07.15.08
Harbin Wrapup…On to the North Korean Border
It’s been two and a half days in Harbin, and I have decided rather than putting several hours of travel time into a well-formatted and substantial write up (not to mention pics) I’m going to instead continue giving these small incremental updates and observations. Then when I get back to Beijing, write more in-depth posts. That being said, in one hour I leave for Yanxi in Jilin province. Yanxi is a Korean automomous prefecture, and sets just across from the border of North Korea. I’d imagine this will be as close as my American passport will ever allow me to get to North Korea. Yanxi is also only several kilometers from Russia, so I’m interested to see the conflex of Russian, Korean, and Chinese culture.
As for Harbin…I spent the morning today at the Museum of Japanese Biological Warfare against the Chinese. (The full Chinese name escapes me at the moment, but I believe it was something like 日侵华第779队部遗址). It is housed at the site of an old military base where the Japanese did human experimentation and tested germ warfare for possible future use. The exhibits were quite disturbing, and were erily similar to what the Nazis were doing at Dacau. Fortunately, the Japanese never got to use it on any mass scale because some random country (they weren’t mentioned at all in any of the exhibits) defeated their army and expelled them out of China.
This afternoon I visited the Huang Shan Cemetery, located on the outskirts of Harbin. The cemetery is massive and in the center there was an old section where Harbin’s Jews were buried. It was the most massive and picturesque cemetery I have ever seen in China. The Jewish gravestones were mostly from the twenties, thirties, and fourties, and numbered in the hundreds. The inscriptions on the headstones were written in both Hebrew and Russian. There was also an Eastern Orthodox section for Harbin’s former Russian population.
In another random note, I am finding that 东北菜 (cuisine from Northeast China) is rapidly becoming one of my favorite Chinese cuisines. Here are some of the highlights so far.
-地三鲜 (di4 san1 xian1). I must have had this dish a hundred times before, but none can compare to what I had last night in a hole-in-the wall Harbin restaurant for 4 RMB. The lightly fried potatoes, eggplant, and green pepper were beyond heavenly. Those folks down south have no idea.
-凉菜 (liang3 cai4) Dongbei food is known for its emphasis on cold vegetable dishes. Virtually every restaurant I have been to has a menu stocked with cold cabbage, potato slices, wood ear mushroom, seaweed, and a whole slew of other cold delights.
-红肠 (hong2 chang2) In a comment to a previous post, I mentioned that Harbin has the best sausage I have ever tasted in China. And I also incorrectly reported that it is called 肉联. The proper name is 红肠, which loosely translated means “red intestine.” I have been eating them compulsively.
More to come soon. I’m off to Jilin in a few minutes.
Gabrielle
said,
July 15, 2008 at 11:32 pm
You just made me remember something that I probably never would have remembered otherwise. When I visited the northern realms of China(Beijing and Shenyang) I had a co-worker who was obsessed with di4 san1 xian1. Every time we would go out to eat, she would yell out the dishes name when ordering it as though no one could hear her. Her tones always confused the hell out of anyone Chinese. It was by far her favorite dish, and she would always make sure to order enough so she could take some home. Although comical, it was a bit annoying. I swear, if she could, she would have taken a bath in di san xian. That is how much she loved that dish. Funny times, I tell you.
Jiang
said,
July 16, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Is the Museum of Japanese Biological Warfare 日侵华第731部队遗址 instead of 779? In our textbooks, it’s depicted notorious and a symbol of Japanese. When I was a kid, I saw a TV drama about the Japanese Biological Warfare troop. It’s really horrible and scared me. But now, I think it’s a good site for nationalism pr0paganda.
Benjamin Ross
said,
July 16, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Jiang-
Yeah, that’s it. I must have just forgotten the numbers. It is a pretty scary place. Just the site of the building itself (I’ll post a pic when I get back to Beijing) is enough to send a chill through your bones. It looks like a concentration camp. It was definitely pretty full of pr0paganda though…so much though that I started to get a little skeptical.
T.
said,
July 16, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Sure you can go to North Korea. Americans are allowed in during the Mass Games. I am considering going this October holiday myself – my friend is going and she’s American.
Anonymous
said,
July 18, 2008 at 3:12 am
>some random country (they weren’t mentioned at all in any of the exhibits) defeated their army and expelled them out of China.
The country that defetead Japanese army in China was USSR:-)
Tong
said,
July 18, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Ben Ross, I don’t think “two atomic bombs ended Japanese occupation” will be seen in Chinese museum any time soon, just like this particular museum won’t advertise all the data collected by 731 is in this random country’s hand. As to USSR troops, they fought Japanese on the ground in the northeast and that was what Northeastern Chinese witnessed. Some US troops were in South, my grandma used to say “America butter is the best”. Reason being when US troops left, the food left behind were rationed to the locals. Hmm, occasionally we ate sautéed spam growing up, now I am wondering how we got that idea?
I must be really igorant, from the last couple entries, I gather you are Jewish, I thought the Jewish observe Kosher Dietary law. Sausage made of pork?
Benjamin Ross
said,
July 19, 2008 at 6:48 am
Tong-
You are not really ignorant, just slightly. There are many levels of Jewish observance. Jews of different denominations follow different levels of ritual. A statement like “I thought Jewish people observe Kosher Dietary Law” would be like saying “I thought Chinese people do Kung Fu” to a Chinese who prefers basketball. I was brought up in a house where we did not keep kosher. If I were to follow all of the laws of Halacha, there would be no way I could travel around China unless I subsisted only on fresh fruit. I probably wouldn’t be checking my blog comments on a Saturday morning either.