Qitaihe

Qitaihe City lies in eastern Heilongjiang Province, at the western end of the Wandashan range. It is a small border town of Northeast China that rose on coal and is known at home and abroad for short-track speed skating, and also a beautiful city of mountains, waters and gardens, ringed by green hills with a lake set into the city and four distinct, pleasant seasons. The city has a total land area of 6,221 square kilometers, with forestland accounting for 52.8%, and within its territory there are 26 rivers and 20 reservoirs, so mountains, waters, forests and lakes interweave throughout the city. Qitaihe's confidence is buried in the coalfield beneath its feet: the coal-bearing area reaches 7,200 square kilometers, with proven coal reserves of 1.7 billion tons and prospective reserves of 3.7 billion tons, making it one of the nation's three protected-mining coalfields. Yet its more resonant calling card is short-track speed skating — this border town has produced 10 world short-track speed skating champions, among them Yang Yang and Wang Meng, and is called "the city that holds a stopwatch." In the city, Taoshan Lake ripples softly and the Champion Bridge spans both banks with a brilliant night scene; on the outskirts, Shilongshan has towering ancient trees and the crystal-clear Shilong Lake, while the Xidaquan and Wusihun River national forest parks preserve stretches of primeval forest, with the remains of secret camps of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army still among the trees. Qitaihe offers cool escapes in summer, the "five-flower mountain" autumn colors in fall and snow in winter; this National Garden City is livable in all four seasons, and the iron-pot stews and little barbecues in its lanes carry the special down-to-earth warmth of a Northeast China border town. Take a boat out on Taoshan Lake, climb a forest park in search of quiet, and look once more at the sculpture recording the champions' handprints — this small city, blending strength and tenderness, offers up its green mountains and blue waters together with its glories on ice to you who have come from afar.

Arriving in Qitaihe, what you feel first is a crispness wrapped in mountains and waters. The city nestles in eastern Heilongjiang Province, its back against the Wandashan range; the streets are not wide but rich in greenery, and a lake is set right into the city center. It is an old industrial city that rose on coal, and also a "champion city" with short-track speed skating written into its urban genes. The memory of the factories and mines is still here, yet the lights of the ice rink have long since become a new calling card; by day you can listen to the sighing pines in a forest park, and toward evening watch the youngsters speed like the wind beside the rink. There is none of the clamor of a big city, yet there is a temperament that tempers strength with softness — the tenacity of miners' culture as well as the gentleness of lake light and mountain scenery. Escape the heat in summer, admire the autumn colors in fall and watch snow and skate in winter; through the four seasons each has its own rhythm.

Qitaihe City lies in eastern Heilongjiang Province, at the western end of the Wandashan range. It is a newly emerging city led by coal and crop farming, and also the central hub of the urban cluster of eastern Heilongjiang Province. The city has a total land area of 6,221 square kilometers, of which forestland accounts for 52.8%, so the forest coverage rate is high and the greenery is deep. Within its territory run two larger rivers, the Woken River and the Naoli River, which together with their tributaries make 26 rivers in total; the Woken River and its tributaries thread through the city, nourishing it into uncommon grace. The city also has 20 reservoirs of various sizes with a considerable total capacity, among which the large Taoshan Reservoir shoulders the heavy duty of supplying water to industry and the city. Mountains, waters, forests and lakes interweave within the city, giving this industrial and mining city a rare landscape-garden foundation and leaving residents and visitors a corner in which to breathe deeply.

Qitaihe's confidence is buried in the coalfield beneath its feet. The city is rich in mineral resources, with more than ten kinds including coal, graphite, gold, marble and limestone, among which coal is exceptionally favored. The Qitaihe coalfield stretches for over a hundred kilometers, with a total coal-bearing area of 7,200 square kilometers and proven coal reserves of 1.7 billion tons and prospective reserves of 3.7 billion tons; for its complete range of coal types, large reserves and high quality, it is listed as one of the nation's three protected-mining coalfields, and is an important production base of coking coal and anthracite in Heilongjiang Province. In the middle of the last century the state began large-scale mining of this coalfield, and train after train of jet-black coal was carried off in all directions, lighting the hearth fires of countless cities. Black coal shaped Qitaihe's earliest frame, and it also seared the miners' qualities of endurance and solid, willing hard work deep into the city's character.

