Acheng

Before you go

Getting there

Harbin Taiping International Airport (HRB) is the city's only airport, sitting about 37 km from the centre near the town of Taiping. It handles flights to dozens of domestic destinations plus a growing list of international ones in Russia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore. The terminal is small but has a few restaurants and snack bars selling local delicacies alongside Chinese and western food, and there's a hotel nearby if you get stranded. Four bus lines run to downtown Harbin, taking around an hour; buy your ticket at the booth inside the terminal before heading out to board. Line 1 serves Kang'an Lu, Tongda Jie, Anfa Qiao, Harbin Railway Station and the CAAC Building; Line 2 runs to Harbin West Railway Station and on through Xuefu Binguan, Hexing Shangsha and Huizhan Zhongxin, with some stops only served at morning and evening peak; Line 3 passes Zhongyang Dajie, Daowai Long Distance Bus Station and Harbin East Railway Station; and the "Hazhan" line runs to Harbin Railway Station. A taxi is another option — agree the fare before you ride, since drivers may otherwise run the meter up or add the highway ticket, and ask for an invoice and note the car number. Only take officially certified taxis at the airport. If you're flying out, many ticket agencies can arrange transport as part of the ticket cost.

Trains are a convenient way in, but Harbin has several stations, so confirm which one your train calls at before you travel. Harbin Railway Station in Nangang District handles the slower and overnight trains, with 24-hour eateries across the road and a few cheap hotels nearby; free Wi-Fi is provided but needs a Chinese SIM card to activate by text. Harbin West Railway Station, west of the centre, is served by daytime and evening high-speed D-trains, and you can reach the centre on bus 96 to Harbin Railway Station or by taxi. Harbin East Railway Station, a fairly minor but updated station, receives trains from Khabarovsk and Vladivostok as well as local and regional services, and has its own metro stop at the north-east end of line 1. Harbin North Railway Station in Songbei District is on Metro Line 2 and serves the northern part of the city. By road, Harbin connects to the rest of China via China Highway 102 through Changchun, and also to Inner Mongolia, Russia and Jilin. The main long-distance bus station sits across the square from the main train station, and most cities in Heilongjiang can be reached by bus; there is also a daily early-morning departure from Vladivostok, with tickets bought at the Russian travel agency on the bus station's second floor. If your papers are in order the border crossing is straightforward — Chinese guards speak fluent English — but you must carry all your belongings with you and leave nothing on the bus.

Getting around

Taxis are inexpensive and convenient for short trips around Acheng, but always ask the driver to run the meter rather than negotiating a flat price, and request a receipt if you need one. A flag fall covers the first portion of the trip, a per-distance rate applies thereafter, and a small fuel surcharge is added to the metered amount at the end; time spent stationary is also charged, though this normally only matters in genuinely gridlocked traffic. Driving standards can be aggressive, so buckle up. During rush hour drivers may pick up additional passengers, and if you are picked up by a taxi that already has passengers you should still expect to pay the full metered amount when you get out. Most drivers do not speak English or read Pinyin, so showing the Chinese characters for your destination is often the only reliable way to communicate where you want to go.

Buses remain the backbone of public transport in the Harbin area and cover pretty much every part of the city, making them a useful fallback when taxis are hard to find. Signage is almost entirely in Chinese, though some buses announce the next stop in both Chinese and English. Fares are very low for a single ride and no paper tickets are issued: you either tap an IC card or put the fare into the fare box as you board. Bus quality varies widely — modern buses have heating and are relatively nimble, while older buses may be unheated and less comfortable. Stand by the back door when you want to get off at the next stop, or the driver may assume no one is alighting and skip it. In winter, ice can cover the windows and block your view outside; a plastic bank card is handy for scraping it off.

