Heilongjiang
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Heilongjiang, the northernmost sheng (province) of China’s Northeast region. It is bounded to the north and east by Russia along the Amur River and the Ussuri (Wusuli) River, to the south by the Chinese province of Jilin, and to the west by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The capital is Harbin. Heilongjiang occupies about three-fifths of the area of the three Northeast provinces that formerly made up Manchuria and has more than one-third of the region’s population. The province’s name is derived from Heilong Jiang, the Chinese name for the Amur. Area 179,000 square miles (463,600 square km). Pop. (2020) 31,850,088.
Land
Relief
The province of Heilongjiang occupies about half of the huge Northeast (Manchurian) Plain, surrounded on three sides by old mountain ranges of medium elevation. Its central part is the plain of the Sungari (Songhua) and Nen (Nonni) rivers, delimited by the Da Hinggan (Greater Khingan) Range of Inner Mongolia on the west, the Xiao Hinggan (Lesser Khingan) Range on the north, and the Zhangguangcai and Laoye ranges (both partially located in Jilin) on the east. Elevations in Heilongjiang generally are low, exceeding 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) only in the southeastern and northwestern mountains and in isolated peaks in the Xiao Hinggan Range.
The mountains of the northwest—the northern fringe of the Da Hinggan Range—are composed mainly of igneous rocks resistant to erosion and weathering. The structure of the Xiao Hinggan Range is more complex. Its northern part is composed of granite, volcanic basalt, and other metamorphic rocks. The average elevation is about 2,300 feet (700 metres); the granite peaks near Yichun rise to about 3,770 feet (1,150 metres). The western slope facing the Nen River is gentle, while the eastern slope is steep. The southern end of the Xiao Hinggan is composed of archlike, folded, stratified rock. A few of the highest peaks reach over 3,300 feet (1,000 metres), but the hills are generally lower. The valleys of the foreland are often broad and smooth, dotted with swamps. The rolling Sungari-Nen plain, at an elevation of 490 to 600 feet (150 to 180 metres), has many bogs and swamps. In contrast, sand dunes occur in the drier western part of the plain.
Drainage
The Amur is the longest stream in the province. Its upper and middle sections serve as the international boundary for a distance of 1,180 miles (1,900 km). Ice begins forming on the Amur in mid-October, and it becomes icebound by mid-November; the river is not completely ice-free until May. The Amur’s chief tributary, the Sungari River, is the main waterway of the province, however. Most of the Sungari drainage system lies within the province. The Ussuri River forms the Sino-Russian boundary on the east, flowing along a longitudinal valley between mountains. It is a broad, slow-moving river and has a tributary linking it with Lake Khanka (Xingkai Hu), the largest freshwater lake in East Asia. Only one-fourth of the lake, which is on the Sino-Russian border, is in China.
Soils
The soils in the province are complex. In the Xiao Hinggan mountains, soils differ with elevation. Black soils (chernozems) are prevalent in the foothills, and mountain brown forest soils higher up. Still higher the cold, wet soils are podzolized; i.e., the soluble salts and organic matter are leached out of the topsoil and deposited in an underlying subsoil. Such soils are of low fertility, and their cultivation causes erosion. The humus-rich, highly fertile black soils that cover one-fourth of the province are found in the Sungari-Nen river plain. Its eastern part has the best soils, yielding crops for years without fertilization. The chernozem lands form the main agricultural region of the province.
Climate
The province has severe winters, lasting five to eight months. Summer is short but coincides with the rainy season, making it possible to raise temperate crops in most areas. There are considerable regional differences in climate. The northwest has a cold, wet, temperate climate with very cold winters; the summer thaw is only superficial. Huma, on the Amur River, has a mean temperature of −18 °F (−28 °C) in January. The July mean temperature is 75 °F (24 °C). There are only four months with mean temperatures over 50 °F (10 °C), and frost-free days annually range from 100 in the north to 140 in the south.
A temperate, wet climate prevails in the eastern section, in the drainage basin of the Ussuri River and the lower Sungari River. In the central core of the province the climate is temperate, with a deficiency of precipitation and very severe winters. Nenjiang, in the northern Northeast Plain, has mean temperatures of −16 °F (−27 °C) in January and 70 °F (21 °C) in July. The mean annual precipitation is 20 inches (510 mm), most of which falls from June to September.
The southern part of the province is also bitterly cold in winter but enjoys a warmer summer and a longer growing period. Harbin has mean temperatures of −2 °F (−19 °C) in January and 73 °F (23 °C) in July. Its mean annual precipitation is 21 inches (530 mm).
