哈尔滨欢迎你! Haerbin huanying ni! (or, Harbin welcomes you!) We're sure you're going to have a wonderful visit and we'll hopefully be able to help you make sure it is as enjoyable and stress-free as possible. Going anywhere new can be a bit daunting - no doubt, for some of us, that's part of the excitement of traveling. Good information when you're traveling, though, means both time and money, more time to explore and experience the local scene and less money to waste and more to spend where you can enjoy the best value. We hope to help you achieve both of these objectives. Here's how: - Local Attractions - Our specially prepared profiles of the most popular local attractions - by season.
- Local Business Directory - A comprehensive and growing directory of local businesses that we know and trust, with details in English and address info in Chinese and, when possible, a link to our English Haerbin map (thanks to Google!)
- Reviews -Many of the businesses listed in the directory also have reviews from locals who been there and experienced the service first-hand. These can be particularly useful in choosing where to go in a new city!
- Haerbin Map - Our interactive English map with lots of references and resources to help you figure out where you are and where you want to go.
- Forum -There's nothing as useful as being able to ask the locals - and in our forum we have a special area for visitors to ask questions (and hopefully get some useful answers) about their visit to Haerbin. Join in and ask away. We'll do our best to help you! (It is a good idea to search this site first for answers to many of the common questions...)
If all else fails you welcme to send me an email and let me know what you need or want. No guarantees, but I'll do my best to help you out!
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Here's a bit of an introduction to Haerbin, courtesy of Haerbin's government website: Harbin, lying on the fertile Songliao plain and the banks of the Songhua River, is charming and gentle, a unique and feature-rich city abounding in European scenery and attracting a great number of tourists from China and abroad. The beautiful Songhua River winds through the city like a glittering belt and the elegant Sun Island is like a shining pearl encased on the north bank of river. The anti-flood Cenotaph, Songhuajiang Expressway Bridge spanning north and south, and the magnificent Worker Stadium are key features of the city. Harbin annually features it's ice and snow resources with the Ice Lantern display in Zhaolin Garden and snow sculptures on Sun Island. The Ice and Snow World, which has a prestigious reputation all over the world, is a tourist highlight that has amazed countless visitors and continues to be successful and popular every year. What’s more, Two Dragon Mountain, Song Mountain and the famous skiing resort Yabuli Skiing Plaza, have become favourite spots for sightseeing and traveling. In the northeast of the city, across the Songhua River the Tiger Garden and Zoo is home to many varied species of rare animals; Harbin also hosts a multitude of parks in the downtown area that give the city a feeling of class and elegance. Harbin strives vigorously to maximise its seasonal tourist resources and provides ice and snow travel, hunting travel, folk custom travel, anti-sunstroke travel, Jin dynasty’s culture travel among others to the city's tourists and visitors. Ice and snow travel’s popularity brought along the development of seasonal travel items, such as, raft drifting and ecological scenery travel, and city leisure travel. The annual Ice and Snow Festival, Ice and Snow World, Ice Lantern Garden Party, Yabuli Skiing Resort - all these winter travel brands are well known throughout China and around the world. Natural Resources: Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, is located in the belt within 125°42′E to 130°10′E and 44°04′N to 46°40′N and situated in the northeast of China and in the south of Heilongjiang Province, the main terrain of which is flat and low-lying, however, in the east 10 counties directly under Harbin there are lots of mountains and uplands.
The Songhua River winds through the central part of the city. To the southeast it adheres to the branch-uplands of the Zhangguangcai mountain, and to the north is Xiaoxing-an mountain. As the mountains’ altitudes are not high, the rivers intervein vertically and horizontally and the river plain is far-flung. The varied rivers in Harbin all belong to the Songhua river and Mudan river water systems, the main parts of which are comprised of the Songhua river, Hulan river, A-Shi river, Lalin river, Mangniu river, Mayan river, East Shining Pearl river, Ni river, Piao river, Feiketu river, Shaoling river, Wuyue river, Weiken river and so on. The four seasons of Harbin are so obvious and Winter is comparatively long and the climate is cold and dry. Summers are hot with an abundance of rainfall which mainly concentrates from June to September and contributes more than 70% of the whole year’s rainfall. The temperature in Spring and Autumn is changeable and these two seasons are transitional ones with frequent big winds blowing.
Harbin possesses vast mineral resources, 63 varied categories of mineral resources, the explored 25 varieties of which are utilized for industry. Coal, gas, copper, zinc, man-made ores and mineral water…. twenty types of mineral play a crucial role in Heilongjiang Province's economic prosperity. Meanwhile, Harbin’s forestland is mainly distributed over the eastern mountainous area, the northwestern foot of Zhangguangcai mountain and the southern ramp of Xiaoxing-an mountain. In these areas there are so many rare species of trees, especially red pine which is well known for its high grade texture all over China and overseas. Also apple trees, grape trees and other temperate trees still grow over here. On the other hand, Harbin is affluent in vegetation resources, the various species of which mainly contains algae vegetation and moss vegetation bearing the portraits of concentrated scattering and high economic profits. Such rare medical materials as wild panax, tuckahoe and earthworm, amboyna are famous in the internal and external sphere. Another series of vegetation to mention is surely wild edible vegetation with the inclusion of ferns, tender buds, a mass of filbert mushrooms and agarics. One more species of vegetation is more than 130 varieties of wild flowers adorning the blackland Chipewyan. There are more than 40 rare animals like the Siberian Tiger, bears, and other beasts and birds of the forest. The amount of fresh-water fish is plentiful. More than 40 species of fish live in the Songhua river and its branches in Harbin and contribute to the city's menu, including: Heilongjiang Carp, Silk Crucian, Dog Fish and the Red Eel, to name just a few.
