Daoli District 道里区

History

The district grew up with the Chinese Eastern Railway (中东铁路), built under a secret treaty between the Qing and Russia: land west of the tracks became Daoli and land to the east Daowai. The district was once called Pristan, the wharf district (埠头区), and a banking and shopping quarter formed around what was then China Street. In 1899 the first section of the railway, from Harbin to the Ashi River, opened from Songhua River station in Daoli.

What to see

Central Street runs 1,450 metres from Xinyang Square north to the Songhua embankment and is paved with square stone setts. Laid out in 1898 as China Street, it took its present name in July 1928 and opened as a pedestrian street on 1 June 1997. Harbin Daily reports 75 European and European-style buildings along it, 36 of them protected, in Art Nouveau, Baroque, classical, eclectic and Art Deco styles, and calls the street China's first open, public museum of architecture. In 2009 it was among the first ten streets named Famous Historical and Cultural Streets of China. Harbin Daily singles out the Art Nouveau former First-Class Post Office at the south end and the 1910 Churin (秋林) store building at the north end.

St Sophia Cathedral (圣索菲亚教堂), near Central Street in Zhaolin subdistrict, is described by Chinese Wikipedia as the largest Orthodox church in the Far East. The present red-brick church, designed by the Russian architect Mikhail Oskolkov, was begun in 1923 and finished in 1932. It was listed as a major national protected site in 1996 and now houses the Harbin architecture art museum rather than services.

At the north end of Central Street, the Flood Control Memorial Tower (防洪纪念塔) marks the city's defence against the 1957 Songhua flood. Finished in 1958 on the river embankment, it stands 22.5 metres high in Stalin Park (斯大林公园), faces Central Street and carries figures and reliefs of the flood fight; the 1998 flood level was later added to it.

Getting oriented

Harbin Station is the only station on the Beijing–Harbin railway inside the district, and Harbin Taiping International Airport lies in its southwest, linked to the city by the airport expressway. Metro Lines 2 and 3 have stations in Daoli.

Highlights

• Central Street 中央大街: 1,450-metre stone-paved street of 75 European-style buildings; named a Famous Historical and Cultural Street of China in 2009.
• St Sophia Cathedral 圣索菲亚教堂: Orthodox church completed in 1932, a national protected site since 1996, now an architecture museum.
• Flood Control Memorial Tower 防洪纪念塔: 22.5-metre tower of 1958 at the river end of Central Street, commemorating the 1957 flood.