KALGAN

WadeGiles romanization Chang-chia-k'ou, Pinyin Zhangjiakou, formerly (191129) Wan-ch'an, city in northwestern Hopeh Province, China. Kalgan, the name by which the city is most commonly known, is a Mongolian word meaning gate in a barrier, or frontier. The city was colloquially known in Chinese as the Tung-k'ou (Eastern Entry) into China from Inner Mongolia. It is about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Peking. Kalgan was the point at which the main caravan route from Peking to Inner Mongolia and beyond passed through the Great Wall of China at the foot of the escarpments reaching up to the lower Mongolian Plateau. The Han dynasty (206 BCad 220) had a county there, Kuang-ning County, the seat of which was slightly east of Kalgan, but the area remained only on the margins of effective Chinese control. Later it became an important centre of the Hsien-pei, Mongol invaders of the 4th century. In 1429 the Ming dynasty (13681644) constructed a fortthe present Hsia Pao (Lower Fort)as part of the defenses against the Mongols. In 1613 the present Lai-yan Pao (Upper Fort) was built north of it as a trading centre. The town of Kalgan then grew up on the west bank of the Ch'ing-shui River, a tributary of the Yung-ting River, between the forts. The main trading centre was K'ou-wai, outside the north gate of the Upper Fort. Administratively, in Ch'ing times (16441911/12), Kalgan was subordinated to Hsan-hua, about 17 miles south. It was the seat of a civil prefect and also of the military governor of the Mongols of Chahar, a former province of what is now Inner Mongolia. Kalgan's importance, however, was always primarily commercialas the terminus of the principal caravan route to Mongolia and Russia, bearing most of the vast Siberian tea trade. In 1860, under the Sino-Russian Treaty, it was opened to Russian trade and in 1902 to international trade. In 1911 the railway from Peking reached Kalgan and was then steadily extended to the northwest. This was, however, the zenith of Kalgan's international trade, when the city contained some 7,000 commercial firms and when the caravan traffic employed hundreds of thousands of camels, great numbers of ox wagons, and many thousands of men. After 1920 trade slumped because the Russian Revolution of 1917, and political changes in Outer Mongolia had drastically reduced the importance of the caravan traffic. Civil disorder and banditry were rampant in the area north and west of Kalgan, while the extension of the railway to Hohhot in Inner Mongolia meant that Kalgan itself was no longer a railhead. Although the traditional commercial dominance of Kalgan was diminished, it remained a political and strategic centre. After the foundation of the republic in 1911, it was given the name of Wan-ch'an County. In 1929 Kalgan was made the administrative capital of a new Chahar Province, which accelerated the colonization of the area by Chinese settlers. By the early 1930s Chinese settlers had pushed 75 miles beyond Kalgan, causing great damage to the environment by destroying the natural pasture and bringing about extensive soil erosion. In 1937 the Japanese occupied the area and established an autonomous government, Cha-nan (South Chahar), at Kalgan. In 1937 the Federated Mengchiang Commission was set up at Kalgan to supervise the economic affairs, banking, communications, and industry of Japanese-occupied Inner Mongolia. Colonization by Chinese settlers was checked as part of the pro-Mongol policies pursued by the Japanese. After World War II the area fell to the Chinese Communists, and although the Nationalist armies drove them out briefly, Kalgan was retaken in 1948. From 1948 to 1949 Kalgan was the capital of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, although located outside its borders. In 1952, when Chahar Province was abolished, Kalgan again became a part of Hopeh Province. Some light industryprimarily preparation of furs, leatherwork, tanning, and shoemakinghad already existed in the 1920s and 1930s. Light industry and food processing were also encouraged under the Japanese occupation. After the establishment of the Communist government in 1949, Kalgan developed rapidly, its population trebling between 1948 and 1958. Some heavier industry was developed in the city, including new machine-building works. Pop. (1985 est.) city centre, 483,200; city, 607,900; city and administratively attached counties, 905,700.