Harbin originally a manchu word meaning a place for drying fishing nets grew from a small rural settlement on songhua river back to become one of the largest cities in northeast china in 1897 after chinese eastern railway was build and the october revolution of 1917 succeeded many russians and europeans move to harbin and built houses schools and shops in harbin so at that time harbin became an international city harbin local culture is fundamentally han culture combined with manchu an