Harbin:
 

 Harbin (Chinese: 哈尔滨; pinyin:  Hā'ěrbīn (help·info) [xɑ́ɻpín]; Manchu language: , Harbin; Russian: Харбин Kharbin  listen (help·info)) is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, as well as the tenth most populated city in the People's Republic of China. According to the 2010 China census data, the city's urban area has 5,878,939 inhabitants, while the total population of the sub-provincial city is up to 10,635,971.[4] Harbin serves as a key political, economic, scientific, cultural and communications hub in Northeast China.
 
Harbin, which is originally a Manchu word meaning "a place for drying fishing nets", grew from a small rural settlement on the Songhua River to become one of the largest cities in Northeast China. Founded by Russia in 1898 with the coming of the Trans-Manchurian Railway, today known as the Chinese Eastern Railway, the city first prospered as a region inhabited by an overwhelming majority of the Jewish immigrants. It is known for its bitterly cold winters and is often called the "Ice City." Harbin is notable for its beautiful ice sculptures in winter and its Russian legacy, and it still plays an important part in Sino-Russian trade today. In the 1920s, the city was considered China's fashion capital since new designs from Paris and Moscow reached there first before arriving in Shanghai.[5] In 2010, it was declared a UNESCO "City of Music".

Harbin is located in Northeast China, along with several other major cities including Changchun, Dalian and Shenyang. While Dalian is considered the region's shipping center and Shenyang its financial hub, Harbin is striving hard towards becoming the key trade and shopping center of the region. The city is located in one of the fastest growing regions in the world and can boast a number of advantages such as an abundance of natural resources, good transport system and plenty of human resources.

Commercial street with European façades in Harbin (2007)
In 2010, Harbin's GDP reached RMB366.59 billion, an increase of 14.0 percent over the previous year. Harbin is the largest economy in Heilongjiang province.  Tertiary industry output remained the largest component of GDP reaching RMB186.86 billion, an increase of 13.5 percent from the previous year. The total value for imports and exports by the end of 2010 was US$4.4 billion.
 
The soil in Harbin, called “black earth” is one of the most nutrient rich in all of China, making it valuable for cultivating food and textile-related crops. As a result, Harbin is China’s base for the production of commodity grain and an ideal location for setting up agricultural businesses. Harbin also has industries such as light industry, textile, medicine, food, automobile, metallurgy, electronics, building materials, and chemicals which help to form a fairly comprehensive industrial system. Harbin Power Equipment Group Company and Northeast Light Alloy Processing Factory are two key enterprises. Harbin is also known as the capital of power manufacturing; hydro and thermal power equipment manufactured here makes up one-third of the total installed capacity in China.
 
Foreign investors seem upbeat about the city. The Harbin Trade and Economic fair, has been held for 17 years annually, cumulatively attracting more than 1.3 million exhibitors and visitors and resulting in contracts of over US$90 billion. Japanese, Russian and Eastern European nations are increasingly looking to North China and Harbin for investment. Foreign direct investment remains low, but is growing as a result of government efforts, with utilized FDI totaling US$570 million, up 28.1 percent, in 2008.
 
Harbin is also home to Harbin Institute of Technology, one of China's better known universities. Founded in 1920, the university has developed into an important research university focusing on engineering, with supporting faculties in the sciences, management, humanities and social sciences. The institute's faculty and students contributed to and invented China's first analog computer, the first intelligent chess computer, and the first arc-welding robot. In 2010, research funding from the government, industry, and business sectors surpassed RMB1.13 billion, the second highest of any university in China.
 
Economic Development Zones and Ports

 Harbin Development Zone Harbin Economic and Technological Development Zone
 Harbin High and New Technological Development Zone
 

Harbin High-tech Zone was set up in 1988 and was approved by the State Council as a national development zone in 1991. It has a total area of 34 sqkm in the centralized parks, subdivided into Nangang, Haping Road and Yingbin Road Centralized Parks. The Nangang Centralized Park is designated for the incubation of high-tech projects and research and development base of enterprises as well as tertiary industries such as finance, insurance, services, catering, tourism, culture, recreation and entertainment, where the headquarters of large famous companies and their branches in Harbin are located; the Haping Road Centralized Park is a comprehensive industrial basis for the investment projects of automobile and automobile parts manufacturing, medicines, foodstuffs, electronics, textile; the Yingbin Road Centralized Park is mainly for high-tech incubation projects, high-tech industrial development.

 Harbin Port
 Harbin High-tech Industrial Development Zone