Winter in Volgar Manor offers a wonderland complete with views from the sled.[Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

St. Nicholas Church looks like an icy princess behind a trove of icicles.[Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

About half an hour outside downtown Harbin is a place called Volgar Manor, where you'll be forgiven for believing you are in Russia. It offers Russian entertainment, Russian food, Russian baths, Russian dachas, etc. But the 30-something buildings, constructed in exquisite and multifarious Russian styles, house stories galore. Most are recreations of historical structures that used to exist in Harbin or Russia but are sadly no longer extant.