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Changchun

Changchun is the capital and largest city of Jilin Province in China. Lying in the center of the Songliao Plain, Changchun is administered as a sub-provincial city, comprising 7 districts, 1 county and 3 county-level cities. According to the 2020 census of China, Changchun had a total population of 9,066,906 under its jurisdiction. The city's metro area, comprising 5 districts and 1 development area, had a population of 5,019,477 in 2020, as the Shuangyang and Jiutai districts are not urbanized yet. It is one of the biggest cities in Northeast China, along with Shenyang, Dalian and Harbin.

The name of the city means "long spring" in Chinese. Between 1932 and 1945, Changchun was renamed Xinjing or Hsinking by the Kwantung Army as it became the capital of the Imperial Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, occupying modern Northeast China. After the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Changchun was established as the provincial capital of Jilin in 1954.

Known locally as China's "City of Automobiles", Changchun is an important industrial base with a particular focus on the automotive sector. Because of its key role in the domestic automobile industry, Changchun was sometimes referred to as the "Detroit of China." Apart from this industrial aspect, Changchun is also one of four "National Garden Cities" awarded by the Ministry of Construction of P.R. China in 2001 due to its high urban greening rate.

Changchun is also one of the top 40 cities in the world by scientific research as tracked by the Nature Index according to the Nature Index 2020 Science Cities. The city is home to several major universities, notably Jilin University and Northeast Normal University, members of China's prestigious universities in the Double First-Class Construction.

Early history
Changchun was initially established on imperial decree as a small trading post and frontier village during the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor in the Qing dynasty. Trading activities mainly involved furs and other natural products during this period. In 1800, the Jiaqing Emperor selected a small village on the east bank of the Yitong River and named it "Changchun Ting".

At the end of the 18th century peasants from overpopulated provinces such as Shandong and Hebei began to settle in the region. In 1889, the village was promoted into a city known as "Changchun Fu".

Railway era
In May 1898, Changchun got its first railway station, located in Kuancheng, part of the railway from Harbin to Lüshun (the southern branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway), constructed by the Russian Empire.

After Russia's loss of the southernmost section of this branch as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, the Kuancheng station (Kuanchengtze, in contemporary spelling) became the last Russian station on this branch. The next station just a short distance to the south—the new "Japanese" Changchun station—became the first station of the South Manchuria Railway, which now owned all the tracks running farther south, to Lüshun, which they re-gauged to the standard gauge (after a short period of using the narrow Japanese gauge during the war).

A special Russo-Japanese agreement of 1907 provided that Russian gauge tracks would continue from the "Russian" Kuancheng Station to the "Japanese" Changchun Station, and vice versa, tracks on the "gauge adapted by the South Manchuria Railway" (i.e. the standard gauge) would continue from Changchun Station to Kuancheng Station.

An epidemic of pneumonic plague occurred in surrounding Manchuria from 1910 to 1911, known as the Manchurian plague. It was the worst-ever recorded outbreak of pneumonic plague which was spread through the Trans-Manchurian railway from the border trade port of Manzhouli. This turned out to be the beginning of the large pneumonic plague pandemic of Manchuria and Mongolia which ultimately claimed 60,000 victims.

City planning and development from 1906 to 1931

The Treaty of Portsmouth formally ended the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and saw the transfer and assignment to the Empire of Japan in 1906 the railway between Changchun and Port Arthur, and all its branches.

Having realized the strategic importance of Changchun's location with respect to Japan, China and Russia, the Japanese Government sent a group of planners and engineers to Changchun to determine the best site for a new railway station.

Without the consent of the Chinese Government, Japan purchased or seized from local farmers the land on which the Changchun Railway Station was to be constructed as the centre of the South Manchuria Railway Affiliated Areas (SMRAA). In order to turn Changchun into the centre for extracting the agricultural and mineral resources of Manchuria, Japan developed a blueprint for Changchun and invested heavily in the construction of the city.

At the beginning of 1907, as the prelude to, and preparation for, the invasion and occupation of China, Japan initiated the planning programme of the SMRAA, which embodied distinctive colonial characteristics. The guiding ideology of the overall design was to build a high standard colonial city with sophisticated facilities, multiple functions and a large scale.

Accordingly, nearly ¥7 million on average was allocated on a year-by-year basis for urban planning and construction during the period 1907 to 1931.

The comprehensive plan was to ensure the comfort required by Japanese employees on Manchurian Railways, build up Changchun into a base for Japanese control of the whole Manchuria in order to provide an effective counterweight to Russia in this area of China.

The city's role as a rail hub was underlined in its planning and construction, the main design concepts of which read as follows: under conventional grid pattern terms, two geoplagiotropic boulevards were newly carved eastward and westward from the grand square of the new railway station. The two helped form two intersections with the gridded prototypes, which led to two circles of South and West. The two sub-civic centres served as axes on which eight radial roads were blazed that took the shape of a sectoral structure.

At that time, the radial circles and the design concept of urban roads were quite advanced and scientific. It activated to great extent the serious urban landscapes as well as clearly identifying the traditional gridded pattern.

With the new Changchun railway station as its centre, the urban plan divided the SMRAA into various specified areas: residential quarters 15%, commerce 33%, grain depot 19%, factories 12%, public entertainment 9%, and administrative organs (including a Japanese garrison) 12%. Each block provided the railway station with supporting and systematic services dependent on its own functions.

In the meantime, a comprehensive system of judiciary and military police was established which was totally independent of China. That accounted for the widespread nature of military facilities within the urban construction area of 3.967 km2, such as the railway garrison, the gendarmerie and the police department, with its 18 local police stations.

Perceiving Changchun as a tabula rasa upon which to construct new and sweeping conceptions of the built environment, the Japanese used the city as a practical laboratory to create two distinct and idealized urban milieus, each appropriate to a particular era. From 1906 to 1931, Changchun served as a key railway town through which the Japanese orchestrated an informal empire. Between 1932 and 1945, the city became home to a grandiose new Asian capital. Yet, while the façades in the city and later the capital contrasted markedly, along with the attitudes of the state they upheld, the shifting styles of planning and architecture consistently attempted to represent Japanese rule as progressive, beneficent, and modern.

The development of Changchun, in addition to being driven by the railway system, suggested an important period of the Northeast modern architectural culture, reflecting Japanese urban design endeavours and revealing that county's ambition to invade and occupy China. Japanese architecture and culture had been widely applied to Manchukuo to highlight the special status of the Japanese puppet. Urban planning clearly stems from a culture, be it aggressive or creative. Changchun's planning and construction process serves as a good example.

Changchun expanded rapidly as the junction between of the Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railway and the Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railway, remaining the break of gauge point between the Russian and standard gauges into the 1930s,

Manchukuo and World War II
On 10 March 1932 the capital of Manchukuo, a Japan-controlled puppet state in Manchuria, was established in Changchun. The city was then renamed Hsinking (Japanese:Shinkyō; literally "New Capital") on 13 March. The Emperor Puyi resided in the Imperial Palace which is now the Museum of the Manchu State Imperial Palace. During the Manchukuo period, the region experienced harsh suppression, brutal warfare on the civilian population, forced conscription and labor and other Japanese sponsored government brutalities; at the same time a rapid industrialisation and militarisation took place. Hsinking was a well-planned city with broad avenues and modern public works. The city underwent rapid expansion in both its economy and infrastructure. Many of buildings built during the Japanese colonial era still stand today, including those of the Eight Major Bureaus of Manchukuo as well as the Headquarters of the Japanese Kwantung Army.

Construction of Hsinking
Hsinking was the only Direct-controlled municipality in Manchukuo after Harbin was incorporated into the jurisdiction of Binjiang Province. In March 1932, the Inspection Division of South Manchuria Railway started to draw up the Metropolitan Plan of Great Hsinking. The Bureau of capital construction which was directly under the control of State Council of Manchukuo was established to take complete responsibility of the formulation and the implementation of the plan. Kuniaki Koiso, the Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army, and Yasuji Okamura, the Vice Chief-of-Staff, finalized the plan of a 200 km2 construction area. The Metropolitan Plan of Great Hsinking was influenced by the renovation plan of Paris in the 19th century, the garden city movement, and theories of American cities' planning and design in the 1920s. The city development plan included extensive tree planting. By 1934 Hsinking was known as the Forest Capital with Jingyuetan Park built, which is now China's largest Plantation and a AAAA-rated recreational area.

