Group of foreign journalists visits Harbin

Twenty journalists from 14 news-media companies worldwide visited Harbin, the capital city of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, on Tuesday during a tour supported by the local government.

The editors and reporters, from Asian countries such as South Korea and Singapore, and Western nations such as Australia, were invited by the local government to be a part of “charming Harbin in summer — Harbin in the eyes of the global media”.

Co-organized by the Communist Party of China Harbin Committee and China Daily, the interview tour includes three days’ of interviews in the city about its cultural relics, economic development, urbanization, and so on.

On the morning of Aug 28, they visited Sun Island — a nature reserve of wetland that covers 88 square kilometers in the urban area of the city.

The nature reserve is close to the Songhua River, China’s fifth-largest river, with massive area of untapped wetland.

Jung Hyuk-Hoon, Beijing bureau chief of the Seoul-based Maeil Business Newspaper, said he was “impressed” by Sun Island.

“There are also some small wetlands in many cities of South Korea, but I’ve never seen any wetlands covering such a massive area,” he said. “And it’s well-protected.”

The journalists visited two places of worship that afternoon — a Jewish synagogue and an Orthodox church, Sophia Cathedral — both of which are historical sites that were built in the early 20th century.

Lin Duo, the Party chief of Harbin, will meet and take questions from the reporters and editors the morning of Aug 29.