Chaoyang District 朝阳区

History

Farm villages formed here from the early Jiaqing reign of the Qing, settled by farm families who came in the Chuang Guandong (闯关东) migration to the northeast. After Manchukuo was founded in 1932, the area fell inside the planned new city of Xinjing (新京), and its fields were built over. Planners made Xinmin Street (新民大街) the north–south axis and put up a group of ministry buildings near it, known together as the Eight Ministries (八大部). The district took its present name in July 1955, from the East and West Chaoyang Roads inside it; until then it had been Zhonghua District (中华区).

What to see

Six of the Eight Ministries buildings survive; the former agriculture and education ministries were pulled down in 1998 and 2002. In 2013 the six survivors were listed with other Manchukuo government and Japanese military buildings, among them the Imperial Palace, as a major national protected site. Xinmin Street, with the former State Council and the military, justice, economy and transport ministries along it, was named a Chinese historic and cultural street in 2012, the first street in Jilin province to receive the title, according to the district government.

South Lake (南湖) is the centre of South Lake Park, which covers 2.22 square kilometres, 0.92 of them water; the district government calls it the second-largest city park in China. The lake was made in July 1937, when the Xinjing authorities built a dam 10 metres high and 800 metres long across the Xinglong gully (兴隆沟), a tributary of the Yitong River (伊通河). The Changchun Liberation Monument (长春解放纪念碑) has stood at the park's northern end, beside Xinmin Square, since 1988.

The Changchun Film Studio Museum (长影旧址博物馆), on Hongqi Street (红旗街), occupies the studio's original grounds. The studio began as the Manchukuo Film Association in 1937, was taken over as the Northeast Film Company in 1945 and took the name Changchun Film Studio in 1955; the old plant was converted into the museum in 2011. The district government calls the studio the cradle of the People's Republic's film industry.

Getting oriented

The district government counts nine institutions of higher education in the district, including Northeast Normal University (东北师范大学), Jilin University (吉林大学), Changchun University of Science and Technology (长春理工大学) and Changchun University (长春大学). The Changchun High-tech Industrial Development Zone was set up within the district in 1991.

Highlights

• Eight Ministries 八大部: Six surviving Manchukuo ministry buildings, listed as a major national protected site in 2013.
• Xinmin Street 新民大街: Planned north–south axis of Xinjing; named a Chinese historic and cultural street in 2012.
• South Lake Park 南湖公园: Park of 2.22 square kilometres around a lake dammed in 1937; the district government calls it the second-largest city park in China.
• Changchun Film Studio Museum 长影旧址博物馆: Opened in 2011 in the studio's original Manchukuo-era plant on Hongqi Street.