In 12th century, Harbin was taken as the capital by four emperors, and was the birthplace of Jin and Qing Dynasties. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, 160 thousand nationals from 33 countries moved to Harbin. Sixteen countries established consulates to serve their nationals.
Harbin is notable for its combination of Chinese and Western architecture styles. There are many Russian and Arabian style buildings such as Zhongyang Street (Central Avenue), Saint Sophia Cathedral, and Mosque. In summer, Harbin is an ideal place because of its pleasant climate. In winter, Harbin is famous worldwide because of its ice and snow culture. The annual events held in Harbin such as “Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival”, “Harbin Summer Music Concert”, and “Harbin International Trade and Economic Fair” display its deep culture.
Harbin is one of the cities with high concentration of universities and research institutes. Harbin is famous for its standard Mandarin pronunciation and is the best choice for foreigners to study Chinese.
Harbin has a convenient system of transportation. Harbin Taiping International Airport has 82 air routes operated by 23 companies, both domestic and international. There are flights to major cities in China. In addition there are also scheduled international flights between Harbin and Russia, Japan, and South Korea as well as other major countries in Europe and America.
In 2015, “Heilongjiang Silk Road Economic Belt” has been formally incorporated into national “The Belt and Road Mongolia and Russia economic corridor”. This brings more opportunities and policy supports for foreign guests coming to Harbin.
HARBIN NORMAL UNIVERSITY Harbin Normal University (HRBNU) was founded in 1951. It is the center of higher teacher education, higher arts education, educational science and research and teacher training in Heilongjiang Province as well as Mandarin Chinese Testing Center. The University is located in Harbin, known as Ice City. It consists of two campuses on the southern and northern sides of Songhua River. The university has a decent educational condition, it covers 346 hectares with a total floor space of 163.9 hectares. There are several exhibition centers include Wenbo Museum, Animals and Plants Museum, Mr. Youshou Memorial, and Arts Hall. Its library holds 3.54 million books and is a national key ancient books protection unit. The University has 25 colleges and departments, 80 undergraduate majors, 104 graduate programs, 24 doctoral programs, and 6 post-doctoral research station. The total enrollment of full-time students in all programs reaches 37,000. The University has strong and well-respected faculty. There are over 1,800 full-time teachers, among those 330 professors and 660 associate professors, and over 600 PhD candidate supervisors and supervisors for postgraduate students. The number of state-level teachers with the title of the “Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand Technical Leaders at Various Levels”, state-level experts with major contribution, state-level famous teachers, and those experts that enjoy the special bonus from the State Council is over 90 in this University. HRBNU has developed several academic exchange programs and intercollegiate relationships with over 70 universities in Russia, the United States, Great Britain, France, Japan, Canada, Australia, Poland, South Korea, Brazil, Egypt, as well as other countries and regions. Our university have established four Confucius institutes overseas, and was awarded “Outstanding Chinese Institute” by Hanban. HRBNU is the host university for Chinese Government Scholarship, Confucius Institute Scholarship, and Heilongjiang Provincial Scholarship. It serve as the testing center of “Certificate of Teachers of Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages” and the base for HSK or Chinese Proficiency Test. Since 1984, HRBNU has fostered more than 10,000 international students of over 46 countries from all over the world. Now HRBNU enrolls over 1,000 long-term and short-term international students every year. There are three advanced buildings for international students exclusively with the total floor space of 2.3 hectares. The international student dormitories are able to house more than 600 students. There are 3 gyms, 12 public kitchens and 6 public laundry rooms.
