It doesn't take long for Li Shuxiao, a scholar of Harbin history at the provincial Academy of Social Sciences and an expert on the city's Russian community, to steer our conversation about local history in a more alcoholic direction.
'Hapi,' he says, referring to Harbin Beer as all locals do (putting together the first two characters of the words Harbin and pijiu), 'is the epitome of Harbin's history.' And quite possibly the beer with the best name on the planet.
But the happiness doesn't end there, nor does it end with the following piece of English poetry, found on a bottle of Harbin Pure Draft: 'Harbin Beer since 1900, is the source of/ Chinese beer industry/ It's soaked by Chinese old culture/ It has not only the very good taste, but also the/ Old history and rich background, it's pop old brand in China.'
It was this poetry of the pijiu, this drunken Hapi haiku, that inspired a phone call to the brewer. I soon find myself crossing the Hapi factory floor with Yu Xueren, of the beer company's PR department, and agreeing with Professor Li: Hapi is Harbin. It's a special place, whose story can be told through its hometown brewery.
'We're really thankful to the Russians,' Yu says.
'They brought beer to China and they brought it to Harbin.' In 1896, the Russians won the right to build a railway from Vladivostok to Dalian via Harbin, and thus began the transformation of what was a tiny collection of fishing villages.
