Kalgan

China
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Also known as: Chang-chia-k’ou, Wan-ch’uan, Zhangjiakou
Chinese (Pinyin):
Zhangjiakou
(Wade-Giles romanization):
Chang-chia-k’ou

Kalgan, city in northwestern Hebei sheng (province), northern China. Kalgan, the name by which the city is most commonly known, is from a Mongolian word meaning “gate in a barrier,” or “frontier.” The city was colloquially known in Chinese as the Dongkou (“Eastern Entry”) into Hebei from Inner Mongolia. It is about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Beijing. Pop. (2002 est.) city, 688,297; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 1,046,000.

History

Kalgan was the point at which the main caravan route from Beijing to Inner Mongolia and beyond passed through the Great Wall of China at the foot of the escarpments reaching up to the lower Mongolian Plateau. The Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce) placed the region under Guangning county, the seat of which was slightly east of Kalgan, but the area remained only on the margins of effective Chinese control. During the Three Kingdoms (220–280) and the Xi (Western) Jin dynasty (265–316/317), it was the seat of a Wuhuan commandery. Later it became an important centre of the Xianbei, Mongol invaders of the 4th century. In 1429 the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) constructed a fort—the present-day Xia Bao (“Lower Fort”)—as part of the defenses against the Mongols. In 1613 the present Laiyuan Bao (“Upper Fort”) was built north of it as a trading centre. The town of Kalgan then grew up on the west bank of the Qingshui River, a tributary of the Yongding River, between the forts. The main trading centre was Kouwai, outside the north gate of the Laiyuan Bao.

Administratively, in Qing times (1644–1911/12), Kalgan was subordinated to Xuanhua, about 17 miles (27 km) south. It was the seat of a civil prefect and also of the military governor of the Mongols of Chahar, a former province of what is now Inner Mongolia.

Kalgan’s importance, however, was always primarily commercial—as the terminus of the principal caravan route to Mongolia and Russia, bearing most of the vast Siberian tea trade. In 1860, under the Sino-Russian Treaty, it was opened to Russian trade, and in 1902 it was opened to international trade. In 1911 the railway from Beijing reached Kalgan, and it was then steadily extended to the northwest. This was, however, the zenith of Kalgan’s international trade, when the city contained some 7,000 commercial firms and when the caravan traffic employed hundreds of thousands of camels, great numbers of ox wagons, and many thousands of men. After 1920, trade slumped because the Russian Revolution of 1917 and because political changes in Outer Mongolia had drastically reduced the importance of the caravan traffic. Civil disorder and banditry were rampant in the area north and west of Kalgan, while the extension of the railway to Hohhot in Inner Mongolia meant that Kalgan itself was no longer a railhead.

In 1937 the Japanese occupied the area and established an autonomous government, Cha-nan (South Chahar), at Kalgan. In 1937 the Federated Mengjiang Commission was set up at Kalgan to supervise the economic affairs, banking, communications, and industry of Japanese-occupied Inner Mongolia. Colonization by Chinese settlers was checked as part of the pro-Mongol policies pursued by the Japanese. After World War II the area was occupied by Chinese communists, and, although the Nationalist armies drove them out briefly, Kalgan was retaken in 1948. From 1948 to 1949, Kalgan was the capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, although located outside its borders. In 1952, when Chahar province was abolished, Kalgan again became a part of Hebei province.

Although the traditional commercial dominance of Kalgan was diminished, it remained a political and strategic centre. After the foundation of the republic in 1911, it was given the name Wanquan county. In 1928 Kalgan was made the administrative capital of a new Chahar province, which accelerated the colonization of the area by Chinese settlers. By the early 1930s, Chinese settlers had pushed 75 miles (120 km) beyond Kalgan, causing great damage to the environment by destroying the natural pasture and bringing about extensive soil erosion.

The contemporary city

Some light industry—primarily the preparation of furs, leatherwork, tanning, and shoemaking—had already existed in the 1920s and ’30s. Light industry and food processing were also encouraged under the Japanese occupation. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Kalgan developed rapidly, its population trebling between 1948 and 1958. Kalgan’s proximity to the ranching area and the rich coal and iron mines in its vicinity meant the rapid growth of coal mining, metallurgical, machine-making (mostly mining machines), and power industries. In addition, it is still an important centre of fur processing and tanning; other manufactures include woolen fabric, cigarettes, and processed food. An expressway built in the 1990s connects the city with Beijing.

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There are numerous historical sites in and around Kalgan. North of the city, near the town of Zhangbei, are the ruins of Zhongdu, the former middle capital of the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368). Southwest of the city, near the Sanggan River in the Nihewan Basin, are a group of sites that have been identified as being of Paleolithic to Neolithic age.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.
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Quick Facts

Mongol empire, empire founded by Genghis Khan in 1206. Originating from the Mongol heartland in the Steppe of central Asia, by the late 13th century it spanned from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Danube River and the shores of the Persian Gulf in the west. At its peak, it covered some 9 million square miles (23 million square km) of territory, making it the largest contiguous land empire in world history.

