Yuanbaoshan District 元宝山区

History

The district takes its name from a hill called Yuanbaoshan. Coal pits were opened in the hills of the area in 1768; the ingot (元宝, yuanbao) was the hard currency of the day, and the pit owners, who saw their coal as yuanbao, gave the hill that name. The Harqin Banner (喀喇沁旗) office moved to Pingzhuang in 1940, and the district itself was created on 10 October 1983, when Chifeng became a prefecture-level city.

Older layers are here too. The seat of Sanhan County (三韩县) of Liao-era Gaozhou (高州) stood at Xinglongpo village (兴隆坡村) in Fengshuigou town (风水沟镇), and in April 2024 villagers levelling terraces at Sidaojingzi (四道井子) found two Khitan tombs of the middle to late Liao, with a cockscomb flask, green-glazed plates and iron stirrups among the finds.

What to see

The former Unit 1 of the Yuanbaoshan Power Plant (元宝山发电厂一号机组旧址), built from 1974, was China's first complete imported 300-megawatt thermal unit. It joined the grid on 21 December 1978 and was shut down on 1 June 2011; its 13-metre platform, which displays the unit's turbine generator, and its control room are now exhibition spaces, and the site, with its chimney, is a protected site of Inner Mongolia. The Liao white pagoda of Tazishan (塔子山白塔) is also protected at regional level, and forts of the Yan state Great Wall (燕长城) at Zhuanwayao (砖瓦窑堡) and Lengshuitang (冷水塘堡) have had protection work by the district.

Food and local crafts

Master Xi's braised pork (席师傅扣肉), made in the Aohan (敖汉) to Pingzhuang area for over a hundred years, takes five-layered pork belly through eleven steps, from blanching and pressing to removing fat and covered simmering, and comes out red, soft and rich without being greasy. Other local heritage items include the Xiaowujia (小五家) "nine big bowls" banquet, the Xie family's liquor brewing in Pingzhuang and painted gourds. Fine-line paper-cutting (细纹刻纸) is on Inner Mongolia's intangible heritage list.

Getting oriented

The Yebaishou–Chifeng railway runs through the district from north to south and the Beijing–Tongliao line crosses its northern end; the Chifeng–Tongliao and Chifeng–Chaoyang expressways also pass through. The port of Jinzhou (锦州) is 210 km away.

Highlights

• Yuanbaoshan Power Plant Unit 1 site 元宝山发电厂一号机组旧址: China's first complete imported 300 MW thermal unit, on the grid from 1978 to 2011; now an exhibition and regional protected site.
• Tazishan White Pagoda 塔子山白塔: Liao-dynasty pagoda protected at Inner Mongolia level.
• Master Xi's braised pork 席师傅扣肉: Pork belly dish made in eleven steps, handed down for over a century.
• Yuanbaoshan fine-line paper-cutting 元宝山细纹刻纸: Listed as intangible heritage of Inner Mongolia.