Changchun Introduction

Jilin Province, 302km (187 miles) NE of Shenyang, 250km (155 miles) SW of Harbin Changchun is remote enough to feel authentic, is friendly and modern enough to be comfortable, and has just enough pop-history background to make it interesting. Between 1932 and 1945, it was the capital of Japanese-controlled Manchukuo (Manzhou Guo) and home to puppet ruler Henry Puyi, the bespectacled final Qing emperor best known to Westerners as the subject of Bernardo Bertolucci’s lush biopic The Last Emperor. The city provided a base for Japan’s brutal World War II colonization campaign and was slated to sit at the center of a postwar empire that never materialized.

Changchun, now the capital of Jilin Province, has gained fame in the modern era as the Detroit of China, producing first Red Flag cars for Communist Party cadres and later Volkswagens for China’s new middle class. Recent economic hardships have sent the city in search of tourism dollars and prompted admirable restorations of several Manchukuo-era buildings. But the city’s greatest attraction is still its people, as unpretentious, warm-hearted, and quick-witted as any in the country.

The rest of Jilin Province mirrors Changchun in many ways. Less convenient than Liaoning to the south and lacking the “extreme travel” cachet of Heilong Jiang and Inner Mongolia to the north and west, it quietly offers several of Dongbei’s most enjoyable attractions. Chang Bai Shan, a dramatic mountain straddling the China-North Korea border, is the most famous. Just as compelling is the seldom-visited Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture to the north.

Changchun History
Changchun is a young city with a long history. There were human activities here as early as 70,000 years ago and the earliest primitive hordes inhabited the area some 7,000 years ago.
It was the possession of the “Fuyuguo” kingdom and the Bohaiyuan Kingdom successively.The years under the reign of the Liao (907-1125) and Jin (1115-1234) dynasties are considered the most prosperous periods in the history of Changchun. The Prefecture of “Huanglongfu” was established in the area of Nongan and an ancient pagoda built in the Liao Dynasty still exists. In 18000, the court of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), established in today’s Xinlicheng, the Changchun Ting-an administrative division at the sub-provincial level. In the period 1931-1945, Changchun was reduced to the capital of the puppet Manchukuo regime, called “Xinjing” -the new capital.
In October 1948, Changchun was liberated and designated as a special city. In 1954, it was made the capital of Jilin Province. In 1955, it became a municipality directly under the central government. In 1979, it was listed as one of the country’s 15 central economic cities. In 1989, it was approved as one of the municipalities with independent budgetary status by the State Council. In 1992, it was designated as a key open city. In 1994, it was listed as a city enjoying sub-provincial status.