From Harbin’s tourism centro, Zhongyang Jie, you can find your way to Zhaolin Park by heading north one block. This succulently lush green park with its verdant plant life is a great place to retreat to, getting away from all the people, all the hustle and bustle of Zhongyang Street. And it’s very reachable via a short walk down Shangyou Street from Z.Y. Street.

Zhaolin Park, attractively set on a large block of public land (more than 8 hectares), is roomy yet it is also compact…it fits quite a lot of things into its space while still allowing you the freedom to roam around. What defines the essence of the park is the canal that snakes it’s way through the park and gardens. It is the thread that connects the various parts of green Zhaolin. By walking in concentric circles around the park you can acquaint yourself with the various quaint and charming bridges which cross the canal at different points.

Zhaolin Park is well resourced, little wonder then that families tend to flock there. It especially caters for the juvenile visitor. Exotic birds in large cages in one part. Several different amusements for children are contained within the park perimeter, plenty of gentle rides for the younger child. For the family as a whole, the most popular element are the paddle boats. You can hire a colourful boat and paddle a course up and down the canal.

Being on the lookout for traces of the Russian presence that once pervaded Harbin, I particularly noticed the old entrance gates and buildings on my way in and out (in Senlin and in Shangzhi streets). The structures project a distinctly Russian dome character in the design. It is refreshingly and perhap surprising to report that Zhaolin Park is adequately equipped with toilets, but if I had one quibble it is the same one I have with most many public parks. Given the constant and steady stream of visitors Zhaolin receives, it could do with a lot more seats for the punters distributed right across the park.

FN: at the peak freeze-point of the northern hemisphere (January-February each year), Zhaolin Park transforms from green to ice and snow white. It is one of the places you can take in the spectacle of ever-more imaginative ice sculptures that Harbin is internationally famous for (home of the winter Ice Festival and Ice Lantern Show)

PostScript: Name derivation

Zhaolin Park was originally called Lam Kam Road Park✽. It was renamed in the late 1940s in honour of a Chinese communist guerrilla leader and Dongbei political organiser. Li Zhaolin organised and led the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army in its resistance to the Japanese invaders in the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1946 Li was assassinated in Harbin by Kuomintang agents. Zhaolin Park can be entered from Shangzhi Street, which is named after another Northeast communist commander in the war against the Japanese, Zhao Shangzhi.

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✽ or Daoli Park