Where to stay

Most of Harbin's accommodation clusters in Daoli and Nangang, the central districts, with a handful of options out in the newer development zones. In Daoli, the pedestrian mall of Zhongyang Dajie puts you in the middle of the action, and the Harbin Modern Hotel on that street combines a fantastic location with a sense of history — old movie projectors and silverware in the lobby, comfortable rooms from standard to suites, and helpful if limited-English staff. The Friendship Hotel and the Holiday Inn (with English-speaking staff) are also in Daoli, while Nangang has the Sinoway Hotel (Twin Towers) right in Hongbo square, plus the Harbin Overseas Chinese Hotel and the Kunlun Hotel. For a splurge, the Shangri-La on Youyi Road is worth checking for discounts outside the ice festival, and the Sofitel and Victories Hotel sit further out — the latter near the exhibition center, cheaper because of its edge-of-city location.

Budget travellers have a couple of unusual choices. Almost every bath house in the city has a large room of plush beds where you can spend up to 24 hours, lock your belongings in a locker, use the showers and often eat at an all-you-can-eat buffet — look for signs reading 洗浴 and pick a fairly big one, since smaller establishments won't offer these services. This isn't recommended for inexperienced travellers, and staff are highly unlikely to speak English. Alternatively, the Meijia Apartment in the city centre is cozy, clean and safe, with TV, air conditioning, fridge, hot water, microwave and double beds, and good winter heating. The foreign students' dorms at Harbin Institute of Technology on Gongjian Street may have overnight rooms with private bathroom, TV and reliable heating, but they can fill up during holidays and are unlikely to take non-HIT guests, so treat them as a last resort.

Food & drink

Harbin's food is heartier than you'll find almost anywhere else in China, shaped by Russian, Mongolian and Korean influences as well as Chinese ones. Stews and other duncai are staples, and because the winters are long you'll see fewer exotic ingredients and heavy use of cabbage, potatoes, cucumber and corn. Chinese BBQ (shaokao) and hot pot are equally popular and worth trying once you're in town. Dongbei people eat for the company as much as the food, gathering friends around one big table to drink and eat the night away, so the city is dominated by restaurants built for groups; apart from small food stalls, cozy little places cluster mainly near the universities and busy shopping areas. Liveliness (renao) draws customers as much as the cooking does — some restaurants are so loud you may want earplugs. Harbin is also known among the Chinese for its Russian food, though it is often significantly localised and may not match what Russian visitors know from home.

• Modern Ice Lolly (马迭尔冰棍) on Zhongyang St — a city icon, sold unpackaged from a century-old shop with no advertising and just two flavours; try one in winter when it's bitterly cold.
• Harbin Smoked Sausage (哈尔滨红肠) — sold in stores all over the city.
• Chuan'er — assorted meats on sticks sold on every street; ask for grilled bread buns (kaomantou) and finish with an egg-and-tomato gada tang soup.
• Harbin spring rolls (chunbing or juanbing) — a wrap of potato strips, cucumber, sausage and egg with spicy sauce, sold on the street and in markets; for the real experience go to Old Changs Spring Cakes on Zhongyang Dajie, where you order plates of fillings and stuff the pancakes yourself.
• Haws — hawthorn fruit on sticks under a sweet sauce, with other fruits also available.
• Lamb with spices grilled over coals with sesame flat bread, from Uighur vendors on the street between Hong Bo Shopping Center and Guogeli Dajie.
• Russian breads and pastries — plenty of bakeries around the city, including on Zhongyang Dajie.

For sit-down meals, Oriental Dumplings King on Zhongyang Avenue serves excellent dumplings, Old Sandpot House nearby does Dongbei snacks like dumplings and grilled breads, and Little Seven Fish in Daowai is spicy Sichuan-style grill. Wuji Rib House is known for Dongbei-style ribs eaten by hand with plastic gloves, and Fucheng Hotpot and Homestyle Hotpot (whose beef and potato comes recommended, with the heat piped straight to the pot from the ceiling) are always bustling. Big Harvest serves traditional Dongbei cuisine, with tea made from wheat. For Korean food, try Qianlima Baihe Liaoli or the Gaoliyuan chain. On the western side, Cafe Russia near the Flood Control Monument, run by an owner of Chinese and Russian heritage, has an elegant atmosphere, while Marhaba Arabian near the Harbin Institute of Technology is a small mom-and-pop place.

