Jinzhou

Jinzhou is a prefecture-level city under Liaoning Province, lying in western Liaoning with the Bohai Sea to the south and the Liaoxi Corridor in its grip; it is the central city of western Liaoning and an important port city on the Bohai Rim, and since ancient times a throat that every strategist fought to hold and a military town of the Liaoxi Corridor. Its total area is 10,081 square kilometers, and it administers two county-level cities, Beizhen and Linghai, two counties, Heishan and Yi County, three districts, Linghe, Guta and Taihe, and two national-level development zones, the Economic Development Zone and the High-tech Zone, with a permanent resident population of 2,668,000 and more than 1,100,000 in the urban area. From 1949 to 1954 Jinzhou was the capital of Liaoxi Province; in the sixties of the 20th century it was named a 'Daqing-style emerging industrial area' and produced 21 'firsts' of New China. Jinzhou Port is China's northernmost first-class open commercial port along the coast, and Jinzhou Bay Airport is one of Liaoning's three major aviation hubs; a 372-square-kilometer coastal economic belt has opened the city's space for growth toward the sea. In the city, Bijiashan is famed for 'a brush peak thrusting into the sea' and for the 'Bijia Sky Bridge' that rises and falls with the tide, while the Memorial Hall of the Liaoshen Campaign records the campaign that changed China's fate; history, industry and mountain-and-sea meet here, giving Jinzhou both the gravity of an old city and the openness of a seaport. Spring and autumn are pleasant in climate and best for travel; Bijiashan's strange rocks and tides, the memorial hall's gravity and quiet, one sea and one text, set each other off and form Jinzhou's two most vivid faces; whether you roam mountains and sea or visit historic traces, this corridor town is worth walking slowly and looking at closely.

Jinzhou is a prefecture-level city under Liaoning Province, lying in western Liaoning with the Bohai Sea to the south and holding the Liaoxi Corridor; it is the central city of western Liaoning and a city that carries the Northeast China region's key logistics hub role. Its total area is 10,081 square kilometers, and it administers two county-level cities, Beizhen and Linghai, two counties, Heishan and Yi County, three districts, Linghe, Guta and Taihe, and two national-level development zones, the Economic Development Zone and the High-tech Zone. Its permanent resident population is 2,668,000, with more than 1,100,000 in the urban area. The city is not large, but its position is vital: the ancients summed it up as 'the throat of the land, the center of the region', a phrase that captures its weight along the Liaoxi Corridor — and the city's character, too, has been polished day by day along that corridor.

Jinzhou's history reaches back a long way. Its position — facing the Bohai Sea to the south and guarding the Liaoxi Corridor — has long made it a place every strategist wanted to hold, and it was the battlefield of the famous Battle of Songjin between the Ming and Qing, from which the Qing army marched through the pass to contend for the Central Plains. From 1949 to 1954 Jinzhou was the capital of Liaoxi Province, and for a time the political, economic and cultural center of the region. The city's fate has been bound tightly to the course of the corridor, leaving behind many stories and relics and shaping a character that never shows off yet carries unusual weight; walk through the urban districts today and you can still find old traces and place names tied to those years. The name Jinzhou was already set as a prefecture as early as the Liao dynasty, and it has remained a place of importance here ever since.

Jinzhou is a city that grew up together with the industry of New China. In the sixties of the 20th century the state named it a 'Daqing-style emerging industrial area', and it produced 21 'firsts' of New China — the country's first transistor, its first spool of nylon filament, its first drop of synthetic petroleum. Those 'firsts' are written into the old workshops and dusty archives, and have settled into the city's memory. Walk into the urban districts today and you can still see the shadow of that era in the layout of the old industrial quarters; it reminds people of how, hand by hand, this place filled in blank after blank until they became records. From transistors to nylon filament, these products set down the industrial confidence of the city; some of those old factory buildings have now been put to other uses, yet they still keep the outline of that fiery age.

