Huanan County 桦南县

Setting and landscape

The county is roughly oval and tilts from east to west, with its highest ground in the north-east. Its land mixes low mountains and valleys, rolling hills, and flat low-lying plain. Winters are long and cold, springs dry and windy, and summer brings most of the rain; the mean temperature is −17.9°C in January and 22.1°C in July, with about 147 frost-free days a year.

History

During the war against Japan the area gave rise to the Eighth and Eleventh Armies of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, and Chinese Wikipedia credits the Tuoyaozi (驼腰子) gold-mine rising and the Tulongshan (土龙山) rising here with the first shots of armed worker and peasant resistance. The county was formed in 1946 from the southern part of Huachuan, including Mengjiagang (孟家岗) and Shitouhezi (石头河子), merged back into Huachuan in 1956 and restored on 5 June 1964.

What to see

Chinese Wikipedia lists the Xiangyang Lake (向阳湖) resort area, Qixingfeng National Forest Park (七星峰国家级森林公园) and the old fort and mountain stronghold on Hengdai Mountain (横岱山) among the county's sights. The county has one national 4A and three 3A scenic areas; a former forest park keeps a century-old forest steam train on a narrow-gauge line that Chinese Wikipedia calls one of the most completely preserved of its kind.

Food and local products

Chinese Wikipedia names white pumpkin seeds (桦南白瓜籽) as the county's specialty. Hilly ground and big autumn swings between day and night temperatures suit pumpkins; roughly one in three of the white pumpkin seeds produced in China is grown here, and the county holds the title 'Hometown of Chinese White Pumpkin Seeds'. Farms also grow soybeans, maize, rice and perilla (紫苏), and the county has plentiful wild medicinal plants such as schisandra (五味子) and Siberian ginseng (刺五加).

Getting oriented

The county seat is Huanan town (桦南镇). National Highway 201, the G11 Hegang–Dalian Expressway and the Mudanjiang–Jiamusi railway (牡佳铁路) pass through the county.

Highlights

• Huanan white pumpkin seeds 桦南白瓜籽: About one in three of China's white pumpkin seeds is grown in the county, titled 'Hometown of Chinese White Pumpkin Seeds'.
• Qixingfeng National Forest Park 七星峰国家级森林公园: Listed among the county's scenic sights.
• Hengdai Mountain fort 横岱山古城堡: Old fort and mountain stronghold listed among the county's sights.