Harbin Beer
Harbin is a very interesting city in far northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. A center of geopolitical "great game'smenship", Harbin was founded by Russian settlers as their push to the Pacific and general land grab. The city center itself reflects its western heritage and has striking (to me) resemblance to the many west USA cities being founded and built at the very same time. Of course, now all coated with a liberal Chinese overprint. Harbin Beer is part of this Russian Heritage and can justly claim priority as the very first brewery in China, pre-dating Qingdao by a few years. Harbin PiJiu, or simply HaPi to pun the western word happy. We drank many HaPi's on several visits to Harbin summer and, brrrrrrrrrrrr winter!
kjs
Copyright,
KJ Smith