The history of Qitaihe's founding is almost a history of coalfield development. As early as the ancient Shang and Zhou dynasties, this land was the territory of the Sushen people. In 1958 the state began large-scale mining of the Qitaihe coalfield, and the nation's first privately run railway, built by Boli County with self-raised funds, was declared open to traffic; long tucked away in the mountains, Qitaihe was thus infused with vigorous life. In 1965, with the approval of the State Council, Boli County's Qitaihe Township was abolished and the Qitaihe Special District was established; in 1970 the special district became a county-level city; and in 1983 Qitaihe was elevated to a province-administered city. From an isolated mountain village to a major coal town, and on to today's transforming new city, every turn this city has made has kept step with the beat of national development.

Qitaihe belongs to a mid-temperate continental monsoon climate zone, with four distinct seasons. The average annual precipitation here is about 506 millimeters, with considerable variation from year to year; rain and heat come in the same season in summer, which makes the mountain forests exceptionally lush. Spring comes a little late, yet the ridges are soon touched with new green; summer is short and cool, a good season for escaping the heat and sightseeing; in autumn the "five-flower mountain" autumn colors spread over the treetops, red and yellow intermingled, layer upon layer; and winter is long and cold, with white snow covering the streets and the lake surface — yet it also opens up a whole season of good times for ice sports. It is precisely this climate of four distinct seasons that gives Qitaihe both the soft beauty of its hills and waters and the bold spirit of its ice and snow, so that summer, autumn and winter each have their own ways to play.

Qitaihe's most distinctive calling card is "champion." It has long held the names "holy land of short-track speed skating" and "hometown of Winter Olympic champions," and is a national key high-level sports reserve talent base. From this not-so-large border town have come 10 world short-track speed skating champions, including Zhang Jie, Yang Yang, Wang Meng and Fan Kexin; wherever the skate blades have cut, they have left too many brilliant moments belonging to China's ice. Champion culture has thus become the urban memory Qitaihe people treasure most. Walking the streets, you will see squares and bridges named for champions, and see children chasing one another on the ice — the yearning for speed and glory has long since entered this city's bloodstream. This is a city that holds a stopwatch and races against time, and one that has written striving into daily life.

To understand Qitaihe's champion story, the Short-Track Speed Skating Champions Hall is a must. Built in 2019, it stands at the northern end of Shanhu Road in the city center, rising between Taoshan and Xiandongshan and adjoining Taoshan Lake and the Lakeside Square. Its most striking landmark is the 83-meter-tall Champions Tower, with clocks set on all four sides of the tower, signifying that Qitaihe is "a city that holds a stopwatch"; the tower base is a square 12 meters on each side, signifying safety in each of the twelve months of the year. The height of the tower also corresponds deliberately to the year 1983, when Qitaihe became a prefecture-level city — thoughtful in every detail. Climb the tower and look out, and the shimmer of Taoshan Lake and the city streets fill your view, where the glory of champions and the everyday life of the city meet.

The marks of champions in the city are far more than one. In Taoshan Park, beside the "City of Olympic Champions" trophy city sculpture, a champions' handprint wall has newly been built. Its overall form blends the five rings, five-pointed stars, snowflakes and the movement trails of short-track speed skating, like a banner fluttering in the wind, full of dynamism; the wall uses white and gold as its main colors — white standing for ice and snow, gold signifying glory — and the handprints of the champions are carved onto the five-pointed stars, recording their outstanding achievements. The city also has squares, bridges and parks named for champions, while the Taoshan Music Creative Tribe combines musical elements with the features of the "City of Olympic Champions" to become a new landmark for exhibitions, camping and photo stops all in one.

If champions are Qitaihe's spirit, then Taoshan Lake is the eye of this city. Taoshan Lake National Wetland Park was first built in 2013 and covers a total area of 2,950 hectares; it is an important achievement of the Taoshan Lake ecological, environmental and water-conservancy comprehensive improvement project, and its administrative area spans Taoshan District and Qiezihe District. Through systematic management, it has formed several functional zones such as Champion Bay, the Myriad-Pond Reed Sea, the Ten-Li Flower Sea, the Thousand-Island Wetland, the Hill-Sea Garden and the Fishing-Sea Camp, creating multi-layered leisure spaces. The Champion Bridge, which spans the north and south banks of the Woken River, is 1,435 meters long; by day it is a key traffic route, and at night neon flickers and lights shine, echoing their reflections in the water. In summer, the dynamic musical fountain is dreamlike, adding a touch of romance to Champion Bay.