Drawing on its location by the sea and along the corridor, Jinzhou has built up a 'six-in-one' corridor-and-hub advantage of seaport, airport, railway, highway, pipeline and network. Jinzhou Port is China's northernmost first-class open commercial port along the coast, and Jinzhou Bay Airport is one of Liaoning's three major aviation hubs; the city has also been approved as a port-type national logistics hub carrier city. A 372-square-kilometer coastal economic belt, opened up as new development space, has opened the city's imagination for growth toward the sea; in July 2024, the Development Plan for Building Jinzhou into a Regional Central City was approved, giving its locational strengths a clearer direction; as a port-type logistics hub, its corridor advantages are still expanding.

To the north Jinzhou leans on the Songling Mountains, and to the south it opens onto the Liaodong Bay of the Bohai Sea off eastern Liaoning. The terrain is high in the northwest and low in the southeast, falling from mountain country at 400 meters above sea level southward to coastal plains below 20 meters. The climate is temperate monsoon, with rain and heat in the same season, abundant sunshine and four distinct seasons; the average annual temperature is 9.4 degrees Celsius, average annual precipitation is 554.1 millimeters, and the frost-free period is 157–185 days. Spring and autumn bring bright, crisp skies and are the best times to travel; in summer you can cool off by the sea, while winter shows the cold, clear weather of a northern city — each season has its own sights. This terrain and climate have also created Jinzhou's distinctive landscape of mountains and sea leaning on each other.

Come to Jinzhou and Bijiashan is a stop you cannot skip. The Bijiashan scenic area lies on Jinzhou's coast; the mountain takes its name from its three peaks — two low and one high — shaped like a brush rest (bijia), and has been known since ancient times as 'a brush peak thrusting into the sea'; here, too, stands a site under Liaoning Province's key cultural relics protection. The scenic area covers 8 square kilometers, of which 4.72 square kilometers is land and 3.28 square kilometers is sea, with 17.2 kilometers of coastline. Between mountain and sea, old buildings and natural scenery set each other off, forming a seaside landmark where you can both watch the tides and visit the past; climbing the stone steps along the mountain path, sea breeze and the upturned eaves of old buildings come into view together, wonderfully open; below the mountain the tidal flats are broad, and at low tide you can see stretches of reefs and sandbars, a fine place for birdwatching and for gleaning by the sea.

The most astonishing thing about Bijiashan is the 'Bijia Sky Bridge' that links the island-mountain to the shore. It is a 1,620-meter natural sand-and-gravel causeway that appears and disappears with the tide — exposed at low water so people can cross, submerged again at high tide — the world's only land-linked island sandbank wonder that is revealed twice a day as the tide rises and falls. Visitors walk the sky bridge toward Bijiashan out in the sea, bare sand and gravel underfoot and water creeping up on both sides, a new scene at every step, the best place to feel the charm of 'a road in the sea, and sea upon the road'; the rhythm of the tides enacts the relationship between sea and land with rare vividness, and also tests a visitor's sense of timing.

Climb Bijiashan and you should not miss the Sanqing Pavilion on the island. The Sanqing Pavilion is the largest all-stone structure in the country, built without any wood or nails and entirely of stone blocks, gathering Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism within a single pavilion; its top floor enshrines China's only sea-borne statue of Pangu, archaic in form and remarkable in bearing. Besides the Sanqing Pavilion, the island also has the Zhenren Temple, the Lü Zu Pavilion, a 'single-line sky' slot and other old buildings and natural sights; walking along, religious architecture and sea-eroded landforms alternate, with both the sediment of history and the handiwork of nature. Stone pavilion and sea-and-sky face one another, and climbers feel a quiet solemnity of their own; look out from the pavilion and sea meets sky in a single line, with all the misty waves of the Bohai Sea beyond Bijiashan taken in at a glance.

Unlike the mountain-and-sea marvels of Bijiashan, the Memorial Hall of the Liaoshen Campaign carries another kind of weight. The memorial hall was founded in December 1958 and was originally housed within the Daguangji Temple in Jinzhou; in October 1978 Marshal Ye Jianying inscribed its name; on October 31, 1988 the new building was completed and opened. From March 1, 2008 the hall took the lead nationwide in opening free of charge, letting more people approach that history and giving the city's red memory a more open way of being told; from old hall to new, the memorial's changes also bear witness to how people treasure that history. On important anniversaries it still holds themed events, and those who come to remember are endless.

