Jinbro Lake to Harbin

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This morning we cruised around Jinbro Lake. It's 46km long, the second largest volcanic crater lake in the world. The largest is somewhere in Switzerland. The rich and powerful have villas around the lake. Some universities also have cottages here for summer retreats. Some of the highlights include crocodile islands and a mountain that looks like a supine chairman Mao from a certain angle.

Afterwards we got on the bus again, this time heading for Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province (literally translated as Black Dragon Province). Harbin is about 200km from the Chinese-Russian border. Heilongjiang is the 3rd longest river in China, after the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. It originates in Mongolia, flows through China and Russia. 1/3 of it courses through China.

Ethnically Harbin is a bit like the other cities close to Korea in that 3-4/100 people in Harbin are mixed Chinese-Russian descent. Many Russian women married into Harbin. Harbin beer was the first beer ever brewed in China back in 1990. The popular SingTao beer was 3 years later in 1903.

We got to Harbin earlier enough to have a quick tour of the city. The first stop was St Sophia Church of Harbin. It was a Russian orthodox church constructed in 1907 by the Russian Czar for its troops stationed here. Today it is used as an architectural art museum. We then walked around Central Boulevard, the longest pedestrian-only street in Asia. The paved streets were the original from 1928. A statue was erected in 1958 to commemorate the two major floods of the Mudanjiang River that occurred here, one in 1958 and the second in 1998. The four figures represented industry, farming, military and intellectuals. What this has to do with the flood I have no idea, perhaps as a symbol that everyone worked together to save the city?

Many Russian made products are sold here at a reasonable price, including Russian matrioshka nesting dolls, binoculars and electric shavers. I almost bought a waterproof electric shaver that is very compact, supposedly made from Russian military grade blade, but it only would recharge on 220v and I needed an adapter for it to work in North America so I didn't buy it.

Later that night we went to a show called the "Night of Moscow". It's a lot more singing and dancing than the "2-person spin" in Shengyang. I didn't try to take any pictures because I didn't want my camera confiscated. The first act was a Canadian who had lived in China for 10 years. His Chinese wasn't bad, but he only said a few words in Chinese, although he did sing a song in Chinese. I guess this show was called "Passion of Moscow" because there were many Russian entertainers, all dancers.

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Photos

Jinbro Lake
Chairman Mao lying down in the distance

Jinbro Lake
crocodile island, head to the right

Harbin Beer
first brewed in China in 1900

Central Boulevard in Harbin
I was somewhat surprised to see a WalMart here

Along Mudanjiang River
The commemorative statue for the 2 major floods in Harbin

Along Mudanjiang River
This train came from Russia

Night of Moscow is full of "Pession"
China needs to work on its English translation