Saint Sophia Cathedral

The green-domed Byzantine structure rising above the old Daoli district is the most recognisable landmark in Harbin and the best surviving emblem of the city's extraordinary Russian past. Saint Sophia Cathedral was completed in 1932 and served a Russian Orthodox community that had flooded into the city to build and operate the Chinese Eastern Railway. The architects created something on a grand scale: the central dome soars 48 metres and can be seen from several blocks away.

Inside, the building now houses the Harbin Architecture Arts Centre, which documents the city's multicultural history through photographs, maps, and architectural drawings. The collection of images showing Harbin at its Russian peak — European facades, Orthodox churches, a horse-racing track — is genuinely startling. The cathedral square outside is a popular gathering point and makes for good photographs in the early morning light before the crowds arrive.

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Saint Sophia was built in 1907 as a wooden chapel for Russian railway workers, then rebuilt in brick between 1923 and 1932 after the original burned. At its height the Russian community of Harbin numbered over 100,000, and the cathedral was the symbolic heart of the city's foreign quarter. After 1949 it was converted into a warehouse, then a concert hall, and finally restored as a museum in 1997.