- Heilongjiang Province

Population: 33.3 million

Urban population: 20.4 million

Nationalities: Han, Manchu, Korean, Mongolian, Hui, Daur, Oreqen, Hezhen, Kirgiz, and Ewenki.

Area: 460,000 square kilometers

Climatic features: Spans the cold-temperate/semi-humid and temperate/humid zones; short summers and long winters; no summer in the northwest; subject to spring droughts, summer flooding, and autumn frost.

Average temperature: -32 C to -17 C in January, 16 C to 23 C in July, coldest in the northwest.

Annual Average Rainfall: 250 - 700 mm; highest precipitation occurs on the southern side of the Lesser Hinggan Range and the Zhangguangcai Mountains; 60 percent of the rain falls from June to August.

Physical features: Mountainous in the north and south; plains in the east and west; intermittent volcanic eruptions in some sections.

Mountains: Emur, Yilehuli, and Lesser Hinggan Mountains in the norh; in the south, part of the Changbai Mountains.

Rivers: Heilong River along the northern border; Nenjiang and Songhua Rivers in the middle; Wusuli River along the eastern border.

Plains: The Sanjiang Plain in the east consists of alluvial deposits from the Heilong, Songhua, and Wusuli Rivers; the Songnen Plain, named after the Nenjiang and Songhua Rivers, is connected to the Sanjiang Plain throught the Songhua River Valley,; a small plain lies north of Xingkai Lake in the east.

Products: Corn, sorghum, millet, wheat, rice, potatoes, soybeans, sugar beet, sesame, sunflower seeds; flax, tussah, timber; fur animals including squirrel, alpine weasel, sable, and otter; ginseng antlers, tigerbone, musk, and other medicinal materals; edible fungus, mushrooms, pine nuts; chum salmon, sturgeon, huso sturgeon.

Administrative divisions: 19 cities, 59 counties, and 1 autonomous county.

Capital: Harbin

Neighboring Areas: Jilin, Inner Mongolia

Neighboring country: the Soviet Union

Major Cities: Harbin, Qiqihar, Mudanjiang, Jiamusi, Jixi, Jegang, Shuangyashan, Daqing, Heihe.

Tourist Attractions: Ice festival and Sun Island, Harbin: Jingpo Lake near Mudanjiang.

Source: Atlas of the Peoples Republic of China, Beijing, 1989

Last modified: Tuesday, December 16, 2003