MU-TAN-CHIANG

Pinyin Mudanjiang, city in southeastern Heilungkiang sheng (province), China. It is located about 70 miles (115 km) west of the Chinese-Russian border. It is situated on the upper reaches of the Mu-tan River, which is a tributary of the Sungari River in the mountains of eastern Manchuria (Northeast provinces). Until the 1920s Mu-tan-chiang was little more than a large village that was overshadowed by the nearby county town of Ning-an. The area was first settled after the completion of the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1908, when both Chinese settlers and a considerable Russian colony established themselves there. Substantial growth occurred in the 1930s under the Japanese occupation, when Mu-tan-chiang became a military and administrative centre, and particularly after the construction in 1935 of a rail link to Harbin and to Chia-mu-ssu. At that time some industry (light engineering, lumbering, and food processing) was established in the town. After 1949 Mu-tan-chiang grew rapidly into an industrial city. The city is provided with electricity from a hydroelectric power station on the Mu-tan River at Lake Ching-po that was originally constructed by the Japanese and then rehabilitated in the early 1950s after being dismantled by Soviet occupation forces in 1945. There is a large rubber-manufacturing industry that makes Mu-tan-chiang one of the chief producers of automobile tires in China; much of its production is delivered to the automotive industry centred in Ch'ang-ch'un in Kirin province. The city is also the centre of a large aluminum-smelting plant. Pop. (1990 est.) 571,705.