Harbin

Chinese �(Wade - Giles romanization) Ha-erh-pin, �Pinyin �Haerbin, � second largest city of Northeast China and capital of Heilungkiang Province (sheng), on the Sungari River. The city owes its origin to the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway by the Russians at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Before 1896 it was a small fishing village. Thereafter it became the construction centre for the railway, which by 1904 linked