In accordance with the Metropolitan Plan of Great Hsinking, the area of publicly shared land (including the Imperial Palace, government offices, roads, parks and athletic grounds) in Hsinking was 47 km2, whilst the area of residential, commercial and industrial developments was planned to be 53 km2. However, Hsinking's population exceeded the prediction of 500,000 by 1940. In 1941, the Capital Construction Bureau modified the original plan, which expanded the urban area to 160 km2. The new plan also focused on the construction of satellite towns around the city with a planning of 200 m2 land per capita. Because the effects of war, the Metropolitan Plan of Great Hsinking remained unfinished. By 1944, the built up urban area of Hsinking reached 80 km2, while the area used for greening reached 70.7 km2. As Hsinking's city orientation was the administrative center and military commanding center, land for military use exceeded the originally planned figure of 9 percent, while only light manufacturing including packing industry, cigarette industry and paper-making had been developed during this period. Japanese force also controlled Hsinking's police system, instead of Manchukuo government. Major officers of Hsinking police were all ethnic Japanese.

The population of Hsinking also experienced rapid growth after being established as the capital of Manchukuo. According to the census in 1934 taken by the police agency, the city's municipal area had 141,712 inhabitants. By 1944 the city's population had risen to 863,607, with 153,614 Japanese settlers. This population made Hsinking the third largest metropolitan city in Manchukuo after Mukden and Harbin, as the metropolitan mainly focused on military and political function.

Japanese chemical warfare agents
In 1936, the Imperial Japanese Army established Unit 100 to develop plague biological weapons, although the declared purpose of Unit 100 was to conduct research about diseases originating from animals. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II the headquarters of Unit 100 ("Wakamatsu Unit") was located in downtown Hsinking, under command of veterinarian Yujiro Wakamatsu. This facility was involved in research of animal vaccines to protect Japanese resources, and, especially, biological-warfare. Diseases were tested for use against Soviet and Chinese horses and other livestock. In addition to these tests, Unit 100 ran a bacteria factory to produce the pathogens needed by other units. Biological sabotage testing was also handled at this facility: everything from poisons to chemical crop destruction.

Siege of Changchun

On 20 August 1945 the city was captured by the Soviet Red Army and renamed Changchun. The Russians maintained a presence in the city during the Soviet occupation of Manchuria until 1946.

National Revolutionary Army forces under Zheng Dongguo occupied the city in 1946, but were unable to hold the countryside against Lin Biao's People's Liberation Army forces during the Chinese Civil War. The city fell to the Chinese Communist Party in 1948 after the five-month Siege of Changchun, and the communist victory was a turning point which allowed an offensive to capture the remainder of Mainland China. Between 10 and 30 percent of the civilian population starved to death under the siege; estimates range from 150,000 to 330,000. the PRC government avoids all mention of the siege.

People's Republic

Renamed Changchun by the People's Republic of China government, it became the capital of Jilin in 1954. The Changchun Film Studio is also one of the remaining film studios of the era. Changchun Film Festival has become a unique gala for film industries since 1992.

From the 1950s, Changchun was designated to become a center for China's automotive industry. Construction of the First Automobile Works (FAW) began in 1953 and production of the Jiefang CA-10 truck, based on the Soviet ZIS-150 started in 1956. Soviet Union lent assistance during these early years, providing technical support, tooling, and production machinery. In 1958, FAW introduced the famous Hongqi (Red Flag) limousines This series of cars are billed as "the official car for minister-level officials".

In 2002, the local television broadcast was hijacked by a small group of Falun Gong practitioners. These events were depicted in the documentary Eternal Spring.

Changchun hosted the 2007 Winter Asian Games.

Geography

Changchun lies in the middle portion of the Northeast China Plain. Its municipality area is located at latitude 43° 05′−45° 15′ N and longitude 124° 18′−127° 02' E. The total area of Changchun municipality is 20571 km2, including metro areas of 2583 km2, and a city proper area of 159 km2. The city is situated at a moderate elevation, ranging from 250 to 350 m within its administrative region. In the eastern portion of the city, there lies a small area of low mountains, with the Laodaodong Mountain, which has an altitude of 711 meters, being the highest. The city is also situated at the crisscross point of the third east–westward "Europe-Asia Continental Bridge". Changchun prefecture is dotted with 222 rivers and lakes. The Yitong River, a small tributary of the Songhua River, runs through the city proper.

Climate
Changchun has a four-season, monsoon-influenced, humid continental climate (Köppen Dwa). Winters are long (lasting from November to March), cold, and windy, but dry, due to the influence of the Siberian anticyclone, with a January mean temperature of -14.3 °C. Spring and autumn are somewhat short transitional periods, with some precipitation, but are usually dry and windy. Summers are hot and humid, with a prevailing southeasterly wind due to the East Asian monsoon; July averages 23.7 °C. Snow is usually light during the winter, and annual rainfall is heavily concentrated from June to August. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 49 percent in July to 69 percent in February, a typical year will see around 2,597 hours of sunshine, and a frost-free period of 140 to 150 days. Extreme temperatures have ranged from -33.0 °C to 35.7 °C.

Administrative divisions
The sub-provincial city of Changchun has direct jurisdiction over 7 districts, 3 county-level cities and 1 County:

Demographics
According to the Sixth China Census, the total population of the City of Changchun reached 7.677 million in 2010. The statistics in 2011 estimated the total population to be 7.59 million. The birth rate was 6.08 per thousand and the death rate was 5.51 per thousand. The urban area had a population of 3.53 million people. In 2010 the sex ratio of the city population was 102.10 males to 100 females.

Ethnic groups
As in most of Northeastern China the ethnic makeup of Changchun is predominantly Han nationality (96.57 percent), with several other minority nationalities.

Dialect
The most commonly spoken dialect in Changchun is the Northeastern Mandarin, which is originated from the mix of several languages spoken by immigrants from Hebei and Shandong. Then, after the PRC was established, the rapid economic growth in Changchun attracted a huge number of immigrants from various places, so the northeastern dialect spoken in urban areas of Changchun is closer to the Mandarin Chinese than the in rural areas because the immigrants had a great impact on the northeastern dialect spoken in urban areas.

Religion
Changchun has four major religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam. There are 396 government-approved places for religious activities and worship services.

The temples in Changchun include Changchun Wanshou Temple, Baoguo Prajna Temple, Baiguo Xinglong Temple, Pumen Temple, Big Buddha Temple, Changchun Temple, Changchun Catholic Church, Changchun West Wuma Road Christian Church, and Changchun City Mosque.

Shamanism had been circulated in Northeast China during ancient times and was believed by many Manchus. Now the shamanism and the study of it have become an important cultural heritage of the region.

Places of interest
Jilin Provincial Museum, a national first-grade museum, is located in Changchun. The museum was moved to Changchun from Jilin City after the transfer of the provincial government seat. It was originally located in the centre of the old town, but, after nine years of construction, a new building for the museum's collections was completed in 2016 on the city's outskirts in Nanguan District near Jingyuetan Park. Badabu is a group of buildings of the former eight Manchukuo ministries which are Ministry of Public Safety, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Culture and Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Civil Affairs that has recently become a sightseeing highlight because of their unique combined Chinese, Japanese and Manchurian architecture.

Jingyuetan National Forest Park is located to the southeast of the city, and is one of the AAAAA Tourist Attractions of China. The park hosts Vasaloppet China annually.

Economy
Changchun achieved a gross domestic product (GDP) of RMB332.9 billion in 2010, representing a rise of 15.3 percent year on year. Primary industry output increased by 3.3 percent to RMB25.27 billion. Secondary industry output experienced an increase of 19.0 percent, reaching RMB171.99 billion, while the tertiary industry output increased 12.6 percent to RMB135.64 billion. The GDP per capita of Changchun was ¥58,691 in 2012, which equates to $9338. The GDP of Changchun in 2012 was RMB445.66 billion and increased 12.0 percent compared with 2011. The primary industry grew 4.3 percent to RMB31.71 billion. Secondary industry increased by RMB229.19 billion, which is a rise of 13.1 percent year on year. Tertiary industry of Changchun in 2012 grew 11.8 percent and increased by RMB184.76 billion.

The city's leading industries are production of automobiles, agricultural product processing, biopharmaceuticals, photo electronics, construction materials, and the energy industry. Changchun is the largest automobile manufacturing, research and development centre in China, producing 9 percent of the country's automobiles in 2009. Changchun is home to China's biggest vehicle producer FAW (First Automotive Works) Group, which manufactured the first Chinese truck in 1956 and car in 1958. The automaker's factories and associated housing and services occupy a substantial portion of the city's southwest end. Specific brands produced in Changchun include the Red Flag luxury brand, as well as joint ventures with Audi, Volkswagen, and Toyota. In 2012, FAW sold 2.65 million units of auto. The sales revenue of FAW amounted to RMB 408.46 billion, representing a rise of 10.8% on year. As cradle of the auto industry, one of Changchun's better known nicknames is "China's Detroit".

Manufacturing of transportation facilities and machinery is also among Changchun's main industries. 50 percent of China's passenger trains, and 10 percent of tractors are produced in Changchun. Changchun Railway Vehicles, one of the main branches of China CNR Corporation, has a joint venture established with Bombardier Transportation to build Movia metro cars for the Guangzhou Metro and Shanghai Metro, and the Tianjin Metro.

