Harbin weekend part 1

Went to Harbin this weekend. A city in the north east part of China. A got a tip from Mats that there were some Swedish people (Birgitta, Fredrik and Bosse) going there so we got in contact and book the trip with Cycle China.
Harbin is a Russian influenced city, rather close to the border, maybe 4 hours. The Russians built the railway there in late 19th century and since then it has been a lot of Russians there. Here are the Sofia church (I think), built in 1905. Now it was a museum over the beginning of the 20th century in Harbin.
This is the whole gang. A mix of Swedish, Finnish and Brits. It was very convenient, we were only these eight people one guide and one driver. We heard that another company China Culture Club had about sixty people on their trip. Too many... One of the first attractions where the famous winter swimming. I believe there where some kind of humorous touch of and the mostly older people bathing had a great time showing up them selves.
We visited a museum of a germ and biological weapon testing plant ,731, that the Japanese's had here during WW II. Similar tests to what the Germans did during the war. (And probably lots of other countries also, but we don't know) It was interesting to take part of history I didn't know anything about. We had some spare time before it got dark. So we went to the TV broadcasting tower. Our poor guide said it is the highest building in Asia! We had a hard time believing her before we saw it, but when we saw it we where sure. It's not. But still it gave me some vertigo in the beginning. The elevator had glass doors! Harbin is not a small city. Maybe in Chinese measurements but there live 4,5 million people there. And as in other parts of China they build and build and build, everywhere.
In the evening we saw one of the lit up ice exhibitions. Beautiful.
Click on the photo to enlarge it. The technique behind the lightning is not special, just put a fluorescent light in the ice and start build! I wonder how many fuses they use each year...