Harbin revisited

When I returned from my visit to the Harbin Ice Festival  (blog, Jan. 31, 2100), I suggested to Jeff that we should go back to Harbin together in order to explore its Russian-Jewish history.  During the January AWA trip we only had a brief visit to the synagogue/museum.  The -15C temperatures did not permit a walking tour of the Jewish neighbourhoods on foot, nor a trip to the Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of town.  
As luck would have it, Hong Kong's Jewish Historical Society organized a tour to Harbin in September.  Jeff and I were among the first to sign up!  We booked our airline tickets through Orbitz, as did Ursula and Stephen.  Never again!  There were so many miscommunications from Orbitz, that we weren't quite sure our flights would ever get sorted out.  However, in the end, we had no problems flying from HK to Shanghai and on to Harbin.

We arrived in time for Shabbat dinner.  The weather was crisp and delightful.  No humidity, no pollution, very little noise.  A driver and guide met us at the airport, and drove us to the Modern Hotel.  The hotel was our first example of Jewish history.  It was built by I.A. Caspe in 1906, five years after the China Eastern Railway was completed - it was modern in its day.   Caspe was among the first group of Russian-Jewish entrepreneurs to take advantage of the growing business opportunities in Harbin.  Before the railway was built, connecting Harbin to Russia, Harbin was a fishing village.  By the time Caspe built the Modern Hotel Harbin was becoming a boom town, which, in its heyday in the 1920s, boasted a population that hailed from 28 different countries and fancied itself as the Paris of China's northeast.  The hotel is filled with priceless old photographs and Russian antiques.

The hotel set aside a room for our group.  Dinner was UPSed from Beijing's Chabad, and kosher wine was transported from HK by various group members, in their checked baggage.  This was to be our only non-vegetarian meal of the weekend.  Amazing how easy it is to travel, even to remote spots in the world, and still observe kashruth or vegetarianism.

Our guest speaker, Professor Dan Ben Canaan, addressed us after dinner.  You could hear a pin drop during his two-hour talk.  We could have listened to him talk about Harbin Jewry all night, however, the hotel staff started clearing up our banquet about 11 p.m., giving us the not-so-gentle hint that it was time to leave.
Professor Ben Canaan teaches at the local university in Harbin.  He hails from a kibbutz in Israel.  He is married to a Chinese woman, who is a senior official in the provincial government.  The professor is the leading expert on the story of Harbin's Jewish population.
The short version of the Jewish community goes like this:  In 1895, the Russian government leased land from China to build the Chinese Eastern Railway across Manchuria as an extension of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.  The Czar wanted to establish Russia's economic hold along the route, so he offered Jews a chance to live without restrictions (i.e., institutionalized anti-semitism) if they moved to Harbin.  Most Jews came from the Ukraine or Siberia.  At its peak in the 1920s, the Jewish community numbered more than 20,000.  Jews helped turn Harbin from a cultural backwater into a sophisticated city.  Russian was the "lingua franca" of the city, and, even today, many Russian words are still used by the local Harbin people.  By the 1920s, the Jewish community boasted two synagogues, day schools, hospitals, and charitable organizations, in addition to newspapers and magazines (some in Russian, others in Yiddish).  Jewish life in Harbin was not idyllic.  After World War 1 and the Russian Revolution many White Russians fled to Harbin, bringing anti-semitism with them.  The Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931, and occupied Harbin in 1932.  Harbin became part of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.  The Japanese allowed Russian fascists to spearhead anti-Jewish and anti-Soviet actions.  One of the most tragic stories involved Simeon Caspe, the son of the owner of the Modern Hotel.  Simeon, a 24-year-old aspiring concert pianist, was kidnapped by Russian gangsters, and held for ransom.  His father's fortune had waned, and his hotel and other assets were mortgaged to the hilt.  As a result, his father could not afford to negotiate with the kidnappers.  Simeon was tortured for months, and eventually killed, while the Japanese authorities turned their backs to the incident.  Jews began fleeing Harbin during the Japanese occupation, moving south to Shanghai, and abroad to America, Australia, and Israel.  The last Jewish family moved in the 1960s, and the last Jewish resident died in the 1980s.

