Harbin 哈尔滨, HeiLongJiang, China

Went to Harbin 哈尔滨 in mid Jan 2009. A lot of my friends thought that I was crazy to go in this weather, -23'C was the lowest temperature when I was there. It also snowed on the 3rd day when I was there, making the atmosphere so much more romantic, and cold too...

A lot of Russian and European influenced buildings/architecture can be observed here, throughout Harbin. This was due to the modern city of Harbin originated in 1898 from small village, with the start of the construction of the Chiese Eastern Railwayby Russia, an extension of the Trans-Siberian Railway. After the Russian defeat in Russo-Japanese War (1904-5), several thousand nationals from 33 countries including US, Germany and France moved to Harbin.

It was an interesting visit, seeing "Russia & Europe" in CHINA mainland!

Harbin Ice & Snow Festival started from 2009Jan10 until late Feb 2009. We were told that we went on the right moment, as the sculptures were newly completed thus ice & snow are still fresh, not being polluted. The ice & snow sculptures are magnificient, though I personally prefer snow sculpture more. Unfortunately the pictures do not do the justice to truly reflect the grandness of the snow sculpture.

Kai Ping Diaolou 开平碉楼, Guangdong Province, China

What is diaolou (碉楼)? Basically they are watch towers.

Why are there so many diaolou in Kai Ping 开平 district? This was mainly due to the people in Kai Ping went abroad to overseas to work and sent their money back to hometown to build better houses. These diaolous mainly served the purposes of defence and dwelling. These diaolous are mainly built between 1821 and 1920.

Currently there are 1833 diaolous in KaiPing's 16 townships, and there are 3 types of diaolous -

1) night watchtowers - built for joint defence among villages. They were mostly built at the entrance of the villages, on the hill or beside the river outside the village. They functioned to give alarm;

2) communal towers - built in the rear part with the funds raised by all villagers or many households. Each family had one room to hide themselves in case of bandits' attack. Such towers were built in a sealed and simple way for the purpose of defence.

3) dwelling towers - built by rich families, at the back of the village. Such towers well combine the two purposes. High, spacious and nice-looking as well as convenient for living, They are usually the symbols of a village.
In Jun 2007, 4 sites have been included in the World Heritage list of UNESCO, and they are 1) YingLong lou迎龙楼 (in SanMenLi village三门里村); 2) Zili Village自力村 & the Fang clan watch tower方氏灯楼 (in Tangkou塘口镇); 3) MaJiang Long village 马降龙村落群 (in Baihe百合镇) &
4) JinJiang Village锦江里 (in Ziangang蚬冈镇)

To learn more about these dialou, check out the following sites
http://www.kaiping.gov.cn
http://www.kptour.com/

The site of diaolous in Kai Ping is stunning, and they are scattered. It is like the Hakka Tu lou in Fujian 客家土楼.
I had a car to take me around KaiPing to cover all villages that I was interested to see, and even just drive in to 1 of those villages for photos taking when I see fit.

Let me know if you need some tips how to go around this place.