A nesting doll recalls a short-lived colony in Northeast China
In the middle of Harbin, China, you’ll find a Slavic-looking brick church with multiple crosses and a beautiful onion dome. Street signs are written in Cyrillic. If you look remotely Western, hoteliers will welcome you in Russian. The Matryoshka dolls sold in so many locals shops serve as a metaphor for this Romanov-era rail town.
Notes and Miscellanea
- During this particular visit, in May of 2024, President Vladimir Putin was also in town for an official diplomatic visit. This was pure coincidence, and you weren’t even aware of the fact until several days later.
- “Manchukuo,” the palace built by Imperial Japan to house (or imprison) Puyi, remains a beautiful building in Changchun, despite its ugly past. The 1987 historical film The Last Emperor was filmed in the actual palace, where the events its dramatizes took place only four decades earlier.
- If you happen to be in Changchun, Manchukuo makes for a phenomenal private tour.
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