Foreign direct investment in the city was US$3.68 billion in 2012, up 19.6% year on year. In 2004 Coca-Cola set up a bottling plant in the city's ETDZ with an investment of US$20 million.

Changchun hosts the yearly Changchun International Automobile Fair, Changchun Film Festival, Changchun Agricultural Fair, Education Exhibition and the Sculpture Exhibition.

CRRC manufactures most of its bullet train carriages at its factory in Changchun. In November 2016, CRCC Changchun unveiled the first bullet train carriages in the world with sleeper berths, thus extending their use for overnight passages across China. They would be capable of running in ultra low temperature environments. Nicknamed Panda, the new bullet trains are capable of running at 250 km/h, operate at −40 degrees Celsius, have Wi-Fi hubs and contain sleeper berths that fold into seats during the day.

Other large companies in Changchun include:
 * Yatai Group, established in 1993 and listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1995. It has developed into a major conglomerate involved in a wide range of industries including property development, cement manufacturing, securities, coal mining, pharmaceuticals and trading.
 * Jilin Grain Group, a major processor of grains.

Changchun Automotive Economic Trade and Development Zone
Founded in 1993, the Changchun Automotive Trade Center was re-established as the Changchun Automotive Economic Trade and Development Zone in 1996. The development zone is situated in the southwest of the city and is adjacent to the China First Automobile Works Group Corporation and the Changchun Film ThemeCity. It covers a total area of approximately 300000 m2. Within the development zone lies an exhibition center and five specially demarcated industrial centers. The Changchun Automobile Wholesale Center began operations in 1994 and is the largest auto-vehicle and spare parts wholesale center in China. The other centers include a resale center for used auto-vehicles, a specialized center for industrial/commercial vehicles, and a tire wholesale center.

Changchun High Technology Development Zone
The zone is one of the first 27 state-level advanced technology development zones and is situated in the southern part of the city, covering a total area of 49 km2. There are 18 full-time universities and colleges, 39 state and provincial-level scientific research institutions, and 11 key national laboratories. The zone is mainly focusing on developing five main industries, namely bio-engineering, automobile engineering, new material fabrication, photo-electricity, and information technology.

Changchun Economic and Technological Development Zone
Established in April 1993, the zone enjoys all the preferential policies stipulated for economic and technological development zones of coastal open cities. The total area of CETDZ is 112.72 km2, of which 30 km2 has been set aside for development and utilization. It is located 5 km from downtown Changchun, 2 km from the freight railway station and 15 km from the Changchun international airport. The zone is devoted to developing five leading industries: namely automotive parts and components, photoelectric information, bio-pharmaceutical, fine processing of foods, and new building materials. In particular, high-tech and high value added projects account for over 80 percent of total output. In 2006 the zone's total fixed assets investment rose to RMB38.4 billion. Among the total of 1656 enterprises registered, 179 are foreign-funded. The zone also witnessed a total industrial output of RMB 277 billion in 2007.

Infrastructure
Changchun is a very compact city, planned by the Japanese with a layout of open avenues and public squares. The city is developing its layout in a long-term bid to alleviate pressure on limited land, aid economic development, and absorb a rising population. According to a draft plan up until 2020, the downtown area will expand southwards to form a new city center around Changchun World Sculpture Park, Weixing Square and their outskirts, and the new development zone. For the north of the city, there is a new development zone called "Changchun New Area", locate near the North Lake Park.

Railways
Changchun has two passenger rail stations, all conventional trains and some high-speed trains stop at the central Changchun railway station, which is connected by Beijing-Harbin Railway, Changchun-Hunchun intercity railway and several railway lines. The station have multiple daily departures to other cities in the province and northeast area, such as Jilin City, Yanji, Harbin, Shenyang, and Dalian, as well as other major cities throughout the country such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The new Changchun West railway station, situated in the western end of urbanized area, is the station mainly for the high-speed trains of the Harbin–Dalian high-speed railway.

Bus and Tram
Changchun is served by a comprehensive bus system, which having more than 250 bus route, most buses charge 1-2 yuan per ride.

Changchun is one of the few cities preserving the historic tram system in China. The tram system first opened in 1941, having 6 lines covering almost 53 km at its peak. But after several route adjustments, there is only one line left since the 2000s. A new branch line is opened in 2014, which links the new Changchun West Railway Station. The whole system is now operated under the bus system of Changchun.

Rapid Transit
Changchun Rail Transit is an rapid transit system of Changchun, combind light rail lines and metro lines. Its first line was opened on 30 October 2002, making Changchun the fifth metropolitan city in China to open rail transit.

Till November 2018, there are 5 lines in Changchun, including Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, Line 4, and Line 8. Changchun railway covers about 100.17 kilometers.

Till September 2019, there are 4 lines of Changchun Rail Transit under construction, including Line 6 and Line 9, as well as Line 2 West Extension and Line 3 East Extension. By 2025, the Changchun rail transit line network will consist of 10 lines with a total length of 341.62 kilometers.

In September 2019, the average daily passenger volume of Changchun Rail Transit reached 680,400 person, and the maximum daily passenger volume of its line network was 830,500 person on 13 November 2019. The total estimated passenger volume in 2019 is about 168 million person.

Road network
Changchun is linked to the national highway network through the Beijing – Harbin Expressway (G1), the Ulanhot – Changchun – Jilin – Hunchun Expressway (G12), the Changchun – Shenzhen Expressway (G25), the Changchun – Changbaishan Expressway (S1) and the busiest section in the province, the Changchun–Jilin North Highway. This section connects the two biggest cities in Jilin and is the trunk line for the social and economic communication of the two cities.

Private automobiles are becoming very common on the city's congested streets. Bicycles are relatively rare compared to other northeastern Chinese cities, but mopeds, as well as pedal are relatively common.

Air
Changchun Longjia International Airport is located 31.2 km north-east of Changchun urban area. The airport's construction began in 1998, and was intended to replace the older Changchun Dafangshen Airport, which was a joint-use airport built in 1941. The airport opened for passenger service on 27 August 2005. The operation of the airport is shared by both Changchun and nearby Jilin City. The airport has scheduled flights to major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and 68 other cities. There are also scheduled international flights between Changchun and overseas cities such as Bangkok, Osaka, Khabarovsk, Singapore, Tokyo and Vladivostok.

Universities and colleges
Changchun has 27 regular institutions of full-time tertiary education with a total enrollment of approximate 160,000 students. Jilin University and Northeast Normal University are two key universities in China. Jilin University is also one of the largest universities in China, with more than 60,000 students.
 * Changchun Normal University
 * Changchun University
 * Changchun University of Science and Technology
 * Changchun University of Chinese Medicine
 * Jilin College of the Arts
 * Jilin Huaqiao Foreign Languages Institute, a private college offering bachelor study programs in foreign languages, international trade management and didactics
 * Jilin University
 * Jilin University of Finance and Economics
 * Jilin Agricultural University
 * Northeast Normal University
 * Jilin Engineering Normal University
 * Changchun Institute of Technology

Middle schools

 * High School Attached to Northeast Normal University
 * Affiliated Middle School to Jilin University
 * No.72 Middle School of Changchun
 * Second experimental school of Jilin Province
 * No.11 High School of Changchun
 * Changchun No.6 middle school
 * Changchun Foreign Languages School

Primary and secondary schools
International schools include:
 * Changchun American International School
 * Deutsche Internationale Schule Changchun
 * St John's College Changchun

Sports and stadiums
As a major Chinese city, Changchun is home to many professional sports teams:
 * Jilin Northeast Tigers (Basketball), is a competitive team which has long been one of the major clubs fighting in China top-level league, CBA.
 * Changchun Yatai, who have played home soccer matches at the Development Area Stadium since 2009. In 2007 they won the Chinese Super League.

There are two major multi-purpose stadiums in Changchun, including Changchun City Stadium and Development Area Stadium.
 * Changchun Wuhuan Gymnasium, the main venue of the 2007 Asian Winter Games.
 * It has an indoor speed skating arena, Jilin Provincial Speed Skating Rink, as one of five in China.

Jinlin Tseng Tou are a professional ice hockey team based in the city, and compete in the Russian-based Supreme Hockey League. They are one of two Chinese-based teams to enter the league during the 2017–18 season, the other being based in Harbin.