What to see and do

Harbin's old quarter, spreading across a wide area near the Songhua River, is still largely made up of buildings the Russians constructed around the turn of the 19th century, most in baroque or byzantine style with spires, cupolas and façades in yellow, white, green or red. St. Sophia Cathedral is the best-known of these, now converted into a museum of architecture with exhibitions of old photographs inside. The cobblestone, pedestrian-only Zhongyang Dajie is a veritable museum of European architectural styles, with Baroque and Byzantine façades alongside Jewish buildings, a Russian restaurant and a Japanese restaurant; in winter you can walk out onto the ice or take a dog sledge or horse sledge ride. West of Zhongyang Dajie, the Old Quarter is still dominated by Russian buildings from the same era — not well maintained, but an interesting walk, and you may find Russian antiques in some of the thrift stores. Further out, the Songhua River Railway Bridge, built in 1900 as the city's first bridge across the river and converted into a pedestrian bridge, offers excellent views of the river and the city skyline.

Among religious sites, the Harbin Jewish New Synagogue has been restored and holds an impressive collection on the history of Jews in Harbin; further up Tong Jiang Jie, the old synagogue now serves as a youth hostel and cafe, with the old Jewish school next door, both worth a detour to see from the outside. The Temple of Heavenly Bliss is a large and active Buddhist temple in the eastern part of the city, and the Harbin Confucius Temple, one of the largest of its kind in northeast China, houses the Heilongjiang Museum of Nationalities. In Laodaowai, once the poorer western district, Chinese businessmen in the early 1920s built structures combining Chinese elements such as crane and peony designs with baroque styles, forming a distinctive "Chinese Baroque" style; the area was renewed and is now a place to experience local life, above all through its countless small snack bars and restaurants. Look for the "MenDong" doorways between small stores — walk through and you reach the garden inside and the next street. The Siberian Tiger Park, with hundreds of tigers in several huge pens, is the city's must-see, though not for the faint hearted or obsessive animal lovers.

When to go

Acheng's year divides sharply between a bitterly cold winter and a cool, breezy summer. Winter is very cold, so bring more layers than you think you need; coal heating across the city makes the air quality drop noticeably during these months, and locals often wear masks against the ice-cold wind and frosty air. If you visit in winter, plan around the cold rather than fighting it.

Summer is the easier season: daytime temperatures normally sit in the upper 20s °C, and compared with most of China the weather is cool and perpetually breezy. Tree-lined streets fill with crowds late into the night eating kabobs, playing poker and drinking Harbin beer. It works well as an escape from hotter places like Beijing, and trips to the border regions are pleasant this time of year.

Three days in Acheng

Day one: Start in Harbin, the base from which you'll explore the region around Acheng in Heilongjiang Province. Get your bearings along Central Avenue (Zhongyang Dajie) in Daoli District, where the architecture reflects the Russian and Jewish heritage of the city, including traces of the White Russians who arrived after the October Revolution. Continue to Hongbo Square and the Provincial Museum to fill in the history, then walk the Dazhi Street axis, from East Dazhi Street through Dazhi Street to West Dazhi Street. In the evening, sample the city's Chinese and Russian-influenced food and ride Metro Line to see how the districts connect.

• Central Avenue (Zhongyang Dajie), Daoli District
• Hongbo Square and the Provincial Museum
• East Dazhi Street, Dazhi Street and West Dazhi Street

Day two: Head across the Songhua River to Jiangbei and spend the day on Sun Island, where the open space and riverside setting make a relaxed contrast to the dense streets. Weather here swings from warm and humid in summer to bitterly cold in winter, so dress for the season. Back on the south bank, explore Daowai District, the older Chinese quarter, and note how the city's layout was shaped by the Trans-Siberian Railway and its position in Northeast Asia.

• Jiangbei and Sun Island, across the Songhua River
• Daowai District

Day three: Use your last day to look outward from Harbin. The city draws visitors and traders from across Russia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and elsewhere in China, and its airport, Harbin Taiping International Airport (HRB), in Taiping, connects the region to the rest of Northeast Asia. Spend the morning revisiting a favourite district, then allow time to reach the airport for your onward flight.

• Harbin Taiping International Airport (HRB), Taiping