The memorial hall covers 188,000 square meters; its grounds are planned around a military theme, laid out symmetrically along a central axis formed by the Gate of Victory, the Liaoshen Campaign Revolutionary Martyrs' Monument and the main exhibition hall, making it a large military-themed park that combines historical research, cultural outreach, art exhibition and tourism and leisure. The main exhibition building has a floor area of 8,600 square meters and contains a prologue hall, a battle-history hall, a home-front support hall, a martyrs hall and a panorama hall; walking through the galleries, the background, course and impact of the campaign unfold layer by layer. The artifacts and reconstructed scenes in the halls tell the whole story of the campaign clearly and with restraint.

The most striking thing inside the hall is the panorama gallery, 'Capturing Jinzhou'. It is China's first panorama gallery, its huge painted canvas joined to sculpted ground so as to restore the battle scenes of the taking of Jinzhou with great realism, and it has been praised as a masterpiece of both museology and art history. The collection totals 21,428 items, including 25 first-grade cultural relics, 552 second-grade and 362 third-grade, systematically recording those years from documents and photographs to physical objects. Standing at the center of the panorama gallery you can almost hear the gunfire of that time, an experience long remembered; a single painting, a single object, each is a footnote to history, well worth stopping to look at closely.

Today the Memorial Hall of the Liaoshen Campaign has formed a 'four sites on one line' red tourism route centered on the main exhibition hall and radiating out to the former site of the Northeast Field Army's Jinzhou front-line command post, the Peishuichi battle site and the martyrs' cemetery of the liberation of Jinzhou. The sites are scattered between the urban districts and the countryside, and strung together they make a complete red tour route. Visitors interested in history can follow it at a slow pace and see the campaign from the books set into real hills, waters and lanes, which leaves a deeper impression; the sites echo one another, filling in the thread of a great battle more completely and giving the red journey more depth.

Jinzhou's urban face is a weave of old and new, ancient and modern. In the old city there are traces like the Daguangji Temple, and also the new sights of a modern port and industrial parks; the streets are not especially broad, yet they carry the briskness of a northern city. As a key town guarding the corridor, it has seen merchant caravans come and go, and has seen armored horses too, and a certain steadiness has entered its character. Stroll the urban districts in the evening and watch the lights of the old streets come on one by one, and you feel that this place has both the undertone of history and the warmth of ordinary households; the everyday bustle of the lanes and alleys gives the city's gravity a more approachable temperature; as a city where ordinary people live, its best moments are often hidden in the details of its streets.

Once in Jinzhou, do not forget to try the local food. Sitting between mountains and sea, its tables hold seafood and mountain produce alike, with flavors leaning toward salty and fresh and portions that are honestly generous. The barbecue stalls in the lanes are especially lively — once the charcoal is lit, skewers of meat and vegetables sizzle, a daily scene for many people of Jinzhou; with a few side dishes and a bottle of iced drink, it is the best comfort after a day's rushing about. Restaurants also commonly serve home-style stews and wheat dishes, hot and filling, carrying the openness and plainness of northern hospitality; after one meal you feel the down-to-earth warmth with which Jinzhou people treat their guests. If you come in season, the local seafood and mountain produce are both worth trying, their savor carrying a northern generosity.

Getting around Jinzhou is very convenient. As an important transport hub linking Northeast China with North China, it has railways, highways and air routes woven into a network, so travel to and from Shenyang, Beijing and places across the Northeast is smooth; Jinzhou Port and Jinzhou Bay Airport connect the city with places farther off. City buses cover the main sights: to Bijiashan you can take a special line or a short-haul shuttle, and several bus routes reach the Memorial Hall of the Liaoshen Campaign. Lodging in the city center makes both getting around and finding food easy, and over a few days you will not spend too much time on the road; this convenience makes Jinzhou a good starting point for linking a tour of western Liaoning, and using it as a base you can also visit the nearby coast and hills and see the face of Liaoxi more fully.

