In the early 20th century, the cognoscenti put forward a rival to Shanghai as their nominee for the title of “Paris of the East” – the far north-eastern city of Harbin. As they pointed out, although it took weeks for goods or people to make their way by sea to Shanghai, Harbin was accessible from Europe in just a few days via the Trans-Siberian railway. A cosmopolitan, colonial place, Harbin was, like Shanghai, a product of late 19th-century imperialism, but in this case based on railways rather than shipping, and with the Russians, not the British, as the driving force.