Large, yet little-known cities in China
After placing Wuhan (central China), Shenyang (northeast), Guiyang (southwest), Shaoxing (east), Chengdu (west), Fuzhou (southeast), Hainan Island (south), Xi’an (northwest), Nanjing (east) and Kunming (southwest) on the map, we will now cross the entire country from south to north, where we find the ‘Ice Capital’: Harbin.
The city of Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang province in the far northeast of the country.
Over a century ago, major population growth happened thanks to the arrival of Russian workers and engineers, operating on the construction of the eastern part of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Today, it is a vibrant metropolis with more than 10.500.000 inhabitants, one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world.
As a matter of fact, the Russian influence is still present in the city center, among others thanks to the green cupulas of the Santa Sophia Cathedral, originally an Orthodox church, now a museum.
But Harbin is particularly famous, on a worldwide scale, for its Ice Sculpture Festival, which takes place every winter and is very spectacular.
As a curiosity it is worthwhile noting that in the 1920’s Harbin was considered the fashion capital of China, since new designs from Paris and Moscow arrived there first, before going to Shanghai (yes, that train…).
Nowadays, the local economy is based on agriculture and, above all, heavy industry as its main aces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbin
The ten most beautiful national parks in China
We continue this list presenting to our readers the ten most beautiful national parks in China (from a total of 225 candidates).
This time we change the focus from pure nature to the more monumental side of the list, choosing the Longmen Grottoes in the Henan province, in eastern China.
These contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art in the country. And it isn’t only a Chinese national park, the site was also added in 2000 to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.
In an area with the length of barely a kilometre, overall, some 2,345 grottoes and niches can be found, with some 2,800 inscriptions, 40 pagodas and nearly 100,000 (!) Buddhist statues.
In fact, many of the images used to be painted in their original format, an effect that is recreated with a night-time sound and light festival for the visiting tourists.
Cycling for Charity: S3 UK Director Adrian Pryce rides 300km in 3 days!
Adrian was one of 30 riders who cycled 180 miles from Northampton to Kings Lynn and back for charity. Taking place on 10-12th September, this is the 6th long distance ride Adrian has done in support of the Northampton Hope Centre; a homelessness charity.
The annual Ride4Hope was set up in 2014 when Adrian was the Hope Centre Chairman – as a Chairman’s Challenge – and it has since raised over £150,000 for the charity.
In the past the cyclists have cycled from Northampton to Ypres in Belgium (400km in 4 days) but the pandemic has limited this year’s event to the UK.
This year’s R4H event has raised nearly £25,000, with Adrian himself raising £1,700 in donations.
Adrian says he is great on the flat but the hills get harder every year! The Northampton Hope Centre is one of S3 UK’s chosen charity as part of its CSR strategy.