"Heilongjiang, which means Black Dragon River, is the name of the northernmost province of China. The region, in Chinese called Dongbei, in English Manchuria, is not particularly hospitable. A French missionary, passing through in 1840s wrote about Manchuria, 'we don't know where God created the Paradise, but we can be sure that He chose some other place.'

Huge distances (this province of China is bigger than Poland), bad roads, very inhospitable climate. Plus 40 degrees in the summer, lots of rain, and frequent devastating floods. In winter, lots of snow and very very low temperatures. Despite all that in the past year Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang, was visited by over a million and a half tourists, who left almost a hundred million USD in the local shops, hotels, and restaurants.
A hundred years ago Harbin was a tiny fishing village on the banks of the Songhua River (the name of the city means, 'place for drying fishing nets'). At the end of the 19th century Russians were permitted to build a rail line from Vladivostok to Dalian, and Harbin, being in a convenient transit point, gradually became a city.
In the second decade of the 20th century there were more Russians than Chinese here. Old photographs show European faces, Russian alphabet on street signs and in shop windows.
In 1932 Manchuria was attacked by the Japanese army, and a puppet state, Manchukuo, was created. Its titular ruler was Pu Yi, the last emperor of China.
The most macabre reminder of that period is a museum in Pingfang (now a district of Harbin) where a secret research base was located during the II World War. Four thousand POWs were murdered here in experiments that included boiling or freezing alive, surgeries carried out without any anaesthetics, infecting with various diseases.
Harbin returned - or rather as a city, came for the first time - under the Chinese rule in 1949. During the Cultural Revolution the city saw heavy street fighting between opposing Red Guard factions. When the Sino-Russian relations deteriorated, and border clashes took place in the north, a maze of underground tunnels was built in Harbin, to serve as shelters for the population in case of a more serious conflict - it is now a huge underground marketplace.
Harbin has about 9 million inhabitants now, and is one of the most important centres of trade and industry in China. Natural resources of the province, timber, coal, oil, and natural gas, and very fertile soil, have very important impact on the development of the city.
Harbin, in Chinese also called, 'bing cheng' which means 'city of ice,' every year hosts a snow and ice festival. The festival, organised since 1963, until very recently seemed to be completely unknown, unlike the festivals in Sapporo, Japan, or Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. Only a few years ago the organisers realised the money-making potential of the festival.
It starts snowing here in mid-October, and the Songhua River freezes in November. The ice, over a metre thick, easily supports a bus and the river often serves as a convenient shortcut for the pedestrians, as well as for the motorists.
There are no problems, then, with the weather and building material.
Ice Lantern Festival (that's the full official name) is not only an exhibition of ice sculpture, but it incorporates numerous sport and business events.
The construction of the main attraction - The Snow and Ice World - starts in November. Tens of trucks full of ice blocks travel up and down the city streets and the work starts on crossroads, public squares, and in parks.
Every institution in the city thinks it a status symbol to have even a smallest ice sculpture before its front doors, so this ice madness is not limited to only a few 'touristy' spots.
The riverside, The Stalin Park in particular is the busiest. Here, on 270 hectares, hundreds of people, using heavy machinery, chainsaws, construction cranes, and whatnot, build the main part of the Ice and Snow World. The construction takes over a month, a hundred thousand cubic metres of ice and twice as much snow is needed.*
I've been living here for over a year and a half now, it's my second winter. Somehow, the weather doesn't bother me, just tiny things, making the daily routine more interesting, like freezing bus doors, that the ticket inspector opens by kicking them, several inches of fresh snow on the ground and snail-paced traffic, freezing and breaking water-pipes and no hot water.
I have, however, taken my time when going to see the World, putting off the trip a number of times because it was too cold.
When I finally went, it was a cloudy, and therefore warmer, evening. It snowed a little and this added some charm.
The Ice World is surrounded with a 4-metre-high ice wall, which, blocking the view and access, successfully entices to go inside. What can be behind that wall?
A fairy-tale world.
Pyramids and sphinxes, Mt. Everest and the Dalailama's seat, the Pothala Palace from Lhasa, the Great Wall with a 400-metre-long slide, figures of the Buddha, fighting dinosaurs and monsters. Scenes from Chinese legends or Disney's cartoons, bridges, columns, arches, towers. Replicas of Chinese temples and Russian churches, dozens of sculptures.
After sunset hundreds of lights lit up, searchlights and coloured bulbs hidden in ice, transforming the whole area into an amazing, colourful, very unreal landscape. Like a fairy tale.
And a very cold one too. The temperature - in mid-January it fell to a new record low of the city, minus 37 Celsius - makes the visitors return to reality very fast.
There are numerous other attractions, you can ride a dog sleigh, a camel, there are shooting ranges and ice rinks. You can also take shelter in a few buildings made entirely of ice, but somehow they don't convince you with their 'warmth.'
One of the oldest streets of the city, Zhongyang Dajie, passes nearby and numerous restaurants offering Japanese, Korean, Russian, and of course Chinese cuisine, situated in a century-old Russian buildings are too strong a temptation for freezing tourists.
A waitress from a Korean restaurant smiles and invites me inside. The place is packed, which means that fresh dog meat has just been delivered. Dog meat is said to have warming properties, hence its popularity in winter and the reason for the crowds in the restaurant.
Nearby, in one of the oldest restaurants in the city, opened in 1900, you can have, apart from several varieties of jaozi (dumplings), such delights like fried frogs, snake blood, boiled eggs with a little unborn chicken inside, barbecued silkworms.
Beer, brewed using a German recipe, also a hundred years old, is the best in the city.
After entering the restaurants from a thirty-below-zero temperature, the tourists, before sitting down, have to shed a few layers of clothing.
Ice World delights the eye till late March. Later, as the temperature rises, it looks less and less attractive. The sun shines melting everything, pieces of ice fall off the higher structures. Finally, everything becomes dangerous, and heavy construction machinery appears again. Sad remains of Ice and Snow World are pushed into the river.
* numbers from winter 2001
03.2001