Mohe, the northernmost county in China, is remote and inhospitable, its vast forests home to bears and wolves. In winter, temperatures regularly drop below minus 50C. And yet every summer, thousands of tourists jump in SUVs and private taxis to make a pilgrimage to Mohe’s most northerly settlement, the village of Beijicun.
They come to peer at Russia across the Amur River (whose Chinese name Heilong Jiang, or Black Dragon River, gives the province its name), as well as to brag that they have stood at the very top of the country, and above all, to try to catch a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights.
My own trip was inspired in an Icelandic museum where I had learned that it was possible to see the lights in China, although it quickly became apparent that the chances of doing so are rare. You could spend several decades in Mohe and only see them a handful of times, according to locals. But the slim odds haven’t prevented the village of Beijicun from declaring June 21, the summer solstice, to be its “Northern Lights festival”.