Day 380 - Exploring Harbin's Russian heritage

After a much deserved sleep in - possible due to a nice quiet hostel for a change! We headed off into the centre of Harbin for a bit of exploration. Summer is the off-season for Harbin, as its main draw card is it -40 degree temperatures in winter that give it its name as Ice City. In winter you'd stroll along looking at ice sculptures lit up in a very Chinese-like way. We on the other hand had a pleasant day in the sun - well in the heat, as the sun struggled to appear through the Jinan-like smog!

Harbin is also famous for its Russian heritage, and so we took the opportunity to look at something different than the Chinese sights we've been seeing for the last year. Our first point of call was the Church of Sofia - which is Harbin's most photographed sight, possibly because there's not much else here to look at in the summer!! The church is a Russian Orthodox church from 1907, with beautiful green domes, old brick work and stunning interior. Inside the ceiling is graced with giant chandeliers that light up the old paint work as well as the black and white photos of Harbin from as far back as the 1800s.

Outside, it was cool looking at the church through a water fountain display, which children (and some adults) jumped playfully in and out of - dressed in a mixture of nothing, to underwear, to raincoats!

Afterwards we made our way to Zhongyang Street, a cobblestone street lined with a large number of Russian-influenced buildings. The street deposited us at the Stalin Park that runs along the Songhua River - here we chilled out and people watched, and marvelled at the best exercise park we've seen yet. Liv was even excited about it and played on some of the equipment, while Adam took many photos of young and old locals exercising.

Because of a huge lunch, we had 2 minute noodles for dinner and zonked out in bed, ready for a trip to a Volcano tomorrow.

Adlibing a Russian Harbin.