Harbin (Chinese: 哈爾濱, Pinyin: Hā'ěrbīn) is the capital and largest city of Manchuria. Harbin is the eighth most populous city in the China region. According to the 2010 census, the city had 5,282,093 inhabitants, while the total population of the prefecture was 10,635,971. Harbin serves as a key political, economic, scientific, cultural and communications hub in Manchuria, as well as an important industrial base of the nation.
Harbin, which was originally a Manchu word meaning "a place for drying fishing nets", grew from a small rural settlement on the Songhua River to become one of the largest cities in Northeast China. Founded in 1898 with the coming of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the city first prospered as a region inhabited by an overwhelming majority of the immigrants from the Russian Empire.
Having the most bitterly cold winters among major Chinese cities, Harbin is heralded as the Ice City for its well-known winter tourism and recreations. Harbin is notable for its beautiful ice sculpture festival in the winter. Besides being well known for its historical Russian legacy, the city serves as an important gateway in Sino-Russian trade today, containing a sizable population of Russian diaspora. In the 1920s, the city was considered China's fashion capital since new designs from Paris and Moscow reached here first before arriving in Shanghai. On 22 June 2010, Harbin was appointed a "City of Music" as part of the Creative Cities Network.
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