Lishu District 梨树区

Setting and landscape

The district government describes Lishu's terrain as 'eight parts hills, half a part water and one and a half parts fields'. It covers 412 square kilometres, forest covers 72 per cent of it, and 21 rivers run through it; the Muling River (穆棱河) flows for 27.1 km inside the district. Four state forest farms operate here alongside the coal mines.

History

In January 1924 the Jilin provincial industry department and a Russian merchant signed a contract creating the Muling Coal Mining Company (穆棱煤矿公司), a Sino-Russian venture that ran the mine in what is now Lishu; the district government calls it China's first Sino-Russian joint coal enterprise. By 1931 it had produced 1.631 million tonnes of raw coal, and in 1933 it passed to joint Japanese and Russian management. The district also credits the mining and industry pioneer Sun Yueqi (孙越崎) with sinking the paired vertical shafts of Muling Mine No. 2 (穆棱矿二井) in 1923, and records the first Communist Party branch in the Jixi area at the mine's office in 1927.

During the Korean War Lishu received wounded soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteers with Army Hospital No. 33, and 157 volunteers are buried in the Dongshan Volunteers' Martyrs Cemetery (东山志愿军烈士陵园).

Food and local products

The district government calls Lishu a natural store of Chinese medicinal herbs: it yields more than a hundred wild kinds, among them Siberian ginseng (刺五加), astragalus (黄芪) and red peony root (赤芍). The district's market for Heilongjiang herbal medicines and mountain produce is described by the district government as the largest trading centre for such herbs in the three northeastern provinces, and in 2020 the provincial traditional-medicine bureau put Lishu on its list for developing traditional-medicine towns, hence its nickname 'Longyao Town' (龙药小镇, 'Heilongjiang medicine town').

Getting oriented

Lishu is Jixi's southern link towards Harbin, Mudanjiang (牡丹江) and Suifenhe (绥芬河). The Chengji railway (城鸡线) and China National Highway 331 pass through the district.

Highlights

• Dongshan Volunteers' Martyrs Cemetery 东山志愿军烈士陵园: Burial place of 157 Chinese People's Volunteers who died in the Korean War.
• Muling Mine No. 2 穆棱矿二井: Paired vertical shafts sunk in 1923 under Sun Yueqi.
• Heilongjiang herbal medicine market 龙药和山产品交易大市场: Market for herbal medicines and mountain produce with more than 200 traders.