Flood Control Monument 防洪胜利纪念塔

Cities in China typically have a large squares normally with large parks to boot. The parks are somehow all named Peoples’ Park no matter where it is. Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu all have their own Peoples’ Park. Somehow Haerbin didn’t have its own Peoples’ Park, maybe it was too remote or maybe I was just in the wrong place? However, it still has a large square or in this case a large plaza. This is probably a place for events and for people to just walk around when they get sick of Zhongyang Street. At the center of the plaza is a monument called the Flood Control Monument.

The Flood Control Monument 防洪胜利纪念塔 is a rather bizarrely conceived monument. This was built in the aftermath of the devastating flooding of the Songhua River in the year 1958. The tower was in commemoration of the thousands of people who died in that flood. Nowadays, the Songhua River is more tame and the banks of the river have been reinforced, it would be unlikely that another tragic episode similar to this will occur. As for the monument, it is here to stay, and people don’t really pay much attention to the reason why it was built in the first place even taking photos with the monument.

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