Fruity sticks sold at every corner: your lips on a -20°C, frozen. pineapple slice …
A see-through, birch-tree forest in Harbin
Street lamps in the Opera House plaza
Sticks and flags in the mist on the frozen Songhua River
A line of skyscrapers in Harbin
The sun rises on New Harbin under construction
This post is part of the reportage Detour to China. Click each picture to enlarge.
Smoke and steam are part of daily life in Harbin. The poorest parts of the city are coal-heated. The sulfur, brown-coal smell permeates suburbs and clothes in windless mornings. Moving to the city center, high chimneys from centralized heating stations paint the sky with clouds. Along the street, boiling pots with sweet potatoes and food booths provide their share of steam for the day.
A ride through the coal-heated neighborhoods: one chimney one family
Steamed sweet potato , most popular street food in Harbin
Modern heating for modern neighborhoods
What’s boiling there?
An almost cloudless sky above the city canal
Smoky truck on the frozen highway
This post is part of the reportage Detour to China. Click each picture to enlarge.
Red is the lucky color in China. And it is the only way to fight back Nian, the mythological man-eater beasts living under mountains and seas. From red flags to red wedding dresses, the red color in China paints whatever brings luck and power. Including the rare and very expensive Arowana / dragon fishes, with their red, coin-shaped scales.
Asian Arowanas at the aquarium of Harbin Lindian Hot Spring
Ads with students of Harbin University
A touch of luck on the frozen streets of Harbin
Public reading of the party newspaper, Harbin
Bride and groom in front of Harbin Opera House, a wedding reportage shot at -25°C
Civil militia on the frozen Songhua River, Harbin
This post is part of the reportage Detour to China. Click each picture to enlarge.
Not always just roundabout routes, detours can be chosen paths. They bring to a destination, rather than to a stop by along the way. Was it the intense traffic pushing us to take a detour? Or the desire for exploring something new, distant and unusual?
On the motorway to Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province
Suburban neighborhood of Harbin
Harbin, university district
The Chinese city of Harbin, 10 million inhabitants squeezed between North Korea and Russian Federation borders lived up to all our expectations. A 12 hour-long flight catapulted us into a freezing -25 °C alien reality, far from being hostile, full of contrasts and unavoidable misunderstandings. Follow us in the next weeks along this winter detour to North East China. Pictures shot by Lorenzo Borghi, editing by Maria Francesca.
Copyright 2011-2021 Lorenzo Borghi. All rights reserved