Film

 * Changchun Film Group Corporation
 * Changchun Film Festival
 * Locale of The Farewell

People

 * Ei-ichi Negishi (根岸 英一), 2010 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, was born in Changchun
 * Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, was born in Changchun

Twin towns and sister cities

 * 🇬🇱 Nuuk, Sermersooq, Greenland
 * 🇯🇵 Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
 * 🇰🇷 Ulsan, Yeongnam, South Korea
 * 🇺🇸 Flint, Michigan, United States
 * 🇺🇸 Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
 * 🇨🇦 Windsor, Ontario, Canada
 * 🇷🇺 Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, Russia
 * 🇧🇾 Minsk, Belarus
 * 🇰🇵 Chongjin, North Hamgyong, North Korea
 * 🇬🇧 Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom
 * 🇩🇪 Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany
 * 🇸🇰 Žilina, Slovakia
 * Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia
 * 🇳🇿 Masterton, Wellington Region, New Zealand

title: Changchun


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George Adamski

George Adamski (17 April 1891 – 23 April 1965) was a Polish-American author who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he displayed numerous photographs in the 1940s and 1950s that he said were of alien spacecraft, claimed to have met with friendly Nordic alien Space Brothers, and claimed to have taken flights with them to the Moon and other planets.

Adamski was the first, and most famous, of several so-called UFO contactees who came to prominence during the 1950s. Adamski called himself a "philosopher, teacher, student and saucer researcher", although most investigators regarded him as a charlatan and a con artist and concluded that his claims were an elaborate hoax.

Adamski authored three books describing his meetings with Nordic aliens and his travels with them aboard their spaceships: Flying Saucers Have Landed (co-written with Desmond Leslie) in 1953, Inside the Space Ships in 1955, and Flying Saucers Farewell in 1961. The first two books were both bestsellers; by 1960 they had sold a combined 200,000 copies. In addition to his contributions to ufology in the United States, Adamski's work became popular in other countries, especially Japan and helped inspire many depictions of aliens and UFOs in postwar Japanese culture and media.

Early years
Adamski was born in Bromberg in the Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire. He was one of five siblings born to ethnic Polish parents, Józef Adamski (1867–1937) and Franciszka Adamska (1862–1946).

When he was two years old his family emigrated to the United States and settled in New York City. From 1913 to 1916, beginning at the age of 22, he was a soldier in the 13th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (K Troop) fighting at the Mexican border during the Pancho Villa Expedition.

In 1917 he married Mary Shimbersky. She died in 1954; they had no children. Following his marriage Adamski moved west, doing maintenance work in Yellowstone National Park and working in an Oregon flour mill and a California concrete factory. In the 1920s Adamski became interested in the esoteric occultist religion Theosophy, and a variant called Neo-Theosophy. By 1930 "Adamski was a minor figure on the California occult scene", teaching his personal mixture of Christianity and Eastern religions, which he called "Universal Progressive Christianity" and "Universal Law."

In the early 1930s, while living in Southern California, Adamski founded the "Royal Order of Tibet" in Laguna Beach, which held its meetings in the "Temple of Scientific Philosophy". Adamski served as a "philosopher" and teacher at the temple. The "Royal Order of Tibet" was given a government license to make wine for "religious purposes" during Prohibition; Adamski was quoted as saying "I made enough wine for all of Southern California ... I was making a fortune!" However, the end of Prohibition in December 1933 also marked the decline of his profitable wine-making business, and Adamski later told two friends that's when he "had to get into this [flying] saucer crap."

In 1940 Adamski, his wife, and some close friends moved to a ranch near California's Palomar Mountain, where they dedicated their time to studying religion, philosophy, and farming. In 1944, with funding from Alice K. Wells, a student of Adamski, they purchased 20 acre of land at the base of Palomar Mountain, along highway S6, where they built a new home, a campground called Palomar Gardens, and a small diner called Palomar Gardens Cafe.

At the campground and diner Adamski "often gave lectures on Eastern philosophy and religion, sometimes late into the night" to students, admirers, and tourists. He also built a wooden observatory at the campground to house his six-inch telescope, and visitors and tourists to Palomar Mountain often received the false impression that Adamski was an astronomer connected to the famed Palomar Observatory at the top of the mountain. Adamski would correct this inaccurate impression "only when pressed to do so." Though he was usually referred to as "Professor" Adamski by his admirers and followers and he often implied or claimed to possess various academic degrees, Adamski held no graduate or undergraduate degree from any accredited college or university, and in fact had only a third grade education.

Ufology
On 9 October 1946, during a meteor shower, Adamski and some friends claimed that while they were at the Palomar Gardens campground, they witnessed a large cigar-shaped "mother ship." In early 1947, Adamski took a photograph of what he claimed was the 1946 cigar-shaped "mother ship" crossing in front of the Moon over Palomar Gardens. In the summer of 1947, following the first widely publicized UFO sightings in the US, Adamski claimed he had seen 184 UFOs pass over Palomar Gardens one evening.

In 1949, Adamski began giving his first UFO lectures to civic groups and other organizations in Southern California; he requested, and received, fees for the lectures. In these lectures he made "fantastic" claims, such as "that government and science had established the existence of UFOs two years earlier, via radar tracking of 700-foot-long spacecraft on the other side of the Moon." In his lectures, Adamski further claimed that "science now knows that all planets [in Earth's solar system] are inhabited" and "photos of Mars taken from the Mount Palomar observatory have proven the canals on Mars are man-made, built by an intelligence far greater than any man's on earth."

However, as one UFO historian has noted, "even in the early 1950s [Adamski's] assertions about surface conditions on, and the habitability of, Venus, Mars, and the other planets of the solar system flew in the face of massive scientific evidence ...'mainstream' ufologists were almost uniformly hostile to Adamski, holding not only that his and similar contact stories were fraudulent, but that the contactees were making serious UFO investigators look ridiculous."

On 29 May 1950, Adamski took a photograph of what he alleged to be six unidentified objects in the sky, which appeared to be flying in formation. This same UFO photograph was depicted in an August 1978 commemorative stamp issued by the island nation of Grenada in order to mark the "Year of UFOs."

Orthon and the Contactees
On 20 November 1952, Adamski and several friends were in the California Desert near the town of Desert Center, California, when they purportedly saw a large submarine-shaped object hovering in the sky. Believing that the ship was looking for him, Adamski is said to have left his friends and to have headed away from the main road. Shortly afterwards, according to Adamski's accounts, a scout ship made of a type of translucent metal landed close to him, and its pilot, a Venusian called Orthon, disembarked and sought him out. Adamski claimed the people with him also saw the Venusian ship, and several of them later stated they could see Adamski meeting someone in the desert, although from a considerable distance.

Adamski described Orthon as being a medium-height humanoid with long blond hair and tanned skin wearing reddish-brown shoes, though, as Adamski added, "his trousers were not like mine." Adamski said Orthon communicated with him via telepathy and through hand signals.

During the conversation, Orthon purportedly warned of the dangers of nuclear war, and Adamski later wrote that "the presence of this inhabitant of Venus was like the warm embrace of great love and understanding wisdom." Adamski claimed Orthon had refused to allow himself to be photographed, and instead, had asked Adamski to provide him with a blank photographic plate, which Adamski claimed he had given Orthon. George Hunt Williamson (a contactee and Adamski associate) also claimed that after Orthon left, he was able to take plaster casts of Orthon's shoe imprints. The imprints contained mysterious symbols, which Adamski said was a message from Orthon.

Orthon is said to have returned the photographic plate to Adamski on 13 December 1952; when developed it was found to contain strange new symbols. It was during this meeting that Adamski is said to have taken a now famous photograph of Orthon's Venusian scout ship using his 6 in telescope. At the time, skeptics said it looked suspiciously like the top of a "chicken brooder", for warming newly hatched poultry.

Anglo-Irish eccentric Desmond Leslie struck up a correspondence with Adamski. In the mid-1950s Leslie had created a low-budget UFO film entitled Them In The Thing at his home, Castle Leslie. The flying saucer in the film had been created by shining mirrors on to a Spanish Renaissance shield suspended from a fishing line. The film was rediscovered in 2010.

In need of money and keen to create a bestseller, Leslie had written a manuscript about the visitation of Earth by aliens. Its genesis had been Leslie chancing upon a copy of the 1896 book The Story of Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria by William Scott-Elliot in a friend's library.

Adamski sent Leslie a written account of his supposed contact with Orthon, and photos. Leslie combined the two works into the 1953 co-authored book Flying Saucers Have Landed. The book became a bestseller, brought both Adamski and Leslie news media attention, and eventually became "a key text of the New Age movement."

The following year, Leslie visited Adamski in California and claimed to witness several UFOs with him. Leslie described one of them in a letter he sent to his wife while he was in San Diego:

"... a beautiful golden ship in the sunset, but brighter than the sunset ... It slowly faded out, the way they do."

Flying Saucers Have Landed claimed Nordic aliens from Venus and other planets in Earth's solar system routinely visited the Earth. According to the book, Orthon and other aliens were worried that nuclear bomb tests in the Earth's atmosphere would kill all life on Earth, spread radiation into space, and contaminate other planets. Adamski claimed that Nordic aliens worshiped a "Creator of All", but that "we on Earth know very little about this Creator ... our understanding is shallow."

