Harbin

:This article discusses the city of Harbin in Manchuria. For other meanings of "Harbin", see Harbin.

Russian influence

Harbin today is still very much influenced by its Russian past. A city once under Russian rule, it is now a center of trade with that country.

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It is a trading post, where goods from Russia are available. For some Chinese people, Harbin is the only place to go to acquire traditionally Russian products such as vodka, and Russian memorabilia such as Matryoshka dolls.

Related Topics:
Russia - Vodka - Matryoshka doll

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The local cuisine in Harbin is also Russian-influenced. Harbin's bakeries are famous, and produce bread (lie-ba in local dialect) that is better than most bread available elsewhere in China. Harbin's sausages (qiu-lin hong-chang)are another notable product, in that they tend to be of a much more European flavour than other Chinese sausages.

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The Harbin dialect also retains vocabularies originated from Russian language.

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