Administrative Divisions: Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, is the center of politics, economics, culture, science and technology and transportation in the northeast of China.
On 15th, August, 2006, through the sanction of the State Council, Harbin modified its administration divisions, as folows: to cancel Dongli district, and Xiangfang district to rebuild new Xiangfang district; to change A-cheng city to A-cheng district; to regulate Yongyuan county and Juyuan county into the domination of A-cheng district into the rule of Daowai district. After adjustment, Harbin governs the eight districts of Daowai, Daoli, Nangang,Xiangfang, Pingfang, Songbei, Hulan,A-cheng, and the seven counties of Bin, Bayan, Yilan, Yanshou, Mulan, Tonghe, Fangzheng, as well as 2 cities and 3 prefectural cities. It has a total area of city is 53,068 square kilometers, the municipal area of which is 7.086 square kilometers and the population in the municipal area is 4.6424 million people.
Urban Architecture: The style and genre of architectures in Harbin presents unique and outstanding, distinguishing features in contrast with other cities in China. Not only a variety of European architectures but also quite traditional Chinese classic architectures are evident in Harbin.
All the tourists, on visiting Harbin, could gain the feeling that they have entered an architectural museum.
If you take a walk in Center Street you can see many Gothic, Baroque, Byzantinesque, Eclectic, New Art Tide and Avant-Modernist genres of architectures on both sides of the hundred year old street paved with square stones, which seems to tell the story of the city and people of Harbin.
If you go to canton area - Harbin Engineering University, Confucius Temple, Friendship Palace, Mechanics Institute, No.3 Middle School and so on - all the red brick and dark green tile, carved balks and painted pillars constitute good examples of Chinese traditional architecture.
If you view Harbin from overhead you will see row upon row of high buildings at your feet and various characteristic residences, the sun plaza in Hongbo Square glittering, the Songhua river as a flowing multicolor belt floating through the black soil... Architecture in Harbin is like some frozen notes, bearing European medieval romance, Chinese traditional elegance and modern zeal.
Economic Development:
Harbin is the center of Heilongjiang province's economic development and also is an integrated city with industry as the principal part of economy and all three industries generally booming.
During “ the first five and the second five year-plan”, Harbin engendered an industrial economics framework, the main body of which was comprised of large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises, the core of which was heavy industry, and had become an important industrial base of our country. At that time, the main products accounted for more than 3,000 varieties, covering the whole country, remotely exported to over 100 countries and areas. Items such as electricity station equipment, facilities and measures, airplanes and engine, linen textiles, magnalium artifact products, exactitude meters, axletrees, cables, relay protection sets and other items, dominated the top status in China.
Since the implement of reform and opening, Harbin had increased the stride of economics configuration modulation, adding pharmaceuticals, vehicles, vivers, electronic information and other new high-tech industries were progressing at full speed and formed new industrial situation. During “ the tenth five plan”, the target of industrial development, was to accelerate the industrialized process with informationization, to arduously struggle to cultivate electronic information, vehicles, vivers, pharmaceuticals, four pillar industries, and to develop furniture products, environmental protection, wielding, new materials, biological project …etc. five preponderant industries, to the largest extent, with actively adjustment and alteration of mechanism, textile, metallurgy, construct material, petroleum chemistry, light industry, six traditional industries, and they fabricated new industrial economics situation.
Reform and opening has boosted the fast growth of Harbin's tertiary industry which plays a more and more prominent function and status in the Chinese National Economy. During “the tenth five plan”, with tightened orientation of serving for National Economy and society development, the tertiary industry in Harbin will continue to focus on developing foreign trade, finance insurance, real estate, municipal transportation, tourism and scenery and technological education, information consultation, culture and sanitation and other social enterprises, so as to configure the perfect marketing economy system and satisfy the economic progress and citizen lives as a necessity.
During “the tenth five year plan”, Harbin agriculture and rural economics will focus on solidifying the agriculture basis and augmenting peasant’s income, and regulating the agricultural framework.. Harbin still ameliorated traditional agriculture production pattern, stabilized foodstuff and enhanced animal husbandry, extruded to develop molar profits agriculture with the emphases on green agriculture. We persisted in prospering agriculture by technology and extended advanced proper techniques, implemented excellent seed projects, and set up modern agriculture technological regions and techno-exemplification bases. At the same time, it actively facilitated agriculture synthetic exploitation and the concerned department constructed fourteen green-food base chains in the whole city in order to accelerate agriculture industrialization process and promote rural economics fully booming.
In 2006, the total value of regional production reached 209.4 billion, which increased 13.5% by contrast with the last year and averagely increased by 13.9% . That achieved the target of being double on the basis of 2000 year’s budget; the gross income of finance average budget reached to 19.23 billion which rose by 12.5% compared with the last, increased by 13% annually, in which local fiscal average budget revenue accounted to 11.83 billion, increasing at 14.7% in contrast with the last and augmenting at 15% annually; the investment of capital assets amounted to 81 billion which rose by 26.7% compared with the last, increased by 22.4% annually; the gross retail income of social consumable amounted to 89.54 billion which increased at 13.5% by contrast with the last year and annually increased by 12.5%.
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