Shuangyashan 双鸭山市

Setting and landscape

The land is high in the southwest and low in the northeast, with broad plains, rolling hills and ranges reaching about 847 metres. The Naoli River (挠力河), a left-bank tributary of the Ussuri, runs through the prefecture and receives the Qixing River (七星河) in the middle of it, and the city proper sits at the foot of the Wanda Mountains on the Anbang River (安邦河).

History

The city gazetteer office says people already lived here in the late Palaeolithic, some 30,000 years ago, and places the Sushen (肃慎) in the area under the Shang and Zhou. About 1,800 years ago the Yilou (挹娄), forebears of the Manchus, lived along the Qixing River in today's Youyi County (友谊县). There, on the river's left bank, lies the Fenglin ancient city (凤林古城), which the city calls an ancient Yilou royal capital and the largest Han–Wei royal city site yet found in the province; it has nine sections over 1.13 square kilometres. Coal made the modern town: a mining bureau was set up in 1947, and Shuangyashan became a city on 25 May 1956.

What to see

In Youyi, the Yilou Culture Park (挹娄文化风情园), a national 3A area, re-creates the Fenglin site with scenes of Yilou fishing, pottery-making and hunting. The Sipai Hezhe Folk Park (四排赫哲族风情园) in Raohe County (饶河县), also 3A, shows Hezhe crafts, houses and a shrine and holds a Hezhe river-lantern festival each mid-July; the city notes that Sipai is one of only three Hezhe ethnic townships in China. Hezhe folk songs, jialingkuo (嫁令阔), sung to fixed tunes with improvised words and sometimes the mouth harp, joined the national intangible heritage list from Raohe in 2021.

The Qixing River wetland (七星河湿地) in Baoqing County (宝清县) has a kilometre-long boardwalk and birdwatching pavilions, and the Shuangyashan Museum (双鸭山市博物馆), opened in 2013, is built in the shape of a Yilou semi-subterranean house.

Food and local products

Hezhe fish dishes include raw slices of sturgeon, kaluga or carp, shavings of frozen fish eaten in winter, and talaha (塔拉哈), skin-on fish roasted over a fire. Korean dishes include cold noodles and dagao (打糕), steamed glutinous rice pounded into cakes.

Getting oriented

The city government sits in Jianshan District (尖山区), about 460 kilometres from Harbin. Jiamusi lies to the north and west, Qitaihe and Jixi to the south, and across the Ussuri the prefecture faces the Russian town of Bikin.

Highlights

• Fenglin ancient city 凤林古城: Han-Wei Yilou city site on the left bank of the Qixing River in Youyi County, with nine sections.
• Sipai Hezhe Folk Park 乌苏里江四排赫哲族民俗区: National 3A Hezhe folk park in Raohe County with a river-lantern festival each mid-July.
• Qixing River wetland 七星河湿地开放观鸟区: Wetland in Baoqing County with a kilometre-long boardwalk and birdwatching pavilions.
• Shuangyashan Museum 双鸭山市博物馆: City history museum opened in 2013, shaped like a Yilou semi-subterranean house.