3:43 am

Happy Summer Solstice! Just want to point out that this morning the sun rose here at 3:43 am. At its peak, Harbin gets 15 hours and 43 minutes (plus 13 seconds) of sunlight. The long days of sunshine and the contrast in temperature between night and day are two reasons people often give me for why the environment here is conducive to growing high quality rice.

In the countryside, most people are up and moving by 4 or 4:30 in the summers. By then it is bright outside. The sun does set early (@ 7:30) so the reason for the early sunrise is both a matter of being east (thanks to China's one country, one time zone policy) as well as north. [On a side note, when I was in Kashgar last month, the sun did not set until after 10 pm.]

In the city, I think people do not tend to get up with the sunrise as much as in the country. But as I've learned from my morning market trips and morning runs, quite a few middle aged and older people tend to be up and out by 6 am to get to the markets early.