Armed with our mini course in Harbin Jewish history, we set out early Saturday morning on a walking tour of the historic centre of the city.  On a leafy side street, we stopped in front of a run-down, low-rise building, where laundry hung from every window.  Our guide, (who only spoke the local Mandarin dialect and some Russian), explained that this building had been a private Jewish hospital.  Most of the historic buildings in Harbin have been well-preserved - this one was not.  I very much doubt that it has been painted since the 1930s, let alone restored to any modern safety code.
More about our guide:  she seemed to be an expert on Jewish buildings in the city, but much of the information was lost in translation.  A woman who claimed to be a manager at the Modern Hotel accompanied us.  At first we thought that she was the official translator, but after five minutes of listening to her struggle with English, we realized that she was quite inept.  Mercifully, there were four Mandarin speakers in our group.  Linda, Yvonne, Grace, and Howard - thanks again for your help!

On our way to the synagogues and Jewish school (all built in the first decade of the 20th century), we passed a wet market.  None of us could resist buying apples and pears, but the melons were just too enormous to carry!  Merchants also lined the sidewalks, selling toys and clothing.  Some people sat on stools shucking shellfish.  Kathy looked at the vendor in my photo, proclaimed that he was selling "traif", and quickly hustled on!

Our next stop was the Jewish day school.  The building is beautifully preserved, and has been in constant use as a school.  Today it is a Korean school.  (Harbin is close to the Korean peninsula, and boasts a large Korean population).  None of the Jewish motifs have been removed from the windows and doors.

Less lovingly restored is the old synagogue.  To put it kindly, the building is run down.  It is used as a cheap hostel, with many of the old meeting rooms subdivided into pokey bedrooms.  One storefront of the building is a pizza parlour, while another is a dusty shop selling Indian clothing and artifacts.  Even so, there are still some original Jewish designs on the windows and walls.

Passing the Jewish soup kitchen (used today as a taxpayer service hall), we came to the "jewel in the crown" - the "new" synagogue, which has been turned into a Harbin Jewish history museum.  We had a lot of time to explore the museum, read all of the inscriptions, and even laugh at some of the strange translations.  In the section of the museum devoted to the Jewish cemetery, we couldn't suppress our giggles at the sign commemorating Poor Xenia's grave:  "young and dead in 1939".  (More funny signs at the end of the blog).

After lunch, we walked to the St. Sophia Church.  This was a time of truth for our group:  entrance tickets varied according to age.  59 and under - RMB20; 60-69 - RMB10; 70 and over - free.  Ketty proudly flashed her passport, and got in free!  A wonderful surprise awaited us inside: a women's choir entertained us with songs from around the world.

Jeff and I spent the rest of the afternoon strolling on Central Street.  This main drag is a pedestrian mall.  Shopping, walking, and eating along this avenue is the way locals spend their weekends.  We went into many shops, looking for more Russian nesting dolls.  On my previous trip to Harbin, I bought one matryoshka doll.  This time, we had fun comparing the quality and detail (and price) of the various dolls. Central Street boasts many original Russian buildings, but even the newer structures follow the Russian style.  There was a huge lineup outside the H&M store - we later found out that this was opening day!  Unlike HK, where H&M caters to tiny women, the Harbin store carried normal sizes, since the locals are much larger than the southern Han of HK.

Before dinner, we wandered over to the hawker food stalls near our hotel and had our favourite snack: beer and freshly fried potato chips on a stick.  Who needed a meal after that!

After dinner (more vegetables ...), we discovered the main square off Central Street where locals dance every evening until 9 p.m.  The more professional dancers dress up and waltz around and around.  Their faces are frozen, and their bodies are erect.  Towards the end of the evening, our little group joined the line dances, and tried to keep from stepping on people's toes.  Lots of fun.