Plant and animal life
The original vegetation of much of the province’s plain areas was forest-prairie, but it has been largely destroyed by cultivation; the remaining trees are predominantly poplars. There are many species of herbaceous plants, pasture grasses, and sorghums. The central part of the plain was originally prairie-steppe; the western part of the plain is a drier steppe. The mountain areas are heavily forested, chiefly by conifers or a mix of conifer and broad-leaved species. Varieties include red and white pines, Manchurian ash, cork trees, and catalpas. Numerous wild plants of economic value and mushrooms are also found in the forests.
The province’s fauna is predominantly that of the Northeast Plain, which constitutes the larger part of Heilongjiang. It has a predominance of temperate mixed-forest animals, with a significant admixture of elements of the Eurasian taiga (boreal forest). Among the district’s representative animals are Manchurian hares, eastern field voles, rat hamsters, Far Eastern finches, buteo hawks, needle-footed owls, and some species of flycatchers. Insects include duckling beetles, ground beetles and bumblebees. The region’s fauna yield valuable fur and pelts, including sable, fox, chipmunk, Manchurian hare, and light-coloured polecat.
The northwestern mountains have fauna more akin to that of the boreal forests of Europe and Siberia. The more common wildlife includes brown bears, squirrels, chipmunks, some forest voles, kolinsky (or Asiatic) minks, wood hens, crossbills, and Siberian frogs. In addition, Siberian tigers and the rare East Asian (or Amur) leopard inhabit the mountainous areas. Among the insects may be mentioned long-horned beetles, the ground beetle, and the Siberian silkworm. During the long, cold winter the birds migrate to warmer regions as far south as the Malay Peninsula.
People
The population is predominantly Han (Chinese), but there are other significant ethnic groups, notably the Manchu, Koreans, Hui (Chinese Muslims), and Mongols (including Daur Mongols). Other, smaller groups include the Oroqen (Elunchun), Evenk (Ewenki, or Ewenke), and Hezhe (Nanai, or Hezhen). After the establishment of the communist government, an autonomous county and dozens of autonomous towns and villages were created in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. The Manchu form the largest minority group and are distributed largely in the southern part of the province. They have been culturally assimilated by the Han majority. Most of them farm, and their way of life is similar to that of the Han; in the past, intermarriage was common, especially among the former nobility and the educated.
Korean immigration started in the mid-19th century. After the Japanese annexed their country in 1910, a large number of Koreans emigrated to Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, where they converted large areas of swampy wasteland into rice paddies. They live mostly in southeastern Heilongjiang, where many autonomous Korean villages have been established. The Hui live and work mostly in the larger cities as merchants, handicrafters, and proprietors of beef and mutton restaurants. Those in Anda and Zhaodong raise goats and dairy cattle. Mongols live in the drier western part of the province, where they engage in farming and animal husbandry. Many of them live in the Mongolian autonomous county in the western part of the province.
The Daur (Dawo’er) Mongols live mostly in the upper Nen River valley, on the eastern foreland of the Da Hinggan Range. They are believed to have come from the north side of the Amur River during the 17th century. Hunters and fishers originally, they became one group of the earliest farmers of Heilongjiang. Probably the Oroqen also came from north of the Amur River, later to settle in the Khingan ranges as farmers and hunters. They had domesticated the deer and were once known as the “deer riders.” The Oroqen were among the earliest inhabitants of the upper and middle Amur. The Evenk tribespeople moved into the province in the 1st century ce. Believed by some scholars to be descendants of the Sushen (Evenk) tribes of the Zhou dynasty, a small number now live mainly near Nehe in the Nen River valley. They originally were hunters but have learned to farm since 1949.
Russians entered the province at the end of the 19th and in the early 20th centuries. A great number of émigrés arrived after the Bolshevik Revolution. Some of these stayed and became Chinese citizens, many of them women who married Chinese. The few remaining Russians in the province live mostly in Harbin.
Economy
Despite the great mineral and agricultural potential of Heilongjiang, the provincial economy was relatively underdeveloped until the mid-20th century. The process of economic growth began in the 1920s and ’30s with the arrival of railroads and concomitant mineral exploitation. By the 1950s the provincial industrial output per capita was well above the national average.
Resources and power
Heilongjiang has significant reserves of several minerals, notably petroleum, coal, gold, and graphite. During the 1950s emphasis was placed on the development of coal mining. The Daqing oil field began operation in 1960 and subsequently developed into China’s major inland field. Heilongjiang has remained one of the country’s largest sources of crude oil, and it also is a major regional producer of natural gas.The province also has vast commercially exploitable forest resources, with pines constituting the most valuable timber species.
