T'UNG-LIAO

formerly Pai-yin T'ai-lai, Pinyin Tongliao, or Baiyin Tailai, town located in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous ch' (region), China. Situated on the east bank of the Hsi-liao River, T'ung-liao was originally the centre of the Barin tala horse pastures, which were established in the 17th century under the Manchu dynasty. When the area was opened up for Chinese settlement in 1912, a colonization bureau (huang-wu-ch) was created, but it met with little success because of its corrupt officials. Many Chinese did, however, settle in the vicinity, and they founded a town called Little Pa-lin t'ai-lai, which in 1912 was officially named T'ung-liao Chen. In 1915 the nearby community of Little Pai-in t'ai-lai (almost identical in name) was destroyed by a flood; its people moved to T'ung-liao, which then grew considerably. In 1918 it was constituted a county (hsien) seat, and it subsequently developed as a regional communication and commercial centre for the surrounding plain and as a collecting point for pastoral productscattle, sheep, horses, hides, and furs. It later became industrialized and developed as the focus of a road network with connections to the Inner Mongolian interior, to Ch'ih-feng (southwest), and to Shen-yang (Mukden) and Ch'ang-ch'un on the Manchurian (Northeast) Plain. Railway spurs also link it with the main Ha-erh-pinShen-yang (HarbinMukden) line at Ssu-p'ing, with the Shen-yangPeking line, and with the Chinese Eastern main line northwest of An-ta, between Ha-erh-pin and Tsitsihar. Pop. (1985 est.) 184,400.