Heihe (approximately pronounced hey-her) is a small city on the Heilong River (or, for Russians, Amur River) across from Russia in China’s Heilongjiang Province. Hellongjiang is the Chinese word for Heilong River. I decided to go check it out because one of my teacher students a couple of weeks earlier (I did some training for Chinese high school teachers of English from around the province) was from Heihe.
The train ride from Harbin East Railway Station is roughly 12 hours. If you do it during the daylight hours, you can see quite a bit of the countryside. If you hope to sleep, buy a sleeper ticket for one of the night trains. There are no high-speed trains to Heihe.
I stayed in the Home Inn a short walk from the Heihe Railway Station. Home Inn is one of my preferred hotel chains in China. With the Home Inn as my base of operations, I went by taxi to the places I wanted to see.
So, what is there to see in Heihe? Well, the biggest draw is the river and being able to see Russia on the other side. Heihe did a really good job of developing a riverfront with parks. There’s also an island in the river on the Chinese side that will give you even closer views of Russia. Not far from the river is a Russian Goods Street (a fairly literal translation of the Russian name) consisting of shops with various Russian products. It’s only a block long, it’s not a walking street, and it is nothing compared to Zhongyang Dajie (Central Street) in Harbin, but if you can’t actually go to Russia, it’s a place you can get some Russian products. At one end of the street is the Heihe Museum, which has paintings on the first floor and historic ceramics on the second floor.
Many cities in China have walking streets, which are streets where only pedestrians can go. The streets are lined with a variety of shops. The one I went to in Heihe is worth visiting. There’s one very large, ornate building that houses several floors of shops and a food court at the top. If you're not Asian-looking, expect the shopkeepers to try talking to you in Russian.
I only stayed in the city, but apparently there are things to see several kilometers outside of Heihe in a district called Aihui, including an old city and a history museum. There’s also a ski area if you like that sort of thing. You can check out Trip Advisor’s list of things to do at https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g1017049-Activities-Heihe_Heilongjiang.html.
So, if you’re so inclined, hop on over to Heihe.
Comments