"A city so close to the border of... " a Jiamusi Travel Page by RinaNeo

Unfold the story of Jiamusi....

Jiamusi is a city in northeastern China, in Heilongjiang Province. Jiamusi started as an industrial center on the Songhua River, near the border with Russia. Located in the hinterland of Sanjiang Plain northeast to the Heilongjiang River, the city of Jiamusi faces the border of Federal Russia.

This city flourish because of it is a major center for pulp and paper production. Its is also a city where manufacturing industry which include chemicals, fertilizer, machinery, and processed food

The city was founded in the early 20th century and began its modern development as a military and provincial administrative center for the Japanese-controlled (1932-45) state of Manchukuo.

It was then developed as an industrial center by the Chinese after 1949.

I arrived in Jiamusi on 18th Apr...11.50 pm... and as the door of the small Hainan airline plane slowly glide open, we could feel the essence of the chilling wind... left over from the winter that just about to end.

The flight was full... crowed with mostly chinese especially those who look very local...speaks and act in local manner. In fact they look at me as if I am an alien just because I don't look like a pure chinese.

As usual everyone is ready with the cabin bags when the door glides open and lucky for me , I had a seat close to the door so I can struggle and push my way through without much effort. As I was walking down the flight of stairs.. I saw my friend's family members waving at me... my god how the hell they managed to get into the airport runway? I later realized that one of the uncle actually knows the airport manager and they actually allowed my 2 uncles and aunt to go in.... its all about "guanxi" in china .... and I see it with my own eyes.

The most amazing part is when I was waiting for my luggage, I kinda feel that a crowd of 20 over people were waving at me... its strange but true. My friend actually has the whole family members in 6 SUV coming to fetch me.... I was really surprised. I always thought Jiamusi was a really small city, sleepy and with nothing much to do or see. I was even worried about the toilet system there.... till I realized they had spa and massage... will tell you more in my recommendation of the spa place...

I slept around 2plus am that night, still wondering the warm welcome that I just receive in the airport... never felt that way in all my 30 yrs....

One obviously thing which I realized is that, family ties, friendship and guanxi is a very important.

Second best after Tsing Tao...
Having lunch or dinner is actually secondary in Jiamusi, drinking is the primary goal.... and we end up having half of the dishes left over most of the time... but no matter how many bottles of beer.. this uncles can definitely finish it. How not too... the beer is really smooth and even after 3 bottles I am still sober..... and it only cost 4 RMB compared to a fruit juice which cost 25 yuan per bottle.