The beauty of Taoshan Lake is a beauty with the warmth of everyday life. Around the Champion Bridge grow hawthorns, rowans, wild apricots, lilacs, Korean pines and clustered birches and other trees and shrubs, more than fifty kinds in all; the northern shore of Champion Bay is a whole stretch of flower sea, with scarlet sages, little daisies, cockscombs and other greening plants blooming warmly. At dawn, the lake surface wakes from thin mist, and strollers along the shore go in twos and threes; toward evening, the sunset dyes the water gold and red, and anglers sit quietly on the bank. As a rare city lake of the reservoir type, Taoshan Lake serves flood control, water supply and irrigation, and is also a fine all-weather place for residents and visitors to relax and sightsee. In summer you can boat on the lake, and in winter the lake surface turns into an ice-and-snow playground — there is no lack of things to do the whole year round.

In the mountain forests on the city's outskirts lies another kind of quiet. Shilongshan National Forest Park is located within Qitaihe City, at the remnants of the Wandashan range; inside the park, low hills and ridges rise and fall in every direction and forests are dense. It is about 23 kilometers from the urban area and about 460 kilometers from Harbin, with a total operating area of 6,307.5 hectares. The park's main peak, Sifangding, is 748.8 meters above sea level; the peak is uniquely steep and rugged, its summit covered with volcanic rock, facing Tieshan across a great distance. At the foot of Sifangding, strange jumping stones gather in groups, and boulders shaped like reclining oxen in a thousand forms ring them as an outer boundary, like an imposing "fire-ox formation," hard for carts and horses to enter, as if a natural barrier. Wandering through it, you can seek adventure and satisfy your curiosity, and also enjoy the pleasure of climbing a high peak; with the mountain wind and the sighing pines for company, you forget the noise of the world.

Half of Shilongshan's spirit is in its water. The park's main river is the Naiquan River, whose source section is also called the Qiezi River; it runs through the park from north to south, its water clear and sweet and rich in many minerals, its channel winding along the lie of the mountains, its tinkling sound echoing the crisp calls of birds. The park's man-made lake, Shilong Lake, has a water area of 86.05 hectares; boating on it, you can admire the lake and mountain scenery amid encircling mountains, and also enjoy the cool and comfort of the water. The whole forest park is divided into three parts — the Forest-Sea Vista, Shilong Lake and the Ecological Garden: at the Forest-Sea Vista you can hike up the mountain and see towering ancient trees and the remains of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army; the Shilong Lake area has cultural sights such as the Wanfo Temple; and at the Ecological Garden you can taste green cuisine and see wild animals. Woods, lakes and old traces interweave, dressing this corner of the world in unusual richness.

Qitaihe's other forest park is Xidaquan, hidden in Boli County. Xidaquan National Forest Park lies in the southwest of Boli County; first built in 2003, it covers a jurisdiction area of 9,420 hectares, and has been rated a national-level forest park and one of the province's top ten parks, with the Xidaquan primeval forest listed as a prefecture-level nature reserve. The park belongs to the main ridge of the Laoyeling of the Wandashan range; the terrain is complex and the mountains steep, with natural mixed forests of many tree species and primeval ecological forest in the hills, and marsh wetlands and the ceaselessly flowing Wusihun River in its valleys. The park is divided into several scenic areas with 58 scenic spots in all, and also has the steep Wolong Peak, whose ridge is over eight hundred meters long and 676 meters above sea level; from the summit you can take in the verdant hills. The air here is fragrant and refreshing, and it is known as a "natural oxygen bar" — a rare resort for escaping the heat and for study tours.

Xidaquan is not only mountain forest but also a history of the war of resistance written in a valley. Here remain ironclad evidence of the Japanese invaders plundering China's resources — stumps, fallen logs and the Liuhao Dam and other sites — as well as the site of the armed uprising of timber workers led by General Zhou Baozhong of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, the site of the army's clothing factory, and the place where the Japanese puppet troops surrendered at Hongxing Forest Farm. Scattered in the woods are also little-known secret camp sites of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army and the stronghold of the bandit leader Xie Wendong. Walking among these old traces, with the verdant sea of forest overlapping heavy memories, one cannot help but slow one's steps. The park's air is fragrant and refreshing, with an endless birch forest and splendid Schisandra scenery — a doubly good place for leisure vacations and red study tours.