In his 1955 book Inside the Space Ships, Adamski claimed that Orthon arranged for him to be taken on a trip to see the Solar System, including the planet Venus, the location where Orthon said the late Mrs. Adamski had been reincarnated. He claimed that in another voyage he met the 1,000-year-old "elder philosopher of the space people", who was called "the Master". Adamski said he and the Master discussed philosophy, religion, and the "Earth's place in the universe". Adamski said he learned that he had been selected by Nordic aliens to bring their message of peace to Earth people, and that other humans throughout history had also served as their messengers, including Jesus Christ. Adamski further claimed that aliens were peacefully living on Earth, and that he had met with them in bars and restaurants in Southern California.

Adamski's stories led other people to come forward with their own claims of contact and interplanetary travels with friendly "Space Brothers", including such figures as Howard Menger, Daniel Fry, George Van Tassel, and Truman Bethurum. The message of Adamski and his fellow contactees was one in which the other planets of Earth's solar system were all "inhabited by physically handsome, spiritually evolved beings who have moved beyond the problems of Earth people ... the reader of Inside the Space Ships enters a perfect world, the kind we can create here on Earth if we behave ourselves." Through books, lectures, and conventions, particularly the annual Giant Rock UFO convention near Landers, California, the contactee movement would grow throughout the 1950s. However, Adamski would remain the most prominent, and most influential, of the contactees.

Adamski's claims of traveling aboard a UFO inspired an elaborate hoax perpetrated by British astronomer Patrick Moore and his friend Peter Davies using the false identity Cedric Allingham.

Straith Letter Hoax
In 1957, Adamski received a letter signed "R.E. Straith," alleged representative of the "Cultural Exchange Committee" of the U.S. State Department. The letter said the U.S. Government knew that Adamski had spoken to extraterrestrials in a California desert in 1952, and that a group of highly placed government officials planned on public corroboration of Adamski's story. Adamski was proud of this endorsement and exhibited it to support his claims.

However, in 1985 ufologist James W. Moseley revealed that the letter was a hoax. Moseley said he and his friend Gray Barker had obtained some official State Department letterheads, created the R.E. Straith persona, and then written the letter to Adamski as a prank. According to Moseley, the FBI investigated the case and discovered that the letter was a hoax, but charges were not filed against Moseley or Barker.

Moseley also wrote that the FBI informed Adamski that the Straith letter was a hoax and asked him to stop using it as evidence in support of his claims, but that Adamski refused and continued to display the letter in his lectures and talks. This was not the first time Adamski had claimed government support for his UFO stories. In 1953 he told a meeting of the Corona, California Lions Club that his "material has all been cleared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Air Force Intelligence."

When the FBI learned of Adamski's claims, three agents were sent to talk to Adamski. He denied having stated that the FBI or USAF intelligence supported his claims (even though his remarks were reported in a local newspaper, the Riverside Enterprise), and he agreed to sign a letter stating that "he understood the implications of making false claims" and that the FBI "did not endorse [the claims] of individuals." The three FBI agents also signed the letter, and a copy was given to Adamski.

However, a few months later, Adamski told an interviewer that he had been "cleared" by the FBI, and displayed the letter as proof. When the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau complained, more FBI agents were sent to retrieve Adamski's copy of the letter, "read the riot act to him, and warn him that legal action would be taken if he continued" to claim FBI or government support for his stories. Adamski later said the FBI had "warned [him] to keep quiet."

Meeting with Queen Juliana of the Netherlands
In May 1959, the head of the Dutch Unidentified Flying Objects Society told Adamski she had been contacted by officials at the palace of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands who advised "that the Queen would like to receive you."

Adamski informed a London newspaper about the invitation, which prompted the court and cabinet to request that the queen cancel her private audience with Adamski, but the queen went ahead with the audience, saying, "A hostess cannot slam the door in the face of her guests." After the audience, Dutch Aeronautical Association president Cornelis Kolff said "The Queen showed an extraordinary interest in the whole subject."

The Royal Netherlands Air Force Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Haye Schaper said "The man's a pathological case." Time magazine reported that the Amsterdam newspaper de Volkskrant said: "Once again, Queen Juliana's weakness for the preternatural had landed her back in the headlines: she had invited to the palace a crackpot from California who numbered among his friends men from Mars, Venus and other solar-system suburbs."

Wire services such as United Press International and Reuters circulated reports of the meeting to newspapers around the world.

Later life
In 1962, Adamski announced that he would be attending an interplanetary conference held on the planet Saturn. In 1963, Adamski claimed that he had been granted a secret audience with Pope John XXIII and that he had received a "Golden Medal of Honor" from the pope. However, skeptics noted that the medal was actually a common tourist souvenir made by a company in Milan, Italy, and that Adamski displayed it to his friends in a cheap plastic box - which is how it was sold in tourist shops in Rome. Adamski said he met with the Pope at the request of the extraterrestrials he was allegedly in contact with, in order to request a "final agreement" from the Pope because of his decision not to communicate directly with any extraterrestrials, and also to offer him a liquid substance in order to save him from the gastric enteritis that he suffered from, which would later become acute peritonitis.

Death
On 23 April 1965, aged 74, Adamski died of a heart attack at a friend's home in Silver Spring, Maryland, shortly after giving a UFO lecture in Washington, DC. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Investigations and criticism
Over the decades, numerous critics and skeptics have investigated Adamski's claims. The aliens Adamski claimed to have met in the 1950s were described by him as "human beings from another world", usually light-skinned, light-haired humanoids that would later be called Nordic aliens. Adamski claimed in his books that these "alien humans" came from Venus, Mars, and other planets in Earth's solar system. However, none of the planets he mentioned are capable of supporting human life, due to their adverse environmental conditions. The first alien Adamski claimed to have met was from Venus, yet the atmospheric pressure on that planet's surface is 92 times greater than that of Earth, and it has clouds which rain a toxic substance thought to be sulfuric acid; the atmosphere consists almost entirely of carbon dioxide, with very little oxygen, and the average surface temperature of Venus is 464 °C. In one of his books, Adamski described a trip he took to the far side of the Moon in a flying saucer, where he claimed to have seen cities, trees, and snow-capped mountains; he also claimed that the first photographs of the Moon's far side that were taken by the Soviet lunar probe Luna 3 in 1959, were altered to depict a barren, lifeless surface to hide what he saw. However, all scientific evidence, as well as later lunar trips by American astronauts, clearly showed that the entire surface of the Moon is barren of life and has no atmosphere.

In his writings, Adamski claimed he travelled to Venus, Mars, and other planets in Earth's solar system, and clearly stated that they were all capable of supporting humanoid life. As UFO historian Jerome Clark noted, "some Adamski partisans insisted that Venus, Mars, Saturn, and the rest were merely code words for planets in other solar systems; there is, however, nothing in Adamski's public writings to support this interpretation and considerable testimony to the contrary."

Adamski's 1955 book Inside the Space Ships, which describes his claimed travels through Earth's solar system in a UFO, is considered by some critics to be a "remake" of his 1949 science fiction novel, ghostwritten for Adamski by Lucy McGinnis, and entitled Pioneers of Space. It described a fictional voyage through the solar system that, critics noted, sounded very similar to the space travels described by Adamski in Inside the Space Ships.

Adamski photographs and Moseley investigation
Adamski's photographs of objects he claimed were UFOs have also come under scrutiny. His frequently published photograph from 1952, depicts an object which has been variously identified as the top of a chicken brooder or a streetlight. Adamski claimed that movie director Cecil B. DeMille's top trick photographer, J. Peverell Marley, had examined his UFO photos and found a "spaceman" in them, and Marley himself declared that if Adamski's pictures were fakes, they were the best he had ever seen. In the United Kingdom, 14 experts from the J. Arthur Rank company concluded that the object photographed was either real or a full-scale model.

However, in his 1955 investigation into Adamski's claims, James W. Moseley interviewed Marley, who stated that he had never enlarged the photos for analysis nor found a "spaceman" in them, and did not know of anyone who had. Moseley also interviewed German rocket scientist Walther Johannes Riedel, who told him that he had analyzed Adamski's UFO photos and found them to be fakes. Riedel told Moseley that the UFO's "landing struts" were actually 100-watt General Electric light bulbs, and that he had seen the round "GE" logo printed on them. In 2012, UFO researcher Joel Carpenter identified the reflector-shade of a widely available 1930s pressurised-gas lantern as an identical visual match to the main portion of Adamski's saucer.

