Harbin, a beautiful city with strong exotic flavors, combines the history and culture of northern ethnic groups with Eastern and Western cultures. It has earned a reputation as the “Capital of Culture,” “Capital of Music,” “Ice City and Summer Capital,” “Pearl Under the Swan’s Neck,” “Eastern Moscow” and “Eastern Paris”. Harbin is the sole city in China where Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Catholicism, Islam and Orthodox Eastern Church coexist. The open city has already established friendly relationships with 31 cities in 26 countries.

In Harbin, there are 17 professional performing arts groups, 21 cultural (art) centers, 18 public libraries, 20 museums and memorial halls, 31 cinemas, 19 comprehensive archives and one specialized archive. They have welcomed about 20,000 persons and published 125,000 files.

In 2011, 57,705 copies of newspapers, 70,990 books and 10,800 magazines were published. The city's cable subscribers reached 1.24 million, of which there were 877,000 digital TV customers. The city's comprehensive TV coverage is 99.14 percent, and radio comprehensive coverage is 99.62 percent.