Word: harbin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Almost all the traffic is by rail, along a line that Czarist Russia helped build in the late 19th century from Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, to the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, more than 300 miles to the southeast. The principal border-crossing point for the region is Suifenhe, five hours by the daily milk train from Mudanjiang, near the Ussuri River, scene of some of the fiercest fighting in 1969. Here too there are plenty of reminders of potential trouble. Green military staff cars dart about the streets, their horns blowing at pedestrians and the occasional horse-drawn...
...1970s Mao Zedong ordered the urban populations of northern China to "dig tunnels deep and store grain everywhere" in preparation for Soviet nuclear strikes. Now the vast network of tunnels beneath the streets of Harbin is being converted into a subway. Other shelters are already serving as underground hotels and shopping centers. In the meantime, citizens of Khabarovsk pour hot water for their tea not only from traditional Russian samovars but also from colorfully decorated thermos bottles imported from China. Plans are under way for a Chinese restaurant, staffed and supplied from across the river, to open later this year...
...page book called Feeding a Billion (Michigan State University Press; $30). Its authors are Sylvan Wittwer, director emeritus of the Michigan State University Agricultural Experiment Station, and three Chinese farm experts: Professor Sun Han of Nanjing Agricultural University, Professor Yu Youtai of Northeast Agricultural College in Harbin and Wang Lianzheng, vice governor of Heilongjiang province. Wittwer, the principal writer, made five trips to China during the past seven years and received unstinting cooperation from the Communist authorities in undertaking an in-depth study of Chinese farming methods. What he found, writes Wittwer, was a "hallmark of success in food production...
...shortly before 8 a.m. in Harbin, a city of 2 million in northern China. Bai Shiming, 29, an energetic young bachelor, is preparing to open his shop, the Xiurong photographic studio. Bai sports a gray, Western-style suit and light tan shirt but no tie. He checks to see that all the lights are working properly, then readies his ancient-looking plate camera. A few minutes later the first customers arrive, usually in groups of two or three. Most request simple unsmiling head shots, but for more elaborate wedding pictures, Bai can provide a white dress with train...
Ever since Harbin's newspaper began to publish stories about him, Bai has become a local celebrity. He smiles ruefully as he describes how scores of young people have walked into his shop just to meet him. "Some ask me for advice," he says. "Some ask me to teach them, some show an interest in my life." Bai has also received more than 300 fan letters, including a few marriage proposals...