China: Harbin – Historic City Center

Harbin is famous for its blend of Chinese and Russian influences. Harbin was a tiny village until 1898, when the Russian Empire built the China Eastern Railroad and turned Harbin into a boomtown, almost fully inhabited by Eastern Europeans – Russian, Unitarians, Jews, an so on. Famous Russian, Italian, French and other European architects took part in planning and building Harbin – grand building, wide open promenades and avenues, lux storefronts and hotels. All this accelerated even more after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and thousands of all tsarist supported moving to Harbin. By the 1920s, Harbin was known as the “Paris of the East,” boasting international banks, theaters, opera houses, and a distinctly cosmopolitan atmosphere. The main attraction even today is the Central Street – a historic, cobblestone pedestrian thoroughfare stretching for a mile down to the river and lined with a mix of Baroque, Renaissance, Eclectic, and Art Nouveau buildings.