Later, the Boli County Wusihun River National 4A-Level Forest Park, with Xidaquan as its main scenic area, officially opened, presenting the green and red resources of this mountain forest to the world. The park lies on the main ridge of the Laoyeling of the Wandashan range; its highest peak, Duanjialing, is 1,008 meters above sea level, and the vegetation is distributed vertically with altitude, covering marsh wetlands, birch broad-leaved mixed forest and coniferous-broad-leaved mixed forest and other ecological communities, with 57 species of edible plants, more than 300 species of medicinal plants and 89 species of wild animals. The park preserves nearly 100 hectares of primeval forest, where trees such as Manchurian ash, Manchurian walnut, the Amur cork tree and red and white pines stand tall and vigorous, with an average tree age of over 250 years. The park is divided into several functional areas such as the Hongxia Gorge rafting, Wolong Peak climbing, the primeval ecological forest, the water park, the stream garden and the Yunwu Villa, with 58 scenic spots in all, and it also retains historical remains such as secret camp sites of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army.

Qitaihe's urban leisure is likewise worth savoring slowly. Climb to the top of the Xiandongshan Scenic Area and you can overlook the whole city, taking in a cityscape where mountains and waters embrace. Scattered around the city are quite a few interesting places: the Qitaihe City Museum, the Qitaihe Planning Exhibition Hall, the Northeast Soy Sauce Culture Hall, the Taoshan Music Creative Tribe and the Woken River Basin Cultural Industry Park, all of them photo spots selected in recent years for the province's summer heat-avoidance tourism and study-tour routes. Taoshan Park, built to follow the hillside with green trees and bright flowers setting each other off, is a fine place for residents to stroll and keep fit. These corners of the city have no grand spectacle, yet they hold the real and warm life of Qitaihe people, and let one see the delicate side of this coal city's transformation.

When you have walked enough, Qitaihe's flavors are very down-to-earth too. On this border town's table is the generosity most familiar to people of Northeast China: iron-pot stews, little barbecues and hearty farm dishes, generous in portion and deep in flavor, and with a bowl of hot soup the chill vanishes at once. The wood ear mushrooms, mushrooms and wild vegetables from the hills, and the fresh fish from the lakes, are all regulars on the local table; the Boli area is also rich in blue honeysuckle berries, sweet-sour and tasty, which have received agricultural product geographical indication certification — a cup of blue honeysuckle drink in summer is refreshing and cuts the grease. The little eateries in the streets and lanes make no show of grandeur, yet they lay out the warmth and solidity of Northeast China people to the full. In Qitaihe, what you eat is flavor, and also this city's everyday warmth and human kindness.

Qitaihe's transport is growing more convenient by the day. By rail, the Mudanjiang-Jiamusi line passes through Boli County; by road, national and provincial highways run through the whole territory; and with the arrival of the high-speed rail era, travel to Qitaihe from Harbin and elsewhere has become faster, and the city's links with the outside world ever closer. Within the urban area, parks, squares and lakeside roads connect, making travel pleasant; beyond it, the forest parks and the wetland park each offer somewhere to go. Whether you drive through the sea of forest or arrive by train and then tour at leisure, getting into these hills and waters is no great effort. For travelers who like a slow pace, Qitaihe is just the city for quietly spending a few days.

If you want to take in Qitaihe's hills, waters and stories roughly, three to four days is fairly unhurried. On the first day, after arriving, settle into the urban area first and stroll Taoshan Park and the lakeside; toward evening go to Taoshan Lake National Wetland Park to see the lights of the Champion Bridge; on the second day, step into the Short-Track Speed Skating Champions Hall to learn the champion legend of this "city that holds a stopwatch," then climb Xiandongshan to look down on the cityscape; on the third day, head for the Xidaquan and Wusihun River national forest parks to admire the primeval forest and explore the sites of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army; and if you have one more day, go to Shilongshan to climb the mountain and boat on the lake, or while away the time slowly by Taoshan Lake. The pace of the itinerary can be adjusted to your strength and the season; escape the heat in summer, admire the forest in autumn and play in the snow in winter — each has its own splendor.

Rising on coal, famous for ice and moving toward green — this is the truest portrait of Qitaihe in recent years. The coal city of old now both keeps a cityful of hills and waters and holds up its glory on ice; the shimmer of Taoshan Lake, the sighing pines of Shilongshan, the sea of forest at Xidaquan and the figures beneath the Champions Tower together piece out the look of this border town. It is not showy, nor does it try to please, but simply sets green and speed, history and daily life quietly before you. When you stand on the lake ridge facing the wind, or watch the children flash past at the rink-side, you will understand: the good of Qitaihe takes a little time, and a little patience, to see clearly.