Heilongjiang Province, the most northeast part of China, when viewed on a map has the shape of a swan. Harbin is the northernmost major city in China and capital of Heilong Jiang Province. Harbin is originally a Manchu word meaning "a place for drying fishing nets”. It is the country's coldest province, with winter temperatures that hover, on average, around -14.2°C (6.4°F)

Harbin bears the nickname of "The Pearl on the swan's neck”. Lying on the east of the Songnen Plain, Harbin furthermore plays a vital role in communications between South and North Asia as well the regions of Europe and the Pacific Ocean. Like many border regions, it is an amalgamation of clashing extremes, home to one of China's roughest mountain ranges (the Greater Hinggan or Da Xing'an Ling), some of its most fertile soil, its largest oil and coal fields, its most pristine wilderness, and most of its few remaining nomad groups.

Harbin itself suffers from a similar internal antagonism, one that ultimately makes it the most compelling destination in Dongbei (the North East). The city was founded in 1897 as a camp for Russian engineers surveying construction of the eastern leg of the Trans-Siberian railroad (called the China Eastern Railroad, or CER). Demand for labor and the city's laissez-faire atmosphere quickly attracted a diverse population of outcasts from Latvia, the Ukraine, and Poland, as well as Manchuria. It was, at its height, one of the most bizarrely cosmopolitan cities in Asia - cold, dirty, rife with speculation and venereal disease, architecturally vibrant, and a model for ethnic and religious tolerance. The town fell under Japanese control during World War II and was finally recaptured in 1946.