Hidden Harbin

Desperate to escape his family by the fifth day of the enforced holiday, one of Peter's colleagues phoned the other day and offered to take us out for a drive. 'I will show you some sights', he said.

We were expecting a tour of Harbin's better-known tourist landmarks - St Sophia Church (seen it), the Flood Monument (ditto), Central Street (Russian shops, Russian bars and more Russian shops), and maybe a few more ice sculptures, seeing as they're everywhere - but what we got was something altogether more surprising.

The combination of China's culture being so ancient, and yet most of its historical cities having been virtually razed to the ground and turned into concrete jungles in the 1960s, makes it easy to forget that Harbin is possibly its youngest city. Springing from nothing at the turn of the 20th century when the Russians came to build the Trans-Siberian Railway (or the North-East China Railway, as they would have it here), Harbin is barely more than 100 years old. What's more, much of the Art Nouveau Russian-built architecture has survived, albeit often in a run-down state.

Our pal showed us Harbin's two oldest hotels - both quite unremarkable from the outside, but inside a glittering reconstruction of how they must have looked in their early 20th century heyday. Both are still functioning hotels but seem quite happy for tourists to come in off the street and peek about. The first, the Post Hotel, was apparently the grandest destination in the city in the 1920s and 30s, much frequented by expats, and has a brilliant display in the foyer of all the artefacts left behind by (or otherwise purloined from!) said expats, who seemed to have been of a dizzying array of nationalities from Jewish to Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, British and German, as well as Russian and American. All the objects have been scrubbed and polished and restored to their original state, and provide a fascinating insight into the lives of wealthy business people at the time, even if the well-intentioned Chinese curators seem to have had trouble identifying some of them (such as a silver bed-warming pan described as 'Tableware used by the British'!). The hotel has many original features and retains an Art Deco style in its decor. (Sorry, I'm starting to sound like an estate agent.)

The second hotel, whose name I sadly forget, is Harbin's oldest (built in 1901) and has a marble staircase and its original copper revolving door from that era. Again it's succeeded in keeping its period feel through careful restoration, and reminded us of some of the Art Nouveau public buildings in Prague - and it's not often you can say that about anything in China! It too had a foyer exhibition, just photos this time, which showed, among other things, that the Emperor Puyi (the 'Last Emperor' of cinematic fame) stayed there during his years in exile.






As well as seeing Harbin's synagogue, its huge blue mosque,





the seat of Qing dynasty government (note puff of smoke from exploding firecracker - really, guys, it was fun for a day or two but enough's enough now!),





and the former British embassy from the expat days (now a ski shop!), we also had a trip to Harbin's main municipal museum which is also housed in an impressive Russian building (saving the treat of the Japanese Germ Warfare Museum for another day!). Apart from that, and the fact that it's free to go in, it wasn't that exciting, although there were some interesting things there such as Qing-dynasty (17th century) traditional costumes, Ming pottery which looked as though it could have been bought last week at John Lewis, and some gorgeous silver trinkets from earlier eras. Oh, and a whole dinosaur (dead) and its eggs. On the whole though, if you can cast your mind back to museums you were forced to visit on school trips 30-plus years ago, you'll get the general idea - dusty, musty, and laid out in an unimaginative chronological order in glass cases, the way they used to do before someone twigged that this bored kids senseless and invented interactive displays. To give it its due, though, it was busy, with lots of families there - but then again, like I said before, it was the fifth day of a very long holiday!

By far the most interesting thing we saw, though, was Harbin's hutong. Fans of last year's Olympics will have heard tell of Beijing's hutong ad infinitum. Translated alternately as 'narrow alleyways' ('snickelways' to those familiar with York!) or 'slums', depending on your politico-cultural stance on such things, Beijing seems to be wiping its hutong out in the name of progress while simultaneously marketing the remaining ones as a tourist attraction. Harbin, I think, having now seen its version of the hutong, is unlikely ever to achieve the latter, but as some of the buildings are now being renovated there's a possibility that in ten years you may see the whole thing transformed - a la docklands - into trendy loft-apartment-type residences for upwardly-mobile young Chinese - or even pretentious westerners, assuming any (others) ever come to Harbin.