Jeff and I got up early on Sunday and went for a stroll down Central Street to the Flood Control Monument in Stalin Park.  All along the river, people were seated on the stairs leading down to the water.  Of course, this being China, there are no barriers separating the steps from the murky Songhua River!

Driving out to the Jewish cemetery later that morning, we passed the newer parts of the city.  Some buildings were definitely influenced by Frank Gehry.  And I couldn't resist taking a photo of the hockey statue in the middle of a wide boulevard!  But this was not to be an idyllic morning in northern China ... Our bus turned onto a semi-finished road and we ended up in the worst traffic jam I've ever seen!  Teams of construction workers were building a major intersection.  There were no traffic cops, no detour signs, and no way out of the mess!  The bus was literally parked for about 45 minutes before the driver could turn down an alley and attempt to get us out of the mess.  As we expats say, TIC (This Is China).

Our trip to the Jewish cemetery took almost two hours, but it was definitely worth it.  Now for some background: the original Jewish, Russian, and Chinese cemeteries were located on Sun Island in the central part of the city.  In the late 1950s, the government decided to turn the island into a year-round park, so they relocated many of the graves to its current location way out of town.  About 600 Jewish graves were moved.  (It is rumoured that only the headstones were moved.)  The cemetery is not particularly well cared for - weeds and bushes everywhere.  Most of the monuments are inscribed in Russian and Hebrew.  We even found poor Xenia's grave!  In 2004, Ehud Olmert, then the Prime Minister of Israel, visited his father's grave in Harbin.  The new tombstone in the photo was erected to commemorate his visit.  We had a good chuckle looking at the Magen David and the Masonic symbol at the top.  It seems that the local craftsmen decided that the Masonic symbol, which appeared on a nearby grave, would be a pleasant artistic detail on Mr. Olmert's granite stone.  Mr. Olmert had no affiliation with the Masons.  (Another TIC moment!).

After a while, we wandered away from the Jewish section of the cemetery, and found ourselves in the Russian cemetery, and then the Soviet Army cemetery.  But the most interesting section by far was the exclusive part of the Chinese cemetery, set aside for the bigwigs in the Party!

The most touching grave (which we also found very unusual because of the English inscription) belonged to local Chinese.

By the time we left the cemeteries and headed to a Buddhist restaurant for lunch, it was almost 2 o'clock, and we were really hungry.  We were in for a big treat!  Dessert was unusual but absolutely yummy - fried yams.  Some were unadorned, the rest were covered with CHOCOLATE!  Yes, I know it sounds gross, but the chocolate covered fried yams were "to die for".

Our last group outing of the hectic weekend was a trip to Sun Island Park, an absolutely enormous green space near the central part of the city.  During the Ice Festival, the park is home to ice and snow sculptures.  In the summer, it is filled with walkers and picnickers.

The park also houses an ice sculpture museum, so that summer visitors can get a taste of the winter ice festival.  At the entrance, we were given heavy parkas, and even warm booties to cover our sandals.  Jeff was pleased to see so many ice sculptures, since he has no plans of ever visiting Harbin during the winter.
When we first started walking around HK and travelling through Asia, we took a lot of photos of funny/odd signs.  After a while, we stopped doing this, because we truly appreciate all attempts to communicate in English.  However, Harbin's signs were just too amusing to ignore:

This is a chain of restaurants.  All of the other branches spelled Noodles correctly.  Guess this particular restaurant features exotic dancers?

Could this bathroom sign be more explicit?

Finally (thank you for reading this far!), a correction to the Rosh Hashanah and T8 blog:  I mistakenly wrote 5722 instead of 5772.

Rosh Hashanah and T8

Typhoon Nesat has wreaked havoc with Rosh Hashanah in Hong Kong. The city has shut down.

