Wade Giles romanization:
Chi-hsi

Jixi, city in southeastern Heilongjiang sheng (province), China. Located on the upper Muleng River, a tributary of the Ussuri (Wusuli) River, it is in a mountainous area rich in timber and various minerals including coal, iron, graphite, fluorite, and limestone. Jixi is, however, predominantly a coal-mining city, with some of the largest and best-equipped coal mines in China and one of the highest coal outputs in the country. Its coal is of high quality and is suitable for coking and for use in the chemical industry. Jixi also has a phosphate mine. The city’s industries include electric-power generation, the manufacture of construction materials and machinery, and chemical production. Jixi also processes a large quantity of lumber, with much of the timber being used in the local mines. There is also an engineering industry, which was established to serve the mines. Jixi is linked by rail to the line from Jiamusi to Mudanjiang (both in Heilongjiang province) and has branch lines running to the Russian border areas.

The Jixi region remained a stretch of wilderness until 1909, when coal deposits were discovered and began to be exploited; its population expanded rapidly thereafter. It was made a county named Jining in 1941, renamed Jixi in 1949, and designated a city in 1956. Pop. (2002 est.) city, 757,640; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 965,000.

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Northeast Plain

plain, China
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Also known as: Dongbei Pingyuan, Manchurian Plain, Songliao Pingyuan, Sung-liao P’ing-yüan, Sungliao Plain, Tung-pei P’ing-yüan
Chinese (Pinyin):
Dongbei Pingyuan or Songliao Pingyuan or
(Wade-Giles romanization):
Tung-pei P’ing-yüan or Sung-liao P’ing-yüan
Also called:
Manchurian Plain or Sungliao Plain

Northeast Plain, heart of the central lowland of northeastern China (Manchuria). It has a surface area of about 135,000 square miles (350,000 square km), all of which lies below 1,000 feet (300 metres) above sea level. The plain, largely the product of erosion from the surrounding highlands, is mostly undulating, with fertile black soils. It is bordered on the west by the Da Hinggan Range, on the north by the Xiao Hinggan Range, and on the east by the Changbai ranges, but on the south it is open to the Gulf of Liaodong. It is drained by the Sungari (Songhua) River and its tributary, the Nen River, in the north and by the Liao River in the south. It connects via a narrow strip of coastal plain with the great alluvial North China Plain to the southwest. The Northeast Plain is China’s major soybean-growing area, and it also produces corn (maize), rice, wheat, sorghum, sugar beets, and flax. After 1949, large state farms were established and land reclamation projects begun. It is also an important base of heavy industry with an extensive system of railways, and it is rich in natural resources (iron ore, coal, and oil). The major industrial cities on the plain are Harbin (Ha’erbin), Shenyang (Mukden), and Changchun. The Sanjiang Plain at the confluence of the Sungari, Amur, and Ussuri rivers in the far northeast is generally considered to be part of the Northeast Plain.

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