Harbin Kazy Int'l Youth Hostel

Rooms and decor

We picked this place because it may be the only hostel in China set inside a real old synagogue. It is a two-storey red-brick building in the Russian style, built in 1907, from the years when Harbin was a center of Jewish life in East Asia. It opened as a hostel in 2008 and was renovated in 2019. There are around 40 rooms in total — dorms with 4 to 8 beds at about $14 a bed, plus private rooms with twin beds at roughly 18 sqm. Every room has a heater that runs all night, which matters when it is -25C outside, and the shared bathrooms down the hall are cleaner than you would expect from a hostel.

Food and amenities

The hostel has a bar that stays open until midnight, a cafe serving coffee and hot chocolate, and a restaurant cooking northeastern Chinese dishes. There is a library stocked with books on Harbin's history, a tea room, and a game-and-card room that is good for meeting other travelers. The tour desk will help you put together an Ice Festival trip, a day tour to Yabuli ski resort, or a visit to the Siberian Tiger Park. Guests rate it around 8.4, and beds start at about $14 a night.

Location and getting there

The hostel is on Tongjiang Street in Daoli District, and the location is its strongest card: it sits right next to the entrance of Zhongyang Dajie (Central Street) subway station, so you can come up from the train and walk straight in, which is a real plus in the snow months. It is about a 10-minute walk, roughly 700 meters, to the Central pedestrian street and Saint Sophia Cathedral, and it is close to the Harbin Jewish Museum and the Flood Control Monument. One subway line takes you to Ice and Snow World in about 25 minutes.

Things to know before booking

Guests rate it around 8.4, which is lower than the other hostels in this list. It is an old building, so the rooms and facilities are basic and the bathrooms are shared, at the end of the hall. The dorms will not suit families or anyone who wants real privacy, so book a private room if that matters to you.

Our take

Harbin Kazy Int'l Youth Hostel is best for solo travelers and backpackers who want a well-placed hostel next to the subway with a sense of history you will not find in an ordinary hotel. Reviewers keep coming back to one detail: sitting with a cup of tea in a room that was a Jewish prayer hall a hundred years ago.