Typhoons are Asian hurricanes. In our two years here, we have not experienced a full-blown typhoon. However, we have been on the edge of a number of them. In these cases it has meant either torrential rain or extreme winds, but not both together. We had been warned yesterday about the approach of Nesat, but it wasn't until late in the afternoon that the T1 signal went up.

Last night when we went to our friends' apartment for dinner at 7:30, the signal had gone up to T3. As we walked home from dinner at 11 p.m., the winds had kicked up, and the rain had started to splash.  We heard whistling across the road and saw our Oz friends, Ursula and Steve, calling us!  We were the only crazies walking around in the pre-typhoon breeze.  Surreal.

The T8 signal was hoisted overnight.  This is equivalent to a major snowstorm in Canada, where even schools in Montreal would be closed. The winds were howling (100km per hr. or more), but our building didn't sway at all.  Best of all, we never lost power. As often advertised in HK, we had "squally" showers during the storm, but nothing to write home about (so why am I writing home about it?).

This morning, Jeff, the idiot, decided to leave for work at his normal time (7 a.m.).  He planned to get three productive hours in before meeting me at services, which were scheduled for 10:30 at Olympic House, a venue that our congregation uses to accommodate the larger Rosh Hashanah crowd.  At 7:15 he was back inside our apartment - no buses, no cabs, no work!  We settled down to watch the Yankees game on t.v., while keeping our eye on the HK Observatory website.

We received an urgent email from the shul at 7:56 informing us that since Olympic House was officially closed for the day, services were being re-routed to the permanent sanctuary on Robinson Road - around the corner from our apartment.  Because of the change, services were scheduled to start at 11:30.  Amazingly, the turnout was huge - we not only filled the lower floor, but there were also families sitting upstairs.  Everyone who lives within walking distance came, as did some others who paid the typhoon surcharge that the few taxis on the road were imposing.  Unfortunately, our kiddush lunch did not arrive, but thanks to Rabbi Martha and a few others, we had chalah, wine, and cake!

What a change from last Rosh Hashanah (blog, Oct. 3, 2010), when it was over 30 degrees and sunny!

Shana tova everyone - We wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 5722.

Mini adventures

Now that most of the expats have returned to HK from their trips "home", local activities have swung into action.  As usual, the AWA (American Women's Association) has a full roster of things to do, from shopping to cultural outings.

A few weeks ago, I attended Jason Wordie's lecture on 19th century women in HK.  He focused on Western women - mainly wives of diplomats and missionaries, who started schools, health centres, and local businesses.  A few days later, Jason presented an historical overview of opium.  A few facts that came to light:  the Flanders poppy is not the opium poppy.  Opium poppies were first cultivated in Macedonia, and then spread to Turkey, Persia, India, and China via the silk route.  Opium tastes like anise - liquorice!!  It's fairly non-addictive when smoked recreationally.  So why all the fuss?
Jason enlightened us that all of the major 19th century HK businesses (Jardine's, Russell & Co., and Dent) started off plying the opium market.  When they became rich enough, they segued into respectable trades like cotton, shipping, and real estate.  The opium business was handed over to the Parses and Sephardic Jews.  Once these groups became respectable, they were also able to drop the opium business.  Next week Jason's talk will be about domestic workers in HK.  There are over 300,000 "helpers" here - mainly from the Philippines and Indonesia.  Should be enlightening.

Two weeks ago, a group of us visited the Yue Hwa department store in Kowloon.  This is as local as it gets!  Most of the merchandise (clothing, furnishings, jewelry) is made in China, and most of it is very traditional - not Western at all (refreshing not to see designer brands).  There are so many employees, not only behind the colourful counters, but also roaming the floor offering assistance.  Remember the good old days when Eaton's had staff who actually knew their merchandise (e.g. Mrs. Wolfenden in the stockings department at Fairview ), and who also recognized their faithful customers?  Labour is so cheap in HK (minimum wage is $3.50CDN per hour), that most shops have lots of employees.