Energy production was also a major focus in Heilongjiang from the 1950s, and the generation of electric power has become a major component of the province’s economy. Numerous hydroelectric stations have been built, as well as thermal-generating plants.
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
Since 1949 large tracts of low-lying alluvial land have been reclaimed between the Sungari and Ussuri rivers. Large-scale state farms were established there, and millions of acres were brought under cultivation to produce sugar beets, soybeans, corn (maize), and wheat. Other grain crops include rice, millet, and sorghum. In addition to sugar beets, other important industrial crops include flax and sunflowers. Although cultivation in the region is highly mechanized, there is only modest use of irrigation or chemical fertilizers. Heilongjiang is one of China’s major grazing areas, its plains supporting large herds of livestock. Dairying is important, and the province is one of the country’s leading milk producers.
The province is one of China’s largest producers of raw timber, which is cut mainly in the Da and Xiao Hinggan ranges. In addition, the Sungari River is a major freshwater fishery that produces salmon and sturgeon, including beluga sturgeon (Huso huso). The Sungari’s salmon are renowned and are sold throughout the other Chinese provinces. In addition, aquaculture at Jingpo Lake, Lake Khanka, and the “Five Lotus Lakes” (Wu Da Lianchi) in the province is of national significance.
Manufacturing
Heilongjiang is now one of China’s major manufacturing regions, producing motor vehicles, generators, agricultural machinery, locomotives, building materials, flax fabrics, beet sugar, dairy products, and beverages. Much of Heilongjiang’s industry is based on the exploitation of its rich mineral resources; for example, its petrochemical industry uses a large part of the petroleum produced there.
The city of Jiamusi, on the Sungari River, was built up as a military and air base during the Japanese occupation (1931–45). Four strategic railways were completed, linking the city with Tumen, on the North Korean border; Suiha, to the west; Hegang, to the north; and Shuangyashan, to the east. With the rapid industrial development under the Chinese communists, the city began to produce machinery and electrical and telecommunication equipment. The Jiamusi paper mill is one of the largest in China, producing both for domestic needs and for export, and there is also a food-processing industry.
Another burgeoning industrial city is Shuangyashan, east of Jiamusi. Its development began after World War II. The city has a number of large plants for metal and food processing and for the production of lumber and construction materials. Qiqihar (Tsitsihar), the second largest city and former capital of the province, has also grown phenomenally since the 1950s.
Harbin, the largest city and capital of the province, grew in 1898 as a construction base for the Chinese Eastern Railway across northern Manchuria. It soon became the region’s major transportation hub and communications centre, with direct rail links to the Russian railroad network and to the Sea of Japan (East Sea); through the South Manchurian Railway, it is linked with the rest of China and with the Korean rail networks and the Pacific. Numerous handicraft industries and small oil-pressing and flour mills are located there. By the 1950s the Harbin area had become one of China’s primary industrial development centres, with an emphasis on heavy industry. It produces a variety of machinery and has chemical and fertilizer industries. The city is also a food-processing centre, as well as a producer of textiles, lumber, and construction materials. More recently, a high-technology development zone has been established there.
Transportation
The province’s main north-south rail lines extend from Mohe and Heihe, both far north near the Amur River, through Harbin, to Dalian (Dairen) in Liaoning province, while the main east-west lines run from far east near Ussuri River at the Sino-Russian border, through Harbin, to Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia. There are also secondary lines. Inland waterways are not important, except for the Sungari River during the ice-free months. Most freight is carried by railroads or highway.
Heilongjiang occupies a core position in Northeast Asia and serves as a bridge and link in trade and economic relations with Russia, Korea, and Japan. Harbin is the hub of the railway network, inland water transportation, and air travel. A pipeline linking Daqing to Dalian facilitates the long-distance transport of crude oil to locations outside the province.
Government and society
Constitutional framework
The boundaries of Heilongjiang fluctuated during the early 20th century. From 1950 to 1954 the province was under the jurisdiction of the Northeast Military Administrative Commission based in Shenyang (Liaoning province). In 1954 Heilongjiang was placed directly under the central government, and its boundaries were expanded eastward across the Sungari River to the Ussuri River frontier with what was then the Soviet Union. Also during the 1950s, territory in western Heilongjiang that included the Da Hinggan Range was transferred to Inner Mongolia; this region again became part of Heilongjiang in 1969 but was restored to Inner Mongolia in 1979. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Heilongjiang was a pioneer in developing the Revolutionary Committees that became the dominant institutional form. In the early 1980s the former system of provincial congresses was restored.
