"Cool Northern City with International... " a Harbin Travel Page by RoseAmano

The founding of this city began with the development from native traditional small fishing village in 1896 after Russia secured rights from China to build a railway, being an artery for development connected also to other Russian cities such as Vladivostok. By 1920s the region became prosperous by an international group of companies from Europe, America, and to a lesser extent at the time Japanese, as well as local Chinese companies. The international feeling of the city gave rise to nicknames such as "Moscow of the East" or "Little Paris of the East". One interesting facet among the mixed lifestyles of people there were the Russian refugees from the 1917 Revolution who settled in Harbin, many of whom were from wealthy classes and nobility, whose lifesytle eventually changed in Harbin having to sell their possessions in the markets, and many ladies evenually needing to take up employment in the cabarets of the nighttime districts. Such abrupt change in one's station in life throwing into confusion one's perspective of life and values understandably may have lent a hand to increased believers in faith and demand for places of worship.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Kanto Military faction long recognised the strategic value of Harbin (having won control of southern Liaodong Peninsula in Dalian area in the 1904-05 Japanese-Russo War), and by 1931, taking advantage of weak points from the years of chaos in Chinese and Russian administration full of their own problems, took control over the Chinese Northeastern District and estabished the consolidated area as a state called Manchuria by the next year, even purchasing railroad rights from Harbin southward to Dalian, this coup now termed the historically the "Manchurian Incident".

From then onward this area was essentially controlled by the Kanto military faction, though not many buildings or infrastructure were produced in Harbin during this time, since most of the funding was being used to build infrastructure at the capital of Manchuria, then called Xinching ("Shinkyo" in Japanese) at the time. Now it's called Changchun.

Still, over the years Harbin attracted Japanese civilians from all walks of life for a chance to become successful starting businesses or working lucratively for companies, and was even a fashionable tourist destination for Japanese visitors, the population becoming so overwhelming Japanese as to lead several Japanese observers of the day to romantically lament the "Japanisation" of what was expected to be an exotic foreign land to live, work and visit. Of course, as is the case in any region with a widening social discrepancy, the non-citizens living the good life were doing so under increasing risk, finally all coming to end by the 2nd World War in 1945.

Today, though Harbin is quite sprawling in the development occuring afterward focusing on industries, and this included demolishment of many Russian and Japanese architecture during Cultural Revolution around 1966 (also included deporting long-term Russian residents as well), in general seems to be developing at a somewhat slower rate than the other cities in China. I'm told the bitter winters partly contribute, as the time available for constructing buildings and infrastructure is relatively limited to the warmer days. That said, I saw a reasonable number of new high-tech companies and factories along the "New Development District" from Harbin to Pingfan (where the Special Forces Military Unit 731 is located.)