Harbin for foreigners

Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang province, China's northernmost great city, 800 km from the Russian border. The city was built by Russian railway engineers in the late 1890s, and the result is a cityscape unlike anywhere else in China: onion-domed Orthodox churches, half-timbered German-style buildings, and the largest collection of European art-deco architecture in East Asia. Saint Sophia Cathedral (圣索菲亚教堂) is the most-photographed landmark — a 1907 brick cathedral that survived the Cultural Revolution as a market. The reason most people come in winter: the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival (哈尔滨国际冰雪节, January 5 to late February). It's the world's largest ice festival, with full-size illuminated buildings carved from blocks cut out of the Songhua River, and an ice castle you can walk through. Average January temperatures: -19°C. Pack accordingly.