Longsha District 龙沙区

Setting and orientation

The district borders Tiefeng District (铁锋区) to the east, Ang'angxi District (昂昂溪区) to the south and Jianhua District (建华区) to the north, and covers 188 square kilometres. The district government describes it as the only county-level area of Qiqihar served at once by high-speed rail, the airport and expressways.

History

The district government traces human settlement here to the Neolithic. It dates the start of the district to 1906, when the Heilongjiang provincial police bureau in Qiqihar divided the city into police districts: the south and west districts and the newly opened trading port area fall within today's Longsha. The area became Yongding District (永定区) in 1954, and in 1961 two people's communes were merged as Longsha District. Some scholars hold that it was named after Longsha Park.

What to see

Longsha Park, at 32 Gongyuan Road (公园路), covers 64 hectares, 20 of them water; Chinese Wikipedia calls it the largest comprehensive city park in Northeast China. On an artificial hill on the east shore of Laodong Lake (劳动湖) inside the park stands Wangjiang Tower (望江楼), first built in 1908 when the Heilongjiang governor Zhou Shumo (周树模) had Zhang Chaoyong (张朝墉) redesign the park, then called Cangxi Park (仓西公园). The original thatched pavilion was rebuilt in brick and timber in 1930, Zhu De wrote the characters of its name, and it became a Heilongjiang provincial cultural relics protection unit in 2014.

The Zhonghuan shopping district (中环商圈) is a national-level cluster for night-time culture and tourism spending, and the Bosideng ice hockey arena (波司登冰球馆) hosts more than 800 domestic and international games a year.

The Qizhong CNC works (the former Qiqihar No. 1 Machine Tool Plant) and the Qiqihar No. 2 Machine Tool Group are here; the district government credits them with China's first CNC milling machine and first automatic cold header. The district also claims Ma Hengchang (马恒昌), one of the first national model workers after 1949, whose Ma Hengchang Team pioneered work-team organisation in Chinese industry.

Food

The district government calls Longsha the core of Qiqihar's claim to be an international barbecue capital, with established grill-restaurant names such as Lütun Yitouniu (吕屯一头牛) and Shunyu Dapianrou (顺玉大片肉), whose name means 'big-slice meat'.

Highlights

• Longsha Park 龙沙公园: A 64-hectare city park with 20 hectares of water, described by Chinese Wikipedia as Northeast China's largest comprehensive city park.
• Wangjiang Tower 望江楼: Pavilion first built in 1908 on Laodong Lake in Longsha Park, a provincial cultural relics protection unit since 2014.
• Bosideng Ice Hockey Arena 波司登冰球馆: Hosts more than 800 ice hockey games a year.