In his 1955 investigation, Moseley found other flaws in Adamski's story. He interviewed several of the people that Adamski claimed had been with him in his initial 20 November 1952 meeting with Orthon, and found that these witnesses contradicted Adamski's claims. One, Al Bailey, denied to Moseley that he had seen a UFO in the desert or the alien Adamski described. Jerrold Baker, who had worked at Palomar Gardens with Adamski, told Moseley that he had overheard "a tape-recorded account of what was to transpire on the desert, who was to go, etc." several days before Adamski's claimed 20 November meeting with Orthon, and Baker stated that Adamski's meeting with Orthon was a "planned operation." Baker added that Adamski had tried to convince him not to expose their hoax by telling him that he could make money by charging fees to give UFO lectures, as Adamski was doing: "Now you know the [UFO] picture connected to your name is in the book (Flying Saucers Have Landed) too. And with people knowing that you are connected with flying saucers ... you could do yourself a lot of good. You could give lectures in the evenings. There is a demand for this! You could support yourself by the picture in the book with your name."

Moseley discovered that George Hunt Williamson, another prominent contactee and friend of Adamski, did not witness any UFO nor Adamski's encounter with Orthon, despite his public statements claiming otherwise. When Irma Baker, Jerrold Baker's wife, accused him of lying about the incident, Williamson told her cryptically that "sometimes to gain admittance, one has to go around the back door." In his report on Adamski, Moseley wrote "I do believe most definitely that Adamski's narrative contains enough flaws to place in very serious doubt both his veracity and his sincerity. The reader will be moved to make for himself a careful re-evaluation of the worth of Adamski's book."

Air Force investigation
During the early-to-mid 1950s USAF Captain Edward J. Ruppelt was the head of Project Blue Book, the Air Force group assigned to investigate UFO reports. In 1953 Captain Ruppelt decided to investigate Adamski's UFO claims. He traveled to California's Palomar Mountain and, dressed in civilian attire to avoid attracting attention, attended one of Adamski's lectures before a large crowd at his Palomar Gardens Cafe.

Ruppelt concluded that Adamski was a talented con artist whose UFO stories were designed to make money from his gullible followers and listeners, and he compared Adamski to the famed hoaxer, carnival, and circus showman P.T. Barnum. In describing Adamski's speaking style, Ruppelt wrote "to look at the man and listen to his story you had an immediate urge to believe him ... he was dressed in well-worn, but neat, overalls. He had slightly graying hair and the most honest pair of eyes I've ever seen. He spoke softly and naively, almost pathetically, giving the impression that 'most people think I'm crazy, but honestly, I'm really not.'" According to Ruppelt, Adamski had a persuasive effect on his audience, "you could actually have heard the proverbial pin drop" in the cafe as Adamski told of his initial 1952 meeting with Orthon. When Adamski finished his story, Ruppelt noted that many of his listeners purchased copies of Adamski's UFO photos that were on sale in the cafe. At another lecture led by Adamski and other well-known contactees, Ruppelt wrote that "people shelled out hard cash to hear Adamski's story."

Ruppelt believed "the common undertone to many of these [contactee] stories ... is Utopia. On these other worlds there is no illness, they've learned how to cure all diseases. There are no wars, they've learned how to live peaceably. There is no poverty, everyone has everything he wants. There is no old age, they have learned the secret of eternal life ... Too many times this subtle pitch can be boiled down to, "Step right up folks and put a donation in the pot. I'm just on the verge of learning the spaceman's secrets and with a little money to carry out my work I'll give you the secret."

According to Ruppelt, by 1960 Adamski's UFO lectures, and in particular his first two books, had made him a wealthy man: "[His] hamburger stand is boarded up and he now lives in a big ranch house. He vacations in Mexico and has his own clerical staff. His two books Flying Saucers Have Landed and Inside the Space Ships have sold ... 200,000 copies and have been translated into every language except Russian." Ruppelt humorously noted that by 1960 two "beautiful spacewomen" who claimed to be Nordic aliens were dating Adamski, a blonde from Saturn called "Kalna" and another woman named "Ilmuth".

In popular culture

 * Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke referred to ufologists as suffering from Adamski's disease in his novel 3001: The Final Odyssey.
 * Adamski appears briefly in issue 4 of The Bulletproof Coffin - Disinterred by David Hine and Shaky Kane.
 * Musician Adamski, real name Adam Tinley, adopted the UFO enthusiast's surname as his stagename.
 * In the role playing game Hunter: The Vigil, Task Force VALKYRIE includes a subgroup called Operation ADAMSKI, dedicated to producing and distributing misinformation about aliens and other "extra-normal entities" in order to hide the existence of such beings.
 * In Kirby's Adventure, the player character is able to assume a form resembling an Adamski UFO.
 * In Mega Man 9, there is a small UFO-based enemy named Adamski.
 * In the game Disgaea in the optional "Prinny Commentary Mode" the commentator makes reference to Adamski UFOs.
 * In the Transformers toy line, the Transformer Cosmos (Transformers) transforms into an Adamski-style Haunebu saucer. The Japanese toy even uses "Adams" as its name.
 * In a tower defense game, The Battle Cats, an alien themed level in Area 22 is called "Adamski Type".
 * Adamski is mentioned in Scooter's song "U.F.O. Phenomena" from album The Ultimate Aural Orgasm.
 * A stand-in for Georg Adamski named Charles Kandinski appears in J. G. Ballard's 1963 short story The Venus Hunters, which describes transference of cultish beliefs.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: George Adamski


text:
Lanzhou

Lanzhou is the capital and largest city of Gansu province in northwestern China. Located on the banks of the Yellow River, it is a key regional transportation hub, connecting areas further west by rail to the eastern half of the country. Historically, it has been a major link on the Northern Silk Road and it stands to become a major hub on the New Eurasian Land Bridge. The city is also a center for heavy industry and petrochemical industry.

Lanzhou is also an important center for scientific research and education in Northwestern China after Xi'an. The city is one of the top 60 major cities in the world by scientific research output as tracked by the Nature Index. It hosts several research institutions, including, Lanzhou University, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou University of Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, and Lanzhou Jiaotong University. Notably, Lanzhou University is one of China's prestige universities as a member of the Project 985.

History

Originally in the territory of the ancient Western Qiangs, Lanzhou became part of the territory of the State of Qin in the 6th century BC.

In 81 BC, under the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220), it was taken from the Huns' Huandi Chanyu and made the seat of Jincheng commandery, and later of the Jincheng (Golden City) county , later renamed Yunwu. From at least the first millennium BC it was a major link on the ancient Northern Silk Road,  and also an important historic Yellow River crossing site. To protect the city, the Great Wall of China was extended as far as Yumen. Parts of the Great Wall still exist within the built-up area.

After the fall of the Han dynasty, Lanzhou became the capital of a succession of tribal states. In the 4th century it was briefly the capital of the independent state of Liang. The Northern Wei dynasty (386–534) reestablished Jincheng commandery, renaming the county Jincheng. Mixed with different cultural heritages, the area at present-day Gansu province, from the 5th to the 11th century, became a center for Buddhist study. Under the Sui dynasty (581–618) the city became the seat of Lanzhou prefecture for the first time, retaining this name under the Tang dynasty (618–907). In 763 the area was overrun by the Tibetan Empire and in 843 was conquered by the Tang. Later it fell into the hands of the Western Xia dynasty (which flourished in Qinghai from the 11th to 13th century) and was subsequently absorbed by the Song dynasty (960–1126) in 1081. The name Lanzhou was reestablished, and the county renamed Lanzhuan.

After 1127 it fell into the hands of the Jin dynasty, and after 1235 it came into the possession of the Mongol Empire.

Under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) the prefecture was demoted to a county and placed under the administration of Lintao superior prefecture, but in 1477 Lanzhou was reestablished as a political unit.

The city acquired its current name in 1656, during the Qing dynasty. When Gansu was made a separate province in 1666, Lanzhou became its capital.

In 1739 the seat of Lintao was transferred to Lanzhou, which was later made a superior prefecture called Lanzhou.

Lanzhou was badly damaged during the Dungan revolt in 1864–1875. In the 1920s and 1930s it became a center of Soviet influence in northwestern China.

Second Sino-Japanese War-World War II
During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) Lanzhou, linked with Xi'an by highway in 1935, became the terminus of the 3,200 km Chinese–Soviet highway, used as a route for Soviet supplies destined for the Xi'an area. This highway remained the primary traffic route of northwestern China until the completion of the railway from Lanzhou to Ürümqi, Xinjiang.

The Battle of Lanzhou
Lanzhou's old Donggang Airport, located near the city centre, was the primary entry point for combat aircraft provided to China under the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, and along with other targets around Lanzhou, including civilian centers, were heavily bombed by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force and Navy Air Force. Many air battles were fought between the Chinese Air Force and the Imperial Japanese air forces over Lanzhou and surrounding regions from 1937 to 1945, particularly from 1938 to 1941 when the influx of Soviet war materials formed the primary support in China's War of Resistance against the Imperial Japanese invasion. Instances of major air-battles include an IJAAF raid consisting of 30 BR.20 and Ki-21 bombers against civilian targets in Lanzhou on 20 February 1939; 17th PS, 5th PG commander Capt. Cen Zeliu and his deputy commander Capt. Ma Guolian (Ma Kwok-Lim), a Canadian-Chinese volunteer for the Chinese Air Force, shot down the first two bombers in the battle, followed by two more downed as Capt. Cen led another attack on the third formation. They would be joined by pilots of the Soviet Volunteer Group led by Nikolay Garilov and the 15th PS led by Li Debiao, who would all shoot down five more of the Japanese bombers; the northern Chinese air-raid early-warning net headquarters in Xi'an observed 21 of the original 30 IJAAF bombers returning from Lanzhou.