Come to Jinzhou and two or three days will let you see it at a relaxed pace. On the first day, link the Memorial Hall of the Liaoshen Campaign with the old streets of the city: see the galleries and learn about the campaign in the morning, then stroll and try snacks in the afternoon. On the second day, head for Bijiashan, walk the sky bridge at low tide, climb the island to see the Sanqing Pavilion, then go down to the shore for some sea air and watch the tide creep over the sand-and-gravel causeway. On the third day, if you still have time, wander the old pagodas and old quarters nearby to take in the city's former face. Following such a route, culture and mountain-and-sea come out even, and the pace is not rushed; with more time you can add nearby old pagodas and rural sights and travel even more leisurely.

If you have only one day, keep the focus in the urban area: the Memorial Hall of the Liaoshen Campaign in the morning, a stroll in the old city in the afternoon, and in the evening find a barbecue stall to sit down at and finish with a meal of authentic Jinzhou flavors. If you have more time and love the sea, you can rise early and head for Bijiashan to watch the sky bridge appear and vanish with the tide, then climb the island to visit its old buildings. With children, the history in the memorial hall is the best classroom, and the tidal flats and reefs by the sea suit them well too. Different visitors will find their own way of doing it; the key is to decide first whether you most want history or mountain-and-sea on this trip. However you plan it, it is worth setting aside half a day each for seeing the sea and for visiting history.

Jinzhou's climate is pleasant: spring and autumn bring bright, crisp skies and are the best times to travel; summer is hot, but you can cool off by the Bohai Sea, and both watching the sea and gleaning by it are in season; winter is cold and dry, yet has a clear northern bite of its own. Because the city is close to the shore, the seaside wind is strong, so when you go to Bijiashan you might take a windproof jacket and check that day's tide times in advance, to catch a good hour for walking the sky bridge. Whichever season you come in, if you give your itinerary to history and to mountain-and-sea you will not go home empty-handed; weather by the sea is changeable, so noting the day's wind and tides before setting out will make the trip smoother; if you want to walk the Bijia Sky Bridge, work out the low-tide window even more carefully, since going too early or too late may leave you with nothing to see.

You do not have to pack the itinerary too full. Half of what is worth seeing in Jinzhou lies in famous sights, and half is hidden in ordinary lanes: a greeting in the morning market, a bowl of hot noodles in an old shop, people taking a stroll on a square — all of it is the city's real daily life. Give yourself a little time to wander, walk along the foot of the old city wall, or simply sit by the sea awhile and watch the tides rise and fall; that is when Jinzhou is likelier to stay with you, and likelier to bring surprises you never planned. Travel need not be a rush from one stop to the next — when your feet tire, find a small shop and sit down; a greeting in the market, a bowl of hot noodles in a restaurant, these are the true warmth of this city.

What is good about Jinzhou is that gravity and openness exist side by side: on one side the historical undertone settled by the Memorial Hall of the Liaoshen Campaign and the old quarters, on the other the seaward spirit drawn by Bijiashan, Jinzhou Port and the coastal economic belt. It is in no hurry to show visitors anything; you need only slow your steps, watch the tide rise and fall once by the sea, hear a stretch of old stories in the old city, and you can read the weight of this corridor town. Bring comfortable shoes and set aside time to look at the sea, and Jinzhou will give you an unhurried answer of its own, letting your pace slow down naturally; give your time to sea breeze and slow walking, and the good things of Jinzhou will surface one by one.

Worth noting: most of Jinzhou's museums and historic sites are open to the public free of charge or at very low prices, so the threshold for visiting is low, and history makes a fine open class on a journey. Whether you are bringing children to learn about war and peace or seeking out old traces on your own, you will come away with something. Combining visits with walks, pausing between the old city and the memorial hall, is the best way to feel this city, and it lends the itinerary a little more ease. In the memorial hall you can quietly take in an exhibition; at Bijiashan you can quietly wait for the tide. Travel then becomes not just ticking off sights but a conversation with a city. Set out in that mood, and Jinzhou's mountains and sea, its past and present, will stay in your memory in a clearer shape.