Harbin: Making Heritage Buildings Readable Walkable Livable

On June 28, as Harbin marked its second National Historical and Cultural City Protection Day, the city unveiled a pioneering approach to heritage preservation that is drawing national attention. Rather than treating historical buildings as frozen museum pieces, Harbin is pursuing a three-pillar strategy — digital documentation, meticulous restoration, and adaptive reuse — that allows residents and visitors to read, walk through, and live within the city’s architectural heritage.

The approach received a major endorsement just two weeks earlier. On June 13, the National Cultural Heritage Administration selected Harbin’s “Digital Surveying and Mapping Archiving Protection, Making Heritage Buildings Readable and Feelable” as one of 20 recommended cases out of 266 submissions nationwide. It was the only case selected from Heilongjiang Province and the only provincial capital city practice among all winners — a “zero breakthrough” for both the province and the city, according to the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.

Digital IDs for Every Building

At the heart of Harbin’s strategy is a comprehensive digital archiving project covering all 1,310 historical and cultural buildings in the city. The project, led by the Harbin Municipal People’s Congress with coordination across 15 government departments, is divided into two phases. Phase 1 has already completed documentation of 621 buildings, while Phase 2 — targeting completion by September 2026 — will cover the remaining 689 structures through digital surveying, mapping, and information collection.

Each building now features a QR code on its heritage plaque. Visitors strolling along Central Street — the city’s famed pedestrian thoroughfare paved with century-old “bread stone” cobblestones — can scan the code with their phones to instantly access a building’s construction date, historical evolution, architectural details, and more. A unified smart management platform enables dynamic monitoring of building conditions and resource sharing across municipal departments.

“Although Harbin’s urban development history is only a little over a hundred years, it completely encapsulates the full historical picture of China’s modern opening-up, multicultural integration, and the Red Revolution,” said Li Gangfeng, a member of the Heilongjiang Provincial Sculpture Art Committee and a Harbin urban history researcher, as reported by Xinhua News Agency.

Preserving Authentic Texture

Harbin’s restoration philosophy is defined by the principle of “repair the old as old, minimal intervention.” In the Daowai District, home to China’s largest and most well-preserved collection of “Chinese Baroque” architecture — a unique style blending Western Baroque facades with traditional Chinese interior layouts — restoration teams follow strict traditional techniques using brick walls and wood joinery.

Crucially, buildings are never restored to a pristine state. Wall stains, damaged carvings, and other marks of age are deliberately preserved. “Never deliberately renovate to be ‘brand new and flawless,’” states the guiding principle.

Xu Hongpeng, a professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Design who has long specialized in the Chinese Baroque district restoration, explained the philosophy: “A city’s heritage lies between its bricks and stones, and cultural lineage relies on the dedication of generations. A city’s confidence has never come solely from skyscrapers; those historical and cultural relics that retain the marks of time and carry collective memory are the truly unique core assets.”

Bringing Buildings Back to Life

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of Harbin’s approach is its emphasis on adaptive reuse — making heritage buildings “livable” by integrating them into contemporary urban life. The city offers numerous examples of this philosophy in action:

The Songpu Ocean Company building on Central Street, a former commercial establishment, now operates as a commercial complex combining cultural creative products, Western dining, and a museum.
The century-old Modern Hotel retains its original hotel function while adding Western dining operations.
The Garden Street Russian “Yellow Houses,” formerly residential buildings, now house Western restaurants, bakeries, and specialty cafes, functioning as the city’s “living room.”
The Chinese Baroque District has transformed former shops and inns into nostalgic restaurants, city bookstores, crosstalk theaters, and immersive script experience venues.

“Restoration preserves the historical carrier; only revitalization allows history to truly be reborn,” said Li Tao, a national first-class registered architect. “Revitalization does not mean mechanically replicating the business forms of a hundred years ago; the key lies in finding a balance between historical heritage and modern needs.”

A National Model

Harbin’s approach is being positioned as a model for other Chinese cities. The project aligns with China’s broader national strategy of “Cultural Confidence” and the “Data Elements” economy, linking heritage preservation to digital transformation and tourism development. The project’s phased results had already won the “Data Elements ×” National Competition Potential Award in 2024.

Li Shuxiao, honorary president of the Harbin Historical Culture Research Association and a lifelong witness to the city’s heritage journey, summed up the ultimate goal: “We must make every old building truly come alive, be used, and be passed down through generations.”

With Phase 2 targeting completion by September 2026 and full project conclusion by the end of the year, Harbin is demonstrating that historical preservation and modern urban life need not be in conflict — they can, in fact, enrich each other. As the Xinhua article put it: “Ice and snow made this city seen; bricks and stones are making it understood.”