The province is divided administratively into one prefecture (diqu) and 12 prefecture-level municipalities (dijishi). These districts are further divided into counties (xian) and county-level municipalities (xianjishi).
Education
Harbin is an important educational centre, especially in engineering and applied science. The Harbin Institute of Technology was founded in 1920 to train technical personnel for the Chinese Eastern Railway. It offers specialized programs in departments of engineering and technology as well as a graduate school. Also noteworthy in the city is Harbin Medical University (1926) and Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine (1959). Heilongjiang has numerous other postsecondary educational institutions and a large corps of scientists and technicians. Almost all school-age children are enrolled in schools, and the province’s literacy rate is substantially above the national norm.
Cultural life
Located in the heart of the former Manchurian region of China, the culture of the province is characterized by a distinctive regional style. Its popular preforming arts include the so-called Dongbei Errenzhuan (“Northeast Two-Person Rotating”), a kind of duet in which two performers dance, sing, and tell stories together, accompanied by local songs; and the Dongbei Dagu (“Northeast Big Drum”) style, where stories are sung in verse form to the accompaniment of a drum and related instruments. The cold weather of the province also makes possible special cultural events in the region. The best known is the annual ice- and snow-sculpture festival at Harbin, which draws large crowds.
History
The prehistoric population of the region appears to have consisted of people who bred pigs and horses and occupied much of northeastern Asia. Stone Age fishermen lived along the rivers and coast. Archaeological evidence of their occupation has been found at several sites in Heilongjiang, including Yangjiagang (a western suburb of Harbin) where, in 1982, archaeologists found what is thought to be a fragment of a human skull fossil.
Heilongjiang was long sparsely inhabited by hunters and fishermen who used canoes, dogsleds, skis, and reindeer as transport. The town of Sanxing (now Yilan) was the home in the early 15th century ce of some of the ancestors of Nurhachi, the Manchu tribal leader who rose to power in the late 1500s through struggles with rival Juchen tribes and alliances with Manchu-related groups. Nurhachi’s son, Prince Dorgon, ruled as regent during the reign of Shunzhi, the first Qing, or Manchu, emperor of China.
During the 17th century the region became a zone of competition between Russia and China. Bands of musket-bearing Cossacks had been exacting tribute in furs from the tribes living along the Amur River, and in 1650 a Russian fort was built at Albazino on the river’s north bank. The Qing dynasty appointed a military governor to administer the region in 1683. The fort at Albazino was destroyed, and Russian retaliation was firmly opposed. By the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689), the Russian government recognized Chinese suzerainty over the lands lying on both sides of the Amur River.
The tribes of the region failed to recover their numerical strength after the Manchu rise to power and even after Manchu culture declined, despite the intentions of Qing emperors to maintain their native language and way of life. Although large areas of Heilongjiang are fertile, agricultural development proceeded there very slowly because of the reluctance of Qing rulers to allow the establishment of farms in their traditionally pastoral homeland. The region remained sparsely settled because access was difficult before railroads were built there, and it was therefore highly vulnerable to Russian and Japanese expansion during the 19th century.
In 1858 Russia annexed the region north of the Amur River to its mouth and two years later the region east of the Ussuri River to the Sea of Japan, including the important seaport of Vladivostok (Haishengwei) and the Ussuri-Amur river port of Khabarovsk (Boli). The Russians occupied Heilongjiang from 1900 to 1905 and maintained their domination—despite their defeat by Japan in the Far East in 1904–05—through control of the strategic Chinese Eastern Railway, running through the region from west to east. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 the Bolsheviks renounced special privileges in northern Manchuria as a friendly gesture toward China. Heilongjiang remained under Chinese control until Japan invaded Manchuria in September 1931. It then became a part of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (Manzhouguo; 1932–45).
On Aug. 15, 1945, just before Japan’s unconditional surrender at the end of World War II, Soviet troops entered Manchuria, but they evacuated it later to make way for Chinese communist troops. After the Sino-Soviet rift in 1960, there were several armed clashes along the international border. The border dispute remained unresolved for many years, until it was settled through agreements signed by China and Russia in 2005. Meanwhile, Heilongjiang underwent dramatic and sustained growth that transformed it into one of China’s major economic regions.
Frederick Fu Hung Victor C. Falkenheim The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica