China Guide
Dongbei
Pingfang: unit 731
Opening time: Daily 9–11.30am & 1–3.30pm
Price: ¥20
Address: In Pinfang, southwest of the centre, a 40min ride on bus journey #338
Harbin's most notorious and macabre attraction lies out in the suburb of PINGFANG. This was the home of a secret Japanese research establishment during World War II, now open to the public as a grisly museum. Here prisoners of war were injected with deadly viruses, dissected alive, and frozen or heated slowly until they died. More than three thousand people from China, Russia and Mongolia were murdered by troops from unit 731 of the Japanese army. After the war, the Japanese tried to hide all evidence of the base, and its existence only came to light through the efforts of Japanese investigative journalists. It was also discovered that, as with scientists in defeated Nazi Germany, the Americans gave the Japanese scientists immunity from prosecution in return for their research findings.
The museum mostly comprises photographs labelled in Chinese. Looking at the displays, which include a painting of bound prisoners being used as bomb targets, it's easy to understand why many Chinese mistrust Japan to this day.