I began my tour in the Culture and Arts Saloon on the 5th floor, which included a fancy tea department, a section that sold musical instruments (there was even a small stage for performances), and a beautiful calligraphy department. Marion - you would love the calligraphy tools for sale - every kind of brush, ink, palette, and paper.   As I made my way through the store, I noticed a very expensive jewelry counter (specializing in jade) next to the men's clothing, toys and games on the same floor as exquisite Chinese furniture, and herbal medicines next to imported European baby formula.  A real emporium!

The biggest surprise was the supermarket in the basement.  Every kind of dried food known to man, cans of mystery food imported from Taiwan, and prosciutto drying on racks.  Although photographs are forbidden in the store, I played "dumb tourist" and snapped away - could not resist the dried snakeskin!

While we were in North America, I noticed that the World University Games were about to start in Shenzhen, China - one hour by public transit from HK.  The website of the Games was rather confusing.  I tried to buy tickets online, but then discovered that they were only being sold at the (official government) China Travel Service in downtown HK.  A very patient man helped me buy tickets for three basketball games on Sunday, August 21st.  After I paid for the tickets (no credit cards accepted), I was handed a pink receipt.  The gentleman told me that they would phone to let me know when the tickets were available.  Although I was sceptical, I did receive a call two days later and picked up the tickets.
Jeff had never been to Shenzhen.  Bargain shopping at the LoWu mall is not his idea of a good time.  He bravely said "lead on" as we set out on the Sunday morning.  I navigated us through the bus-metro-metro-commuter train to passport control at the border.  My plan was to have lunch at the mall, and to find some sort of information booth that could direct us to the basketball venue.  When we entered the mall, there was an information table set up for the Games.  Unfortunately, all of the smiling volunteers only spoke Chinese, and all of the printed material was strictly in Chinese!  So much for welcoming the rest of the world to this big event.  Just as I was beginning to despair, a helpful (English-speaking) lady approached us.  She looked at our tickets, took us over to the info desk, and found out which buses would take us to the gym.  Our backup plan was to ask the concierge at the Shangri-La Hotel to arrange a taxi for us - but it's always more of an adventure going the local way!
When we got on bus 205, we looked at each other and said "blind faith?"  We were really at the mercy of the bus driver (who was unapproachable).  Again, thanks to the kindness of strangers, a woman and her husband looked at our tickets, smiled, and said "We will tell you where to get off".  No problem!  As we alighted, we saw a large sign pointing us to the gym.  However, we came to a fork in the road with no further signage.  Luckily a group of young boys were headed our way, so we followed them.

We became instant celebrities!  A group of high schoolers interviewed us (they were actually from HK), and a young local boy asked to have his photo taken with us.  We were the only gweilos in attendance.

The only scary part of our day was negotiating the concrete stairs in the gym.  Normally, a staircase consists of steps that are the same size and width.  Not here!  I almost killed myself walking down the uneven steps.  Welcome to China.
When we settled into our seats, we realized we had no idea which teams we were about to watch.  The first game was a decisive victory by South Korean over the Emirates.  The level of competition was comparable to a good high school game in Canada.  The second game was an improvement - Ukraine over Czech Republic.  Jeff critically assessed all the players and determined that only one of the Ukrainians would merit a scholarship to Division I in the U.S.

When the second game finished around 7:30, Jeff went to scrounge around for some snacks.  He returned with a water bottle and Pringles.  Yummy dinner!  Everything else was mysteriously packaged.
We were definitely running out of steam - it had been a long, humid day.  However, we re-energized when the third game participants were announced:  the U.S. versus Romania.  As ardent NCAA basketball fans, we were excited to see Matt Painter's all-star team.

We recognized some of the players, including Antonio "Scoop" Jardine from Syracuse.  The Romanians were overwhelmed by the Americans.  When we left at half time, the U.S. was leading by twenty points.
Continuing our local adventure, we hopped on the 387 bus, crossed our fingers, and made it back to the station in time to catch the 10 p.m train.  


Quiz:  mystery food? (We bought one, but it never ripened enough for us to be able to cut into it)