But for now, we felt it was important to capture this. The ghost-town aspect is mainly due to all the shops being shut for the festival, but it's still a million miles away from the shiny, wide-lane, high-tech environment in which we live.

Just to clear a couple of things up

Firstly, Harbin isn't technica-lly in Siberia. It nearly is, and it sounded good. Administratively it's in Heilongjiang province; regionally speaking it's in Manchuria (you know, that place that had a Candidate). But if you went about 300 miles north of here, you would be over the Russian border and in, yes, Siberia. Also, you know how when you’re going on holiday, and you suggest packing some obscure item which you might just need, or even extra toothpaste or something, and your other half argues, ‘We’ll buy it when we’re there if we need it – it’s not Outer Mongolia we’re going to!’? Well, for us it almost is. If you look at a map of China, we're in the bit on the top right which sticks up between Russia and Mongolia (Outer, the country; Inner Mongolia - yes, it exists - is the next Chinese province down. Peter has to arrange a symposium there, in the capital, Hohhot. I'm not making this up). A lot of the locals here look less Chinese and more like the Tuvan throat-singers or those Mongolian guys you see on telly, galloping about the steppes on horseback.

The city of Harbin was founded by Russians working on the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway, which actually still stops here. The Russian community is mostly long gone, but their influence remains in some of the architecture (see pics), food, and the fact that Vladivostock and one other Russian town just over the border are the only international flight destinations from Harbin airport. There's also the odd group of Russian tourists about, and one Russian TV channel on satellite in the hotel.

Which brings me to my other, unrelated point. I hate hotels. I just had to let it be said. I hate them, with a passion. The more stars they've got, the more I hate them. They cost a fortune and expect you to pay up front, even though we're here at the company's expense and would never stay anywhere as expensive as this out of choice. I've just had to pay £72 to get two weeks' washing done (well, we're not paying, but you know what I mean). They are mostly decorated in brown leatherette. You can't relax for people constantly knocking on your door offering 'turn-down service' - like I can't get into bed without someone showing me how - or bringing you stuff (never stuff you actually want; one day in Shanghai last week, someone banged furiously at the door, yelling in a way which made me think there must be a fire at the very least, and when I opened the door the maid was standing there with one of the little Kit-Kats they put on your pillow if you let them 'turn you down'. Where but a hotel could there be a Kit-Kat related emergency?). If you want a lie-in, you not only miss breakfast but don't get your room done until some incredibly inconvenient time. If you put the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door, it's guaranteed that will be the one occasion when they try to bring you something you actually DO want, like your clean laundry, and it's then a huge hassle to get it later. And don't even get me started on the ridiculous stuff they provide in the bathroom. Is there anyone on the planet who actually travels without a toothbrush? Or genuinely uses the hotel sewing kit, rather than just nicking it?

And another thing. Ok so I'm in China and it's my fault I don't speak Chinese, I get that, but if hotels are going to cater for westerners, have their menus in English as well and employ some 'English-speaking' staff, then why do they not at least teach them the English words relevant to the hotel trade? And familiarise them with the English translations of the menu, so that when you ask for a pillow, or toilet paper, they know what you mean, and when you order room service it doesn't take ten minutes of phone non-communication to get them to understand what you're asking for, even though it's printed in front of them? Even the in-room breakfast menu which you fill out yourself is like a game of Russian roulette. If you ask for 'Cereal and toast for two persons', you might get 4 slices of toast with butter but no knife, a big bowl of cereal and two spoons. Or you might get 8 slices of toast, two bowls of cereal and one spoon. Or no spoon. Or even a knife and fork. I suppose it all adds to the spice of life, but it does get tiresome very quickly when this is where you actually LIVE.

Hope that's clear then.