Tongjiang 同江市

Setting and landscape

The city sits in the heart of the Sanjiang Plain (三江平原). The Tongjiang government describes the land as an old alluvial, subsiding marsh plain with a little upland left by outliers of the Outer Khingan range; it falls from south-west to north-east, at an average of 45 to 65 metres above sea level. Meadow soils cover about 61 per cent of the area and black soils about 21 per cent, and the main crops are soybeans, rice and maize.

Winters are long, severe and dry, with north-west winds; summers are short, warm and wet. The city records a January mean of −15.6°C, a July mean of 23°C and about 148 frost-free days a year.

History

The town's old local name, Lahasusu (拉哈苏苏), is a Hezhe word that the city government glosses as 'ruins' or 'old house'. In February 1906 the Qing created the sub-prefecture of Linjiang Zhou (临江州) at Lahasusu; it was raised to a prefecture, Linjiang Fu (临江府), in 1909 and made Linjiang County in 1913. Because Fengtian Province (奉天省) already had a Linjiang, it was renamed Tongjiang in 1914. The county was merged into Fujin (富锦) in 1949, passed as a town to Fuyuan (抚远) County in 1959 and was re-created as Tongjiang County in 1965. It has been under Jiamusi since 1985 and a county-level city since 24 February 1987.

The port regained first-class national status in 1986, and the city government states that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved it as an international port in 1994. Tongjiang is also the northern starting point of the Tongjiang–Sanya (同三) highway that runs the length of China.

Hezhe culture

The city government calls Tongjiang the place of origin and a main home of the Hezhe (赫哲族), one of the ethnic groups China classes as having a small population, a river people of the Amur, Songhua and Ussuri (乌苏里江) basins who lived mainly by fishing and hunting until the 1950s. Their language has no script. Tongjiang has two Hezhe ethnic townships, Jiejinkou (街津口赫哲族乡) and Bacha (八岔赫哲族乡).

The heritage the city lists includes Yimakan (伊玛堪) storytelling, which it names as world-level intangible heritage; fish-skin painting, fish-skin clothing making and Hezhe wedding customs at national level; and birch-bark craft, the mouth harp (口弦琴), fish-bone crafts and the Wurigong (乌日贡) gathering at provincial level.

Highlights

• Jiejinkou Hezhe Ethnic Township 街津口赫哲族乡: One of Tongjiang's two Hezhe ethnic townships.
• Yimakan storytelling 伊玛堪: Hezhe narrative tradition, listed by the city as world-level intangible heritage.
• Hezhe fish-skin clothing 鱼皮衣制作技艺: Fish-skin clothing making, a national-level intangible heritage item.