https://www.scmp.com/rss/330606/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com After weeks in lockdown, many parts of Europe and the United States are planning to ease social restrictions as the number of new coronavirus cases slows.  But a new outbreak in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin serves as a cautionary tale about how quickly the virus can start spreading again, public health experts say. "The cases will likely go back up and we will have to tighten our lockdown strategy again," Kwok Kin-on, an infectious diseases specialist at the Chinese University of Hong... https://www.scmp.com/health/new-coronavirus-cluster-china-shows-challenges-reigning-virus/article/3081926?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/health/new-coronavirus-cluster-china-shows-challenges-reigning-virus/article/3081926?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Apr 2020 11:25:45 +0000 Every year, the northern city of Harbin puts on a festival that features structures — sometimes delicate, oftentimes gigantic and always beautiful — built entirely out of snow and ice.  This year's festival is no different. It features frozen worlds, ice dragons and even the occasional penguin parade.  Take a visual tour of the 36th Harbin Ice and Snow Festival 2020. https://www.scmp.com/society/harbin-ice-and-snow-festival-feast-eyes/article/3045948?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/harbin-ice-and-snow-festival-feast-eyes/article/3045948?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Jan 2020 09:33:11 +0000 Harbin Ice and Snow World, one of the world’s largest ice and snow theme parks, opened to the public in northeastern China on December 23, 2019. The frozen attraction in Heilongjiang province is linked to the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival which opens on January 5, 2020. https://www.scmp.com/china/stunning-ice-and-snow-sculptures-emerge-chinas-harbin-festival/article/3044259?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/china/stunning-ice-and-snow-sculptures-emerge-chinas-harbin-festival/article/3044259?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Jan 2020 11:32:16 +0000 It takes all of three seconds for the harsh truth of what minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 30 degrees Celsius) feels like to sink in. It’s real. It’s horrible. It hurts. But not enough to stop taking selfies, of course. Constantly removing two pairs of gloves to take pictures of one frigid marvel after another during a fleeting visit to the annual Harbin Ice Festival in northeastern China means your hands never get a chance to warm up. Soon, they stop working altogether, a pair of frozen... https://www.scmp.com/travel/harbin-ice-snow-sculpture-festival/article/3043296?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/harbin-ice-snow-sculpture-festival/article/3043296?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Dec 2019 11:55:48 +0000 Each winter, about 100 workers toil on the frozen Songhua River in Harbin to harvest ice for the city’s famed Ice and Snow Festival, the largest of its kind in the world. The blocks will be moved to the capital of China’s northeastern province of Heilongjiang where they will be shaped into giant crystal palaces and sculptures at the event opening in early January. https://www.scmp.com/china/frozen-chinese-icemen-brave-cold-harbin-festival/article/3043192?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/china/frozen-chinese-icemen-brave-cold-harbin-festival/article/3043192?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Dec 2019 10:32:14 +0000 Harbin, in China’s far northeast, owes its modern beginnings entirely to a railway. For the first three decades of the 20th century, it was effectively a Russian city. It is a place that has sparked my curiosity ever since I came across a 1927 ship’s passenger list that revealed the name of my grandfather Frank Newman’s “second wife”: Nina Kovaleva, 25, born in Sevastopol, Russia. He would leave his Shanghai-based family with her in the early 1930s. The list also named a daughter, Kyra, aged... https://www.scmp.com/society/trail-my-secret-white-russian-grandmother-harbin-china-and-her-descendants-america-i-knew-nothing/article/3038886?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/trail-my-secret-white-russian-grandmother-harbin-china-and-her-descendants-america-i-knew-nothing/article/3038886?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Nov 2019 10:04:05 +0000 Harbin is a city of contradictions. Bookstores peddle dog-eared copies of Tolstoy alongside the latest Kindle e-reader; construction cranes sit next to onion-domed Orthodox churches; and sprawling office complexes share the skyline with ornate baroque buildings from the 1920s. Walking through the streets of this northeastern Chinese city—known for its long, harsh winters and Russian heritage—feels like walking through a place caught between its bygone past and an uncertain future, a city... https://www.scmp.com/culture/architect-rebuilds-his-citys-lost-heritage-piece-piece/article/3000941?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/architect-rebuilds-his-citys-lost-heritage-piece-piece/article/3000941?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Feb 2019 11:55:39 +0000 Borscht and caviar pancakes, rye soda and beer, milk ice pops, and Russian tiramisu—they’re some of the foods you might find in Harbin, the northeastern Chinese city known for its blistering cold winters and famed ice sculpture festival. But the city also has a surprisingly cosmopolitan Russian identity that’s woven into everything from the architecture to food. Sometimes called the “Moscow of the Orient,” Harbin’s connection to Russia dates back to 1898, when Russian engineers arrived in the... https://www.scmp.com/travel/6-surprisingly-authentic-russian-spots-check-out-harbin/article/3000703?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/6-surprisingly-authentic-russian-spots-check-out-harbin/article/3000703?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Feb 2019 14:22:47 +0000