As the Imperial Japanese forces were preparing for Operation Z against the United States and other allies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific by mid-1941, the IJANF were busy training new aircrews in live combat action across China for the upcoming war in the Pacific; on 22 May 1941, Lt. Gao Youxin of the 21st PS, 4th PG engaged an IJNAF raid on Lanzhou in an I-16 fighter aircraft, while avoiding confrontation against the Zero fighters, he shot down a Mitsubishi G3M bomber north of Lanzhou. On the ground, the KMT Muslim Generals Ma Hongkui and Ma Bufang protected Lanzhou with their cavalry troops, putting up such resistance that the Japanese never captured Lanzhou.

Geography
At 1600 m above sea level, Lanzhou lies in China's northwest geographical center. The metropolitan area covers more than 20 km2 of urbanisation along the southern banks of the Yellow River, which flows through from west to east. The Qilian Ranges, Mt. Pingliang, and Mt. Kongtong are located on the south and north sides of the city.

Zonary Basin.

Lanzhou is situated on the upper reaches of the Yellow River where it emerges from the mountains and has been a center since early times, being at the southern end of the route leading via the Hexi Corridor across Central Asia. It commands the approaches to the ancient capital area of Chang'an (modern Xi'an) in Shaanxi province from both the west and the northwest, as well as the area of Qinghai Lake via the upper waters of the Yellow River and its tributaries.

Climate
Lanzhou is situated in the temperate zone and has a semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) with hot summers and cold and very dry winters. In the urban core, based on 1971–2000 normals, the monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −4.1 °C in January to 23.4 °C in July. The mean annual temperature is 10.9 °C, while annual rainfall is 309 mm, almost all of which falls from May to October. The winters are so dry that snowfall is sometimes restricted to fall and spring. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 47 percent in September to 57 percent in April, sunshine is generous but not abundant, as the city receives 2,350 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Environmental problems

The city is located in a narrow and curved river valley with surrounding mountains causing it to be hemmed in blocking a free flow of air. According to the National Environmental Analysis released by Tsinghua University and The Asian Development Bank in January 2013, Lanzhou was among the ten most air-polluted cities in the world. Air quality reportedly was so poor that at times one could not see Lanshan, the mountain rising up along the south side of the city. Lanzhou is also the home of many factories, including some involved in petroleum processing, and suffers from large dust storms kicked up from the Gobi Desert, especially in the winter and spring. In 2011, using Chinese statistics, the World Health Organization reported that Lanzhou had the worst air quality among eleven western Chinese cities. Its annual mean PM10 μg/m3 of 150 is 7 times the safe level established by the World Health Organization. It was worse than Beijing with its reading of 121.

Since then, authorities have taken measures to improve air quality, which have largely been successful. "Thirteen polluting enterprises with excessive capacity have been closed, more than 200 highly polluting enterprises were suspended in winter, and 78 industrial enterprises have moved to an industrial park outside the city." In 2015 it was awarded China's climate progress title. As a city once unable to be spotted from satellites, Lanzhou has taken various measures to combat air pollution in recent years, having reduced its Air Pollution Index at the fastest speed across China. According to the 2018 WHO database, of 2700 towns listed, Lanzhou has the 158th highest level of PM 2.5 pollution, with an average of 54 micrograms per cubic meter (twice that of Milan). The large particle PM10 remains high, at 132 micrograms per cubic meter, in part as a result of sand storms.

The reach of the Yellow River at Lanzhou carries a high load of silt, giving the river its characteristic muddy appearance; however water quality in this reach is better than the "fetid outflow that barely passes for water two hours downstream" (2008). In recent years, several specimens of the endangered Chinese giant salamander have been found in and near the Yellow River in Lanzhou.

On April 11, 2014, Lanzhou officials advised residents not to drink tap water, because benzene levels were 20 times the national limit of 10 micrograms per liter. The city water supply suspected industrial chemical production to be the culprit, similar to what happened in the 2005 Jilin chemical plant explosions.

A brucellosis outbreak infecting humans took place in Lanzhou in 2020 after the Lanzhou Biopharmaceutical Plant involved in vaccine production accidentally pumped out the bacteria into the atmosphere in exhaust air, due to use of expired desinfectant, and affecting over 3,000 people.

Earthquakes
Lanzhou experiences earthquakes regularly, although usually at low intensities. In 1920 a large earthquake was experienced killing more than 100,000 people in Ningxia and Eastern Gansu province, although only 42 were killed in Lanzhou itself, the low number being attributed to the strong yet flexible nature of the wooden buildings in the city. Lanzhou was also affected by 2008 Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

Demographics
As of the 2020 Chinese census, Lanzhou surpassed 4 million population for the first time, with a total population of 4,359,446 inhabitants and 3,042,863 in the built-up (or metro) area of 1,112.9 square kilometres (429.7 sq mi) made of the 4 central urban districts (Chengguan, Qilihe, Anning and Xigu District). Lanzhou New Area, near the airport and Honggu Districts are not yet conurbated. The growth increased significantly after a period of slower growth. The strong growth has been attributed to parents seeking better education opportunities for their children, retired migrant workers returning to Gansu, improved services in the city and government policies.

Sport
The 14,000-capacity Northwest Minzu University Stadium is one of the main sports venues in the city. It is mostly used for football games. A new sports center complex, including a stadium with a capacity of 60,000 spectators and a swimming hall, is under development.

Lanzhou previously had a professional soccer team named Gansu Tianma from 1999 to 2003.The team played in Chinese Football Association Yi League from 1999 to 2001 and bought a position in the Jia League from Tianjin Lifei. The team relocated to Ningbo, Zhejiang and changed their name to Ningbo Yaoma in 2003. The team later relegated to China League Two in 2004 and became Dongguan Dongcheng after moving to Dongguan, Guangdong.

Former England international Paul Gascoigne played four games in both a playing and coaching role for Gansu in 2003, scoring two goals,  before returning to England after falling out with the club,  as his mental state meant that he had to return to America for treatment against drink and depression.

Administrative divisions
On August 20, 2012, Lanzhou New Area was approved by the State Council of China's Central Government. In 2019, Lanzhou New Area was formally established as a county-level division of Lanzhou, its area being split off from Yongdeng and Gaolan. The updated area and population of Yongdeng and Gaolan are not yet reflected in the table.

Tourism

 * The Five Spring Mountain Park (五泉山公园), located on the northern side of Gaolan Mountain, is renowned for its five springs and numerous Buddhist temples, featuring many ancient architectural sites.
 * The Zhongshan Bridge (中山桥) was the first permanent bridge over the Yellow River.
 * Baita Mountain Park (白塔山公园) was built close to the mountains at an elevation of 1700 m and opened in 1958 across Zhongshan Bridge.
 * The Lanzhou Botanical Garden (兰州植物园), located in the Anning District, has a large variety of trees, flowers and other plants.
 * Xiguan Mosque (西关清真寺), is one of the larger mosques in China.
 * Xinglong Mountain (兴隆山), is covered with thick pine forests and scattered with colorful temples.
 * Lutusi ancient government (鲁土司衙门旧址), a large complex of ancient governmental buildings.

Museums

 * Gansu Provincial Museum (甘肃省博物馆), displays archaeological and fossil finds from Gansu and exhibitions on Gansu's history.
 * Lanzhou Museum (兰州市博物馆), is an important cultural unit on the Silk Road. As of October 2017, the collection contains more than 13,000 pieces of collections, including pottery, porcelain, bronze, calligraphy, coins, jade, stoneware, etc. There are 52 national first-class cultural relics, 78 national second-level cultural relics and 682 national third-level cultural relics.
 * Gansu Art Museum (甘肃艺术馆), Providing a broad display and external communication platform for artists.
 * Lanzhou City Planning Exhibition Hall (兰州市规划展览馆), showing the profound Yellow River culture of Lanzhou and integrating indoor exhibition, architectural concept and urban characteristics.
 * Lanzhou Painted Pottery Museum (兰州彩陶博物馆), The total number of collections is 250, including 50 precious cultural relics, it displays the painted pottery civilization represented by the cultural pottery of Majiayao.
 * Gansu Science and Technology Museum (甘肃科技博物馆) sound, light, electricity and other high-tech means will be fully adopted, and the way of teaching and learning will enable visitors to embrace modern science in a pleasant atmosphere.

