Dr. Wu asked for imperial sanction to cremate plague victims, which became the turning point for the epidemic. The suppression of this plague pandemic changed medical progress in China. Bronze statues of Dr. Wu Lien-teh were built at Harbin Medical University to commemorate his contributions in promoting public health, preventive medicine, and medical education.
The first generation of Harbin Russians was composed of the railroad builders and employees who had moved to Harbin to work for the Chinese Eastern Railway. At the time Harbin was not yet an established city, having been almost built from scratch by the early settlers. Houses were constructed, furniture and personal items were brought in from Russia. After the Manchurian plague epidemic, Harbin's population continued to increase sharply, especially within the Chinese Eastern Railway Zone. In 1913 the Chinese Eastern Railway census showed its ethnic composition as: Russians – 34,313, Chinese (including Hans, Manchus, etc.) – 23,537, Jews – 5,032, Poles – 2556, Japanese – 696, Germans – 564, Tatars – 234, Latvians – 218, Georgians – 183, Estonians – 172, Lithuanians – 142, Armenians – 124; there were also Karaims, Ukrainians, Bashkirs, and some Western Europeans. In total, there were 68,549 citizens of 53 nationalities, speaking 45 languages. Research shows that only 11.5 percent of all residents were born in Harbin. By 1917, Harbin's population exceeded 100,000, with over 40,000 of them being ethnic Russians.
Immediately after the February Revolution of 1917, the Harbin Soviet was organized. It sought to seize control over the Chinese Eastern Railway and to defend Russian citizens in Manchuria. The Bolshevik Martemyan Ryutin was the chairman of the Harbin Soviet.
After Russia's Great October Socialist Revolution in November 1917, the new Soviet government in Russia recognized the Harbin Soviet as its representation in Manchuria and placed Russian citizens in Manchuria under its protection. Subsequently, the Harbin Soviet requested recognition of the local taotai. On 12 December 1917, Bolsheviks seized control over the Harbin Soviet, pressuring Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries to leave the body. Through Golos Truda the Harbin Soviet declared itself as the government of the area. On 18 December 1917, the Harbin Soviet dismissed the Chinese Eastern Railway administrator Dmitry Horvat and directed its militia to seize control of the railway installations. The Bolshevik militia was soon confronted by Chinese troops and Horvat loyalists, who disarmed and deported some 1,560 Bolshevik fighters. Ryutin went underground.
In 1920 more than 100,000 defeated Russian White Guards and refugees retreated to Harbin, which became a major center of White Russian émigrés and the largest Russian community outside the Soviet Union. Karlinsky noted that a major difference with the Russian émigrés who arrived in Harbin was: "Unlike the Russian émigrés who went to Paris or Prague or even to Shanghai, the new residents of Harbin were not a minority surrounded by a foreign population. They found themselves instead in an almost totally Russian city, populated mainly by people with roots in the south of European Russia." The city had a Russian school system, as well as publishers of Russian-language newspapers and journals. The Russian Harbintsy community numbered around 120,000 at its peak in the early 1920s. Many of Harbin's Russians were wealthy, which sometimes confused foreign visitors who expected them to be poor, with for instance the American writer Harry A. Franck in his 1923 book, Wanderings in North China, writing the Russian "ladies as well gowned as at the Paris races [who] strolled with men faultlessly garbed by European standards", leading him to wonder how they had achieved this "deceptive appearance".
The Harbin Institute of Technology was established in 1920 as the Harbin Sino-Russian School for Industry to educate railway engineers via a Russian method of instruction. Students could select from two majors at the time: Railway Construction or Electric Mechanic Engineering. On 2 April 1922, the school was renamed the Sino-Russian Industrial University. The original two majors eventually developed into two major departments: the Railway Construction Department and the Electric Engineering Department. Between 1925 and 1928 the university's rector was Leonid Ustrugov, the Russian Deputy Minister of Railways under Nicholas II before the Russian Revolution. He served as the Minister of Railways under Admiral Kolchak's government and was a key figure in the development of the Chinese Eastern Railway.
The Russian community in Harbin made it their mission to preserve the pre-revolutionary culture of Russia. The city had numerous Russian language newspapers, journals, libraries, theatres, and two opera companies. One of the famous Russian poets in Harbin was Valery Pereleshin, who started publishing his intensely homoerotic poetry in 1937 and was also one of the few Russian writers in Harbin who learned Mandarin. The subject of Pereleshin's poetry caused problems with the Russian Fascist Party and led Pereleshin to leave for Shanghai, and ultimately to Brazil. Not all of the Russian newspapers were of high quality, with Karlinsky calling Nash put', the newspaper of the Russian Fascist Party, "the lowest example of gutter journalism that Harbin had ever seen". Nikolai Baikov, another Russian writer, was known for his novels of exiled life in Harbin together with his accounts of his travels across Manchuria and the folklore of its Manchu and Chinese population. Boris Yulsky, a young Russian who published his short stories in the newspaper Rubezh, was considered to be a promising writer whose career was cut short when he gave up literature for activism in the Russian Fascist Party and a cocaine addiction. Moya-tvoya (mine–yours), a pidgin language that was a combination of Russian and Mandarin Chinese that had developed in the 19th century when Chinese went to work in Siberia, was considered essential by the Chinese businesspeople of Harbin.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Harbin”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.