Origin and growth

The year 1206, when Temüjin, son of Yesügei, was elected Genghis Khan of a federation of tribes on the banks of the Onon River, must be regarded as the beginning of the Mongol empire. This federation not only consisted of Mongols in the proper sense—that is, Mongol-speaking tribes—but also other Turkic tribes. Before 1206 Genghis Khan was but one of the tribal leaders fighting for supremacy in the steppe regions south and southeast of Lake Baikal; his victories over the Kereit and then the Naiman Turks, however, gave him undisputed authority over the whole of what is now Mongolia. A series of campaigns, some of them carried out simultaneously, followed.

Initial conquests

The first attack (1205–09) was directed against the Tangut kingdom of Hsi Hsia (Xi Xia), a northwestern border-state of China, and ended in a declaration of allegiance by the Xi Xia king. A subsequent campaign was aimed at north China, which at that time was ruled by the Tungusic Jin dynasty. The fall of Beijing in 1215 marked the loss of all the territory north of the Huang He (Yellow River) to the Mongols; during the following years the Jin empire was reduced to the role of a buffer state between the Mongols in the north and the Chinese Song empire in the south. Other campaigns were launched against central Asia. In 1218 the Khara-Khitai state in east Turkistan was absorbed into the empire.

The assassination of Muslim subjects of Genghis Khan by the Khwārezmians in Otrar led to a war with the sultanate of Khwārezm (Khiva) in west Turkistan (1219–25). Bukhara, Samarkand, and the capital Urgench were taken and sacked by Mongol armies (1220–21). Advance troops (after crossing the Caucasus) even penetrated into southern Russia and raided cities in Crimea (1223). The once prosperous region of Khwārezm suffered for centuries from the effects of the Mongol invasion which brought about not only the destruction of the prosperous towns but also the disintegration of the irrigation system on which agriculture in those parts depended. A similarly destructive campaign was launched against Xi Xia in 1226–27 because the Xi Xia king had refused to assist the Mongols in their expedition against Khwārezm. The death of Genghis Khan during that campaign (1227) increased the vindictiveness of the Mongols. The Xi Xia culture, a mixture of Chinese and Tibetan elements, with Buddhism as the state religion, was virtually annihilated.

In 1227 the Mongol dominions stretched over the vast regions between the Caspian and China seas, bordering in the north on the sparsely populated forest belt of Siberia and in the south on the Pamirs, Tibet, and the central plains of China. This empire contained a multitude of different peoples, religions, and civilizations, and it is only natural to seek the motivating force behind this unparalleled expansion. Certainly the traditional antagonism between pastoral, nomadic steppe-dwellers and settled agricultural civilizations has to be taken into account. Raids by nomads from the steppe had always occurred from time to time wherever powerful nomadic tribes lived in the proximity of settled populations, but they had not usually taken on the dimensions of a bid for world hegemony or domination as in the case of Genghis Khan’s invasions.

The idea of a heavenly mission to rule the world was certainly present in Genghis Khan’s own mind and in the minds of many of his successors, but this ideological imperialism had no foundation in nomadic society as such. It was most probably due to influences from China where the “one world, one ruler” ideology had a long tradition. The creation of nomad empires in the steppes and the attempts to extend their rule over the more settled parts of central Asia and finally over the whole known world may also have been influenced by the desire to control the routes of intercontinental land trade. The desire for plunder also cannot be ignored, and it was certainly not by accident that the first attacks by nomad federations were usually directed against those states which benefited from the control of trade routes in central Asia such as the famous Silk Road.

Military practices

The amazing military achievements of the Mongols under Genghis Khan and his successors were due to superior strategy and tactics rather than to numerical strength. Mongol armies were chiefly composed of cavalry which afforded them a high degree of mobility and speed. Their movements and maneuvers were directed by signals and a well-organized messenger service. In battle they relied mainly on bows and arrows and resorted to man-to-man fighting only after having disorganized the enemy’s ranks. Mongol armaments and tactics were more suited to open plains and flat countries than to mountainous and wooded regions. For the siege of walled cities they frequently secured assistance from artisans and engineers of technically advanced conquered peoples such as Chinese, Persians, and Arabs.

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Another factor contributing to the overwhelming success of their expeditions was the skilful use of spies and propaganda. Before attacking they usually asked for voluntary surrender and offered peace. If this was accepted, the population was spared. If, however, resistance had to be overcome, wholesale slaughter or at least enslavement invariably resulted, sparing only those whose special skills or abilities were considered useful. In the case of voluntary surrender, tribesmen or soldiers were often incorporated into the Mongol forces and treated as federates. Personal loyalty of federate rulers to the Mongol khan played a great role, as normally no formal treaties were concluded. The “Mongol” armies, therefore, often consisted of only a minority of ethnic Mongols.

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