Amusement Park Church

I made another visit to the Harbin Cultural Park (formerly the city's Novoye Cemetery) to see how its "Electronic Amusement Hall" (formerly the cemetery church) was doing. Still closed and unrestored unfortunately...

Looking at the church from the walkway that connects it to the old cemetery bell tower.

The church is still in quite a state. Renovation work just began on the Harbin Railway Station's Church of the Iveron Icon, so perhaps Holy Dormition Church will be next?

Novoye Cemetery Church

Winter offers a starker, less obstructed view of Holy Dormition, the old church of what used to be Harbin's Novoye Cemetery and is now an amusement park.

Harbin Cultural Park

The Electronic Amusement Hall at the Harbin Cultural Park, founded in 1908 as Holy Dormition Orthodox Church. I don't normally associate cemeteries with amusement parks, but for whatever reason the Harbin Cultural Park was built on the site of the city's Novoye Cemetery. Admission is ¥5, while the rides generally cost around ¥40 or ¥50.

Past and Present Collide

The former bell tower of Holy Dormition Orthodox Church, built as the cemetery church of Novoye Cemetery, one of Harbin's Orthodox Christian burial grounds. The bell tower is now an entryway to the Harbin Cultural Park, while the old church is now the Park's Electronic Amusement Hall.

Monastery Meets Modernity

A picture of one of the entryways to a courtyard of Harbin's Jile Temple with the ferris wheel of the neighboring Harbin Cultural Park - formerly Novoye Cemetery, one of the burial grounds for the city's Orthodox Christians - in the background. It was a bit surreal to be in such a quiet, peaceful place and yet still at various points be able to see the apartment buildings and ferris wheel towering above its walls!