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Harbin
Harbin
Harbin is unique in China, and for some the most spectacular city, by virtue of its International Ice Lantern Festival alone. An old provincial capital in the far north that was colonised by both the Japanese and the Russians in turn, it is a smorgasbord of hybrid architecture, cuisine and culture. In winter, not only does Zhaolin park fill with exquisite carvings in ice and light, but on every street, buildings, posts and signs are all constructed in persistently solid ice that will stay set until the sweltering summer months, when the Sun Island sauna replaces the festival as the tourist highlight of choice.

Harbin is extraordinary in the extreme, and its culture and the temperament of its people are likewise. Here are the darkest eyed women and the toughest boozing men, the iron fist of sub-Siberian China, resilient to the battering of the seasons and the invaders.
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18      Harbin

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