And yet, im spite of the river's acknowledged treachery, the life of the city's population migrates in summer to its other side. Every former resident. of Harbin must well remember the mass of humanity that every day surges across the Sungari, where it can not only swim (hut for clothes dot the beach) and rest, but can also eat in the many restaurants that spring up like mushrooms, make merry and generally enjoy themselves for the whole 24 hours, if they so wish—and all this for a ridiculously cheap price. TI can be called a sort of Coney Island of Harbin.
Generally speaking, with the coming of spring—and spring has already come—political topics fade into the background and everyone starts to lay plans for summer. In spite of the fact that the river has just been freed from ice, men and women, little daunted by the prevailing cold weather, may be seen on the banks of the Sungari "acquainting themselves with the surroundings.
The majority of the summer houses on the opposite bank have already been let in advance, while those that remain available have raised their rent by 80 per cent. Yet Harbin residents continue to regard these prices as being absurdly cheap. Huts which last year were offered ior 40 gobi for the season, this year cost 65 gobi. Some of the larger summer houses are rented by several families or even whole organizations an example of which has been set by the employees of Messrs. I. J. Tchurin & Ca.
People of more modest means live on the other side of the Sungari in tents. The early preparations for the coming summer is probably explained by the fact that last summer was an extremely hot one; as Harbin residents say, not without pride, in the matter of heat Harbin in 1937 beat even Shanghai
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.