Harbin is China's northernmost major city, with a population in excess of 10 million, and over 4 million in the city center alone. Historically, the city has had a lot of Russian influence, in particular after the Russian Civil War of 1918, when White (Monarchist) refugees escaped the newly formed Soviet Union. The influence remains clearly visible in the building styles and foods. The city was founded in 1897 as a camp for Russian engineers surveying the Trans-Siberian Railway. Labor demands brought in a collection of outcasts from across Russia, Poland and even from within Manchuria. The city eventually was captured by the Japanese during World War II and later captured by the Chinese in 1946. Once nothing more than a Russian-built outpost of the railway, Harbin has managed to become a major player in her own right as well as capital of Heilongjiang Province.

Northeastern China was originally built up as an industrial center using pre-existing Soviet and Japanese factories. By the 1980s these outdated and inefficient factories could not keep up. To further complicate matters, starting in the early 1990s, large portions of China's state owned enterprise workers were laid off. Thus, like many other cities in this region, contemporary Harbin is struggling with an aging work force and unemployment. Private enterprise is mostly centered in the service sector, retail, restaurants, etc. with most large scale enterprises still state owned. However, the province has thousands of state-owned enterprises up for sale, and many have been purchased since the late 1990s. Numerous universities in Harbin also play a vital role in the economy in education, research and through their subsidiary companies.

In 2005 there was a major pollution spill on the Songhua river.