My two favorite things in the world are coffee and cigars. I like my coffee strong and black - no milk, no sugar, no flavorings, just completely unadulterated coffee - and I like my cigars big. Coffee is relatively easy to get here in Harbin. Cigars, on the other hand, like in most of China, are hard to come by unless you're in one of the Tier-1 cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and so on). So, I'm really happy that China Tobacco has set up a smoking room here in Harbin.
The Smoking Room is located at 106 Guogeli Dajie, just a short walk from Harbin's St. Alekseyev Church in Nangang District. Guogeli Dajie itself is a street of mostly shops and eateries - both above and below ground - and is itself worth exploring. As I said, cigars are hard to come by in most of China; but the Smoking Room is one of the only places in Harbin to get cigars (there is one shop on Zhongyang Dajie that sometimes carries one brand of cigars for which they charge essentially double the normal price). The Smoking Room has a modest selection of Chinese and Cuban cigars, and its primary sales are of cigarettes. You can also get a tolerable cup of coffee there.
Again, my two favorite things in the world are coffee and cigars, but I don't like to spend a lot of money on either one. As nice as Cuban cigars are, they're out of my price range and, besides, I prefer Dominican cigars (from the Dominican Republic) which are practically non-existent in China. So, I generally smoke the Great Wall brand of cigar, which is a Chinese-made cigar. The ones I buy cost only 24 RMB each (so, I usually buy a box or two of 10 cigars per box).
If you're a smoker - whether of cigars or of those things made of paper and chemicals known as cigarettes - the Smoking Room is a great place to hang out and smoke.
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