Economy

Since 1949 Lanzhou has been transformed from the capital of a poverty-stricken province into the center of a major industrial area. It was one of the first cities in China to industrialize, as a focus of the First and Second Five-Year Plans.

The GDP per capita of Lanzhou was 25,566 (RMB) (US$3,681) in 2008, ranking it at number 134 among 659 Chinese cities. In 2015, the GDP per capita had grown to 57,191 RMB (US$9,182.28) and the city ranked at place 100 for total GDP of Chinese cities.

Institutions
The International Solar Energy Center (UNIDO-ISEC) is located in Lanzhou's Chengguan district.

Natural resources

 * Minerals: coal, gold, silver, zinc, nickel, manganese, clay, and dolomite
 * Hydropower

There is a thermal generating plant supplied with coal from fields in Qinghai. In addition, there is a hydroelectric station at Zhulama Gorge in Gansu, and a large multipurpose dam has been built in the Liujia Gorge on the Yellow River above Lanzhou.

Industry
Main industries include textile mills, rubber processing and fertilizer plants, an oil refinery, petrochemicals, machinery, and metallurgical industry.

Gansu has one of the largest oil refineries in the country and Lanzhou itself is the center of the province's petrochemical industry. The refinery is linked to the fields at Yumen by pipeline. It also manufactures equipment for the oil industry.

Lanzhou has a large textile industry, particularly noted for the production of woolen and leather goods. In addition, Lanzhou produces locomotives and rolling stock for the northwestern railways, as well as machine tools and mining equipment. Aluminum products, industrial chemicals, and fertilizers are produced on a large scale, and there is a large rubber industry. Copper is mined in nearby Gaolan.

Lanzhou has been one of the centers of China's national nuclear power industry since the 1960s.

Agriculture
Lanzhou is the collecting center and market for agricultural produce and livestock from a wide area.

 * Spring wheat, vegetables, beans, oil-boiling, melon, peaches, and tobacco
 * Roses and lilies

Airport
Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport is the main airport serving Lanzhou, it is located 70 km north of Lanzhou. It opened for public service in 1970.

The airport offers direct connections to over 70 international and domestic destinations.

Subway
Lanzhou was the second city in northwest China to announce the construction of a subway line, in August 2012. The urban railway network, Lanzhou Metro, is planned to consist of six subway lines running 207 km. The first line, which is completely underground, opened in June 2019. Lanzhou Metro Line 2 (First-stage project), opened in June 2023. Passengers can transfer between Line 1 and Line 2 at Dongfanghong Square Station and Wulipu Station.

Regional
Lanzhou Railway Station is a major railway hub of western China. Every day over 100 passenger trains originate or pass via this station. It is a vital focal point connecting the western provinces with the east. Lanzhou Railway Station is located on Huochezhan Dong Lu, in Chengguan district. Lanzhou West Railway Station is the city's second major railway station, offering connection to high-speed rail services.

Lanzhou Railway Station has the following railway connections:
 * Longhai Railway to the east (Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Lianyungang), with connection to the main railway of eastern China supporting direct trains to Beijing, Shanghai, etc. Finished in 1953, it was the first railway to reach Lanzhou.
 * Lanxin Railway to the west and northwest (with direct trains to western Gansu and Ürümqi, and further connections to other points in Xinjiang and to Kazakhstan)
 * Lanqing Railway to the west and southwest, with direct service to Xining and Lhasa
 * Chongqing–Lanzhou railway to southeast, with direct service to Chongqing and Guangyuan
 * A line to the north and northeast, with direct service to Yinchuan and Baotou
 * Lanzhou–Zhongchuan Airport Intercity Railway between Lanzhou Railway Station and Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport.
 * Lanhe Railway (under construction) to Linxia and Hezuo.

High speed rail
New high-speed passenger-only railways are completed both toward the east (the Xuzhou–Lanzhou high-speed railway) and the west (the Lanzhou–Xinjiang high-speed railway). These services only stop at Lanzhou West Railway Station. The Yinchuan–Lanzhou high-speed railway and Chengdu–Lanzhou high-speed railway are under construction.

Freight rail
Lanzhou forms an important link in one of the routes of the Eurasian Land Bridge and also provides rail access to Qinghai, Xinjiang and Tibet further to the west. A large rail freight terminal has recently been constructed to accommodate increasing volumes of rail freight and Lanzhou is home to China's fourth largest marshalling yard.

Regular freight services connect Lanzhou to destinations including Chongqing, Hamburg, Almaty and Kathmandu.

Road network
In 2016, Lanzhou was ranked 4th of Chinese cities with the worst rush hour traffic jams; however, by 2017, after completion of an urban ring road, it dropped to 33rd place.

Highways

 * G75 Lanzhou–Haikou Expressway
 * G30 Lianyungang–Khorgas Expressway
 * G6 Beijing–Lhasa Expressway
 * G22 Qingdao–Lanzhou Expressway
 * G2201 Lanzhou Ring Expressway
 * China National Highway 212
 * China National Highway 213
 * China National Highway 312

Bus services
For long-distance buses, there are three major bus stations in the urban area, West Bus Station in Xiaoxihu neighbourhood, East Bus Station near Lanzhou Station and South Bus Station near G75 Lanzhou–Haikou Expressway terminus. Furthermore, there are a total of 132 local city bus lines. These have their main node station at Xiguan.

Lanzhou has a noted bus rapid transit system which opened in 2013 and won the city an honorable mention at the 2014 Sustainable Transport Awards.

Media

 * Gansu People's Press, in Lanzhou, publishes Duzhe, the most widely circulated magazine in China.
 * Lanzhou Radio serves the Lhasa and Lanzhou province regions with news and music.
 * Gansu Daily, newspaper for Gansu Province, has its editorial offices in Lanzhou.

Culture

The city is the cultural centre of Gansu. It is home to many different ethnic groups and their respective cultures, but the most prominent three groups are the Han, Hui, and Zang.

 * Chinese opera: Qinqiang Opera
 * Cuisine: Lanzhou beef lamian noodles, many other types of noodles, the root of the lily, and many different kinds of mutton are important elements of Lanzhou's distinct food culture. Lanzhou Beef noodles are well known throughout China. The city of Lanzhou is home to over 1,000 beef noodle restaurants.
 * Islam in China: Xiguan Mosque, the mosque was constructed in the Ming dynasty and rebuilt in 1990. It occupies an area of 467 m2 and is one of the most influential mosques in China. The architecture of the mosque predominantly reflects that of Arab architecture.
 * The city is the seat of a currently vacant Roman Catholic diocese and was previously the center of a vicariate apostolic (Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Kan-Su).

Many people in Lanzhou believe in superstitions.

Colleges and universities
Lanzhou is a major center for scientific research and education in Northwestern China after Xi'an. The city is one of the top 60 major cities in the world by scientific research output as tracked by the Nature Index. The city is the seat of Lanzhou University, founded in 1909. The National Minorities Institute at Lanzhou and a branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are also located in the city. In particular, Northwest Normal University has been the key university at the provincial level, which has prepared over 100,000 teachers in schools across the province Gansu.

List
Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor's degree programs are not listed.

National level

 * Lanzhou University, founded 1909

Other public institutions

 * Eastern Gansu University
 * Gansu Agricultural University, founded 1958
 * Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Formerly known as Gansu College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it has contributed to Gansu's medical and health undertakings and social development.
 * College of Politics and Law, Gansu, Based in Gansu, radiating to the northwest, facing the country, actively serving local social development and establishment of the legal system.
 * Lanzhou University of Arts and Science, Composed by the merger of Gansu Institute of Education and Gansu Union University in 2013.
 * College of Technology, Lanzhou
 * Lanzhou City College, founded 1958
 * Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics, The only financial and economic university in the three provinces of Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai.
 * Lanzhou Jiaotong University, founded 1958
 * Lanzhou Medical College (Lanzhou Medical Institute) incorporated into Lanzhou University
 * Lanzhou Niuroumian (Noodle with beef soup) Cultural Research Institute
 * Lanzhou University of Technology,, founded 1919 (formerly Gansu University of Technology)
 * Northwest University for Nationalities
 * Northwest Normal University, founded 1902

Healthcare

 * People's Hospital of Gansu
 * Second People's Hospital of Gansu (see Borden Memorial Hospital, predecessor)
 * Third People's Hospital of Gansu
 * First People's Hospital of Lanzhou
 * Second People's Hospital of Lanzhou
 * Lanzhou University First Hospital
 * Lanzhou University Second Hospital
 * General Military Hospital
 * Lanzhou Military Hospital
 * Lanzhou Heavy Ion Cancer Treatment Center, joint venture by Sheng De Group, the city government and Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institution of Modern Physics
 * Gansu Tumor Hospital

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title: Lanzhou