There is a story about someone calling and saying that I am in Jilin, Jilin, and my friend was confused: "There is a Jilin City in Jilin Province? Why didn't I hear that there is a Guangdong City in Guangdong Province?" Jilin City, Jilin Province, this is really not a joke. Jilin City is the only one with the same name as the provincial government in all prefecture-level administrative divisions in the country. If you talk about Jilin, you must add provinces or cities to the end to show the distinction. The current capital of Jilin Province has moved to Changchun. If the provincial capital is still in Jilin, there will be no second in the country in Jilin City, the capital of Jilin Province.
is similar to those of Liaoning, Shandong, Zhejiang and other provinces. Jilin Province is also a province of Twin Cities, which means there are two big cities of similar size in the province. In terms of scale, cities in Jilin Province, in addition to the current provincial capital Changchun, it is also the former provincial capital Jilin City.
Jilin City is located in the transition zone between Northeast Plain and the eastern Changbai Mountain District, with an area of about 27,000 square kilometers. Speaking of Jilin City, we must not mention Songhua River . People in Wuhan call it Jiangcheng, which cannot be separated from the nourishment of Yangtze River . The same is true for Jilin City, which is also called Jiangcheng. The Songhua River originated in Changbai Mountain District, flows toward the northwest. After forming Songhua Lake (more than 500 square kilometers), it came to the main urban area of Jilin City.
Songhua River forms an "ear" shape in the main urban area of Jilin City, just like the warm embrace of a mother, holding Jilin City in her arms. It is most appropriate to call Songhua River the mother river of Jilin City. Jilin people call this terrain "coming from the river, walking along the river, spreading along the river, and being beautiful for the river." And the fact that Jilin City can become the former capital of Jilin Province is also directly related to the Songhua River.
Jilin Province before is much larger than it is now, Jilin General's jurisdiction in the Qing Dynasty, including the lower reaches of Heilongjiang, including most of the current Jilin Province, Heilongjiang Province, and the territory of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers in the Far East of Russia (including Sakhalin Island). Of course, in order to leave a way out for itself, the Qing Dynasty did not allow Han people to enter the Northeast for development, so the population in Jilin General and Heilongjiang General was very small. When Shunzhi was about to be Ningguta (Ning'an County, Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province), the Qing court set up an organization, and when Kangxi was about to be renamed Ningguta General. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1676 AD), General Ningguta's garrison moved to Jilin (now Jilin City), and was renamed General Jilin.
In terms of geographical location, Ningguta is located in the central north of the Jilin General's jurisdiction, while Jilin City is located in the south. The biggest disadvantage of Ningguta over Jilin City is that it is located deep in Changbai Mountain. Although there is Mudanjiang (river) to the north to connect to Songhua River, the scale of Mudanjiang (river) is not as large as Songhua River. In the era when there were no railways, inland transportation mainly relied on horses or ships, especially for convenience.
Jilin City has two major geographical advantages: one is on the edge of Changbai Mountain, and to the west is a vast plain, and land transportation mainly on horses is more convenient. Second, Jilin City is bordered by the Songhua River, which was called the ancient Huntong River. The river surface of this big river is wide and more suitable for water transportation than Mudanjiang (river). The Qing court moved the Jilin General's garrison to Jilin City, which was also aware of this.
The Qing Dynasty had three generals in the "land of the ancestors' dragon rise" in the northeast: General Heilongjiang, General Jilin, and General General Fengtian (Liaoning). The Jilin General's garrison will be moved to Jilin City, go to the Heilongjiang General's garrison Qiqihar , and go to the Songhua River. If you go to Shengjing (Shenyang), the garrison of General Fengtian, in the south, and ride a horse through the plains, it will also save time and effort.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, which had lost its northeastern name, was established in the 33rd year of the Guangxu period (1907 AD), and the provincial capital was still in Jilin City. But Jilin City's provincial capital status was not so stable in 1898. Why? After Tsarist Russia controlled the outside northeast, it began to build the Siberian Railway in 1891. However, from Chita to Vladivostok , you need to go north along the Heilongjiang (river) north, and then along Ussuri River to south to Vladivostok, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive.If a straight line is taken between Chita and Vladivostok, it can save a lot of costs, and at the same time it can enhance Tsarist Russia's penetration in the "Inner Northeast (Hong Kong , Northeast Region )". Tsarist Russia's occupation of the foreign Northeast was only the first step, and their ultimate goal was to completely control the Northeast region.
Map-Northeast Asia Railway Line
The country's power declined in the late Qing Dynasty and could not stop Tsarist Russia from building the Middle East Railway. While the Middle East Railway was being built, there was another railway that was started, which was , Harbin-Da Railway from Dalian to Harbin. After the completion of the Middle East Railway, Harbin was at a "Tin intersection" and directly connected to Dalian from Harbin to the south. Under this circumstance, Jilin City is far away from the railway with "a train sounds, a gold price of 10,000 taels", and neither railway is relying on it, and the advantage is lost. Changchun, which was not visible before the railway was built, was just on the Harbin-Da Railway line, which was equivalent to the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway not leaving the Henan Provincial Capital Kaifeng , but leaving Zheng County. Zheng County has added points from the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and gradually developed into the current national central city Zhengzhou, while Kaifeng has become much lonely. Because of the Harbin-Da Railway, Changchun developed very quickly. After Japan occupied the three eastern provinces, it established the puppet Manchukuo, and the puppet capital was naturally placed in Changchun because Jilin City had no railway advantages.
Picture-Changchun
It is also because of the railway. In 1954, the capital of Jilin Province officially moved from Jilin City to Changchun.
