History of Harbin

Human settlement in the Harbin area dates from at least 2200 BC (late Stone Age). It was formerly called Pinkiang.

The modern city of Harbin originated in 1898 from a small village, with the start of the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway (KVZhD) by Russia, an extension of the Trans-Siberian railroad, shortcutting substantially the distance to Vladivostok and creating a link to the port city of Dairen (Dalnii) and the Russian Naval Base Port Arthur.

Following the Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5), Russia's influence declined, and several thousand nationals from 33 countries including the United States, Germany, and France moved to Harbin. Sixteen countries established consulates and set up several hundred industrial, commercial and banking companies in Harbin. The Chinese also established their own businesses in brewing, food and the textile industry. Harbin had established its status as the center of northeastern China and as an international metropolis.

In December 1918, during the Russian Civil War, defeated Russian White Guards and refugees retreated to the city: it then became a major centre of White Russian émigrés. The city became the largest Russian enclave outside Russia. The Jewish community was formed by Russian Jews and included a group of German Jews, who fled Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. The Russians established the Russian school system and published Russian language newspapers and journals.

In 1935, after the sale of the railway (KVZhD) to the Japanese, Harbin became part of the Japanese controlled state of Manchukuo. After 1946 Harbin came under the control of the Soviet Union, which occupied the region. The rest of the European community (Russians, Germans, Poles, and Greeks etc.) emigrated during the years 1950-54 to Australia, Brazil and the USA, or were repatriated to their home countries. Thousands of Russians who fled communism before the war were executed by Soviet troops, and many were forcibly moved to the Soviet Union. By 1988 the original Russian community numbered just thirty, all of them elderly.

With the establishment of the Manchukuo, Japanese troops occupied Harbin on 4 February 1932. The notorious Unit 731, a secret biological warfare military unit, was based in Pingfan. The Soviet Army took the city on 20 August 1945. Harbin never came under the control of the Kuomintang, whose troops stopped 60 km short the city and its administration was transferred by the departing Soviet Army to the Chinese People's Liberation Army in April 1946.

The eight Harbin counties originally formed part of Songhuajiang Prefecture (松花江地区), and became incorporated into Harbin on 11 August 1999, making Harbin a sub-provincial city.

Northeastern China was originally built up as an industrial center using pre-existing Soviet and Japanese factories. By the 1980s these outdated and inefficient factories could not keep up. To further complicate matters, starting in the early 1990s, large portions of China's state owned enterprise workers were laid off. Thus, like many other cities in this region, contemporary Harbin is struggling with an aging work force and unemployment. Private enterprise is mostly centered in the service sector, retail, restaurants, etc. with most large scale enterprises still state owned. However, the province has thousands of state-owned enterprises up for sale, and many have been purchased since the late 1990s. Numerous universities in Harbin also play a vital role in the economy in education, research and through their subsidiary companies.

In 2005 there was a major pollution spill on the Songhua River.