Songhua River Area

The Songhua River runs east-west through Harbin, separating the central city from Sun Island and the northern wilderness beyond. The river has been the city's defining geographic feature since Russian settlers first established the railway depot here in 1898; the riverside park strip on the southern bank, named "Stalin Park" since the 1950s, is a continuous public space.

Stalin Park is a 1.7-kilometre walking promenade lined with Russian-influenced riverside cafes, public sculpture, and architectural features. The park's name has not been changed since the early-PRC period of Sino-Soviet friendship; the Russian-cultural character is a substantive part of Harbin's identity that residents have chosen to preserve.

Sun Island, the substantial 38-square-kilometre island in the Songhua River north of the central city, hosts the Russian-cultural summer-residence quarter (rebuilt as a tourist attraction in the 2000s), the Harbin Volga Manor (an extended Russian-themed cultural park), and the largest of the winter Ice Festival sites.

The Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, running annually from late December to mid-February, is the largest ice festival in the world. The Ice and Snow World — the principal site on Sun Island — uses substantial blocks of ice cut from the Songhua River to construct elaborate illuminated sculptures, ice slides, and full-scale ice-and-snow architecture. The 2024 festival site covered 600,000 square metres and used 250,000 cubic metres of ice. The festival is the canonical reason for foreign visitors to come to Harbin.