Mug Shot — «Harbin - The Songhua River Flood Monument»

City: Harbin Country: China Edition: 2008 Icon Edition Belongs to: 339 users (27 trading, 138 seeking)

Harbin is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, as well as the tenth most populated city in the People's Republic of China. Harbin serves as a key political, economic, scientific, cultural and communications hub in Northeast China. Harbin is originally a Manchu word meaning "a place for drying fishing nets." It is known for its bitterly cold winters and is often called the "Ice City." Lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River, Harbin is well known for its beautiful ice sculptures in winter and its Russian legacy and still plays an important part in Sino-Russian trade today. In the 1920s, the city was considered China's fashion capital as new designs from Paris and Moscow reached there first before arriving in Shanghai.

The Songhua River Flood Monument is located on the bank of Songhua River at the northern end of Zhongyang Street. The Monument is the centerpiece of the popular Stalin Park, built in 1958 to commemorate the tremendous feat of the Harbin people in controlling the massive flood of 1957. The flood was the biggest flood ever recorded in Harbin until the summer 1998 disaster. The 13m tall monument consists of one Roman style cylinder column topped with statues of the heroic people of Harbin and a 7-meter-long curving corridor surrounding the column. The water level of 11 small semi-circular pools near to the column marks the level reached by the devastating flood in 1957. However, the water level record was again broken by the summer 1998 flood in which the monument witnessed the devastating destruction of nature and the great courage of the Harbin people...many paid with their lives. A new monument has been added on to the old to commemorate these new victims.

photo by lucky
edited by mobydick74

  China, Harbin

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