Bei'an 北安市

Setting and landscape

The city borders Xunke (逊克县) and Suiling (绥棱县) counties to the east, Baiquan (拜泉县) and Kedong (克东县) to the west and Wudalianchi (五大连池市) to the north. In the south the Tongken River (通肯河) forms the line with Hailun (海伦市). The city government places Bei'an in the transition zone between the black-soil Songnen Plain and the Xing'an uplands, farmland given over to soybeans, maize, rice and potatoes.

History

The Jin dynasty kept a garrison unit here, the Hesukunshan mouke (曷苏昆山谋克), before its people moved south. Japanese troops occupied Longzhen County (龙镇县) in 1932; under Manchukuo its seat moved to Bei'an town, and the county was renamed Bei'an in 1939. After Japan's defeat in 1945 the Communist Party set up Heilongjiang province with its party committee and government based in Bei'an, until the 1949 merger with Nenjiang province moved the capital to Qiqihar (齐齐哈尔).

The city government credits Bei'an with a string of firsts: the Northeast Military and Political University (东北军政大学) and other cadre schools, New China's first submachine-gun factory, its first state-run mechanised farm, and Liang Jun (梁军), trained here in 1948 as the country's first woman tractor driver. A Shenyang gun works moved to Bei'an in 1950 during the Korean War. The present city dates from 1983, after an earlier city of 1960 was dissolved in 1963.

What to see

The former site of the Heilongjiang provincial party committee and government (黑龙江省委省政府旧址) is one of 18 halls that the city government describes as China's only county-level cluster of revolutionary museums, promoted under the slogan "from Yan'an to Bei'an" (从延安到北安). The submachine-gun works was later renamed the Qinghua Tool Factory (庆华工具厂), and the city also has a Qinghua military-industry site museum (庆华军工遗址博物馆).

Food and local products

Bei'an is a main growing area for non-GM soybeans. Its organic sauerkraut stewed with goose (有机酸菜炖大鹅) appeared in the fourth season of the documentary "A Bite of China" (舌尖上的中国), and Hongxing sauerkraut (红星酸菜) from the Hongxing Farm (红星农场) is a national geographical-indication product.

Getting oriented

Bei'an sits between the prefecture-level cities of Heihe, Suihua (绥化), Qiqihar and Yichun (伊春), on the overland route from inland China through Heihe to Russia. The Binbei line from Harbin (哈尔滨) and the Qibei line from Qiqihar meet at Bei'an station, where the Beihei line to Heihe begins, and national highways G202 and G332 cross the city.

Highlights

• Former site of the Heilongjiang provincial party committee and government 黑龙江省委省政府旧址: One of the 18 halls in what the city government calls China's only county-level revolutionary museum group.
• Qinghua military-industry site museum 庆华军工遗址博物馆: Shares its name with the Qinghua Tool Factory, the later name of the gun works moved from Shenyang in 1950.
• Hongxing sauerkraut 红星酸菜: National geographical-indication product from the Hongxing Farm.