Harbin, China Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

The last major city before you hit the sub-Siberian wilderness and its scattering of oil and mining towns, HARBIN is the capital of Heilongjiang province and probably the northernmost location that's of interest to visitors. It's worth a visit for its winter ice festival alone, but it's also one of the few northern cities with a distinctive character, the result of colonialism and cooperation with nearby Russia. Harbin was a small fishing village on the Songhua River – the name means "where the fishing nets are dried" – until world history intervened. In 1896 the Russians … more »