HEILUNGKIANG

Wade-Giles romanization Hei-lung-chiang, Pinyin Heilongjiang, the northernmost sheng (province) of China's Northeast Region (formerly known as Manchuria). Heilungkiang is bounded on the north and east by Russia along the Amur (Hei-lung) River and Ussuri (Wu-su-li) River, on the west by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, and on the south by the Chinese province of Kirin. The province of Heilungkiang occupies much of the huge Manchurian Plain and is enclosed on two sides by old mountain ranges of medium elevation. Its central part is the Sungari River plain, which is delimited by the Nen River on the west, the Lesser Khingan Range on the north, and the Lao-yeh Ling and Chang-kuang-t'sai mountains on the east. The Amur River is the longest stream in the province. This river's upper and middle sections serve as the international boundary for a distance of 1,180 miles (1,890 km). Its chief tributary, the Sungari River, is the province's main waterway. Heilungkiang has severe winters, lasting five to eight months. Summer is short but coincides with the rainy season, making it possible to raise temperate-climate crops in most areas. Although the population is more than nine-tenths Chinese, there are some other significant ethnic groups: Manchus, Koreans, Muslims, Mongolians, Ta-hu-erh, O-lun-chun, O-wen-k'o, Ho-che, and Chi-erh-chi-szu. Smaller groups include Tibetans, Russians, and Yakuts. The Manchus, distributed in the southern part of the province, are the largest minority group, but they have been culturally assimilated by the Chinese. Their way of life is similar to the Chinese, and intermarriage is common. Heilungkiang's highly mechanized farms produce sugar beets, soybeans, corn (maize), and wheat. Its plains also support large numbers of livestock, and the province is a major producer of raw timber. Industrial development in the province has drawn a great number of peasants from the countryside to the cities. Heilungkiang's main industrial centres include the railway centre of Chia-mu-ssu, which produces threshing machines, pressing machines, grain sowers, combines, mining machinery, and electrical and telecommunication equipment. The city's paper mill is one of the largest in China. Shuang-ya-shan, about 43 miles (69 km) east, produces coal, lumber, and construction materials and engages in metal and food processing. Tsitsihar (Ch'i-ch'i-ha-erh), the second-largest city and former capital, has machinery-manufacturing plants and a large food-products industry. Harbin, the largest city and the capital, is the major transportation hub and communications centre of northern Manchuria, with direct rail links to the Russian railroad network and to the Sea of Japan. Through the South Manchurian Railway, Harbin is linked with the Chinese and Korean rail networks and the Pacific. Heavy industry in the capital includes industrial machinery, machine tools, agricultural machinery, and the production of chemicals, fertilizers, textiles, lumber, and construction materials. Harbin is also an important educational centre, especially in the fields of engineering and applied science. Until the 19th century, northern Manchuria remained an undeveloped steppe and forest region occupied by a few primitive nomadic tribes. In 1650 the Russians built a fort on the Amur River. In 1858 Russia annexed additional regions and retained its domination until 1917. After that year's Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks renounced special privileges in northern Manchuria as a friendly gesture toward China. The province remained under Chinese control until Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931. Soviet troops entered Manchuria in August 1945, at the end of World War II, but they evacuated it later to make way for the People's Liberation Army of the Chinese Communists. After the Sino-Soviet rift in 1960, border clashes occurred repeatedly along the lengthy international border, which has been the scene of Russo-Chinese clashes since the 17th century. Area 179,000 square miles (463,600 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 36,080,000. Chinese (Wade-Giles) Hei-lung-chiang, (Pinyin) Heilongjiang the northernmost sheng (province) of China's Northeast region. It is bounded on the north and east by Russia along the Amur River (Hei-lung Chiang) and the Ussuri (Wu-su-li) River, on the south by the Chinese province of Kirin, and on the west by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. The province has an area of about 179,000 square miles (463,300 square kilometres). The capital is Harbin. Heilungkiang 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 the Chinese name for the Amur. History The prehistoric population of the region appears to have consisted of people who bred pigs and horses; known as Tungids, they occupied much of northeastern Asia. Stone Age fishermen, the Sibirids and Ainoids, lived along the rivers and coast. Heilungkiang was long sparsely inhabited by hunters and fishermen who used canoes, dogsleds, skis, and reindeer as transport. The town of San-hsing (now I-lan) was the home in the early 15th century AD of the ancestors of Nurhachi, the Manchu tribal leader who rose to power in the late 1500s through struggles with rival tribes and alliances with Manchu-related groups. Nurhachi's son, Prince Dorgon, ruled as regent during the reign of the first Ch'ing, or Manchu, emperor of China, the Shun-chih emperor. 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 Ch'ing 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 Heilungkiang failed to recover their numerical strength after the Manchu rise to power and even after Manchu culture declined, despite the intentions of Ch'ing emperors to maintain their native language and way of life. Although large areas of Heilungkiang are fertile, agricultural development proceeded there very slowly because of the reluctance of Ch'ing rulers to allow the establishment of farms in their traditionally pastoral homeland. The region remained sparsely settled because access was difficult before the building of the railroads, 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 (Hai-sheng-wei) and the Ussuri-Amur river port of Khabarovsk (Pai-li). The Russians occupied Heilungkiang 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. Heilungkiang remained under Chinese control until Japan invaded Manchuria in September 1931. It then became a part of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (1932-45). On Aug. 15, 1945, just before Japan's unconditional surrender, 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 clashes along the international border. Frederick Fu Hung Victor C. Falkenheim The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica