What is the history of Harbin?

The history of human settlement in Harbin can be traced back to at least 2200 BC (the late Stone Age).

Harbin’s original name was Aljin, which was changed to Harbin in the Yuan Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, it was called Harbin, which in Manchu means net-drying ground, because before the construction of the railway, Harbin was a fishing village.

The Harbin area was under the jurisdiction of Fuyu State, Bohai Guojie Prefecture and Liao State Tokyo Road during the Fuyu, Bohai and Liao Dynasties. In 1114 AD, the Jurchen leader Wanyan Aguda led his troops to fight against the Liao Dynasty and launched the battles of "Ningjiang Prefecture" and "Chuhedian", defeating 100,000 Liao soldiers. In 1115, he proclaimed himself emperor, established the Jin Kingdom, and took over the country under the title of reign , is located in Duning Prefecture (the site of Shangjing in present-day Acheng City), and Harbin is the Gyeonggi area where Jin Shangjing was located. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Harbin became the territory of the Orjin family, the third brother of Genghis Khan, and the jurisdiction of the Nurgan Dusi. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, the deputy capital of Alachua was established in Acheng in the 21st year of Qianlong's reign (1756), with Harbin under its jurisdiction. In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, with the implementation of the "Beijing Banner Relocation" and "Opening the Banner to Reclamation" policies, a large number of Manchu and Han people immigrated to the Harbin area.

In the 22nd year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1896), Tsarist Russia induced the Qing government to sign the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" and obtained the right to build the Middle East Railway. It was first called Harbin in 1898 and belongs to Jilin Province. Starting from 1897, the construction of the Middle East Railway began with Harbin as the center, and Harbin began to be built as a city. In 1898, Tsarist Russia renamed Harbin "Songhua River City", and in 1903 it was renamed Harbin City. Russian immigrants and other European immigrants began to immigrate to Harbin in large numbers. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the government of the Republic of China established Binjiang County in Harbin in 1913 and Binjiang Road in 1914.

The Harbin Municipal Administration was established in 1921, and the Harbin Special City was established in 1926, taking back the administrative rights that had long been controlled by Tsarist Russia. During the subsequent Manchukuo period, Binjiang Province was restructured in 1937, with Harbin as the provincial capital. It was not until August 18, 1945 that the Soviet Red Army captured the city and established a municipality under its jurisdiction. The Soviet Union later transferred the city to the government of the Republic of China. In April 1946, the Chinese People's Liberation Army captured the city. It was changed to the capital of Songjiang Province in 1949 and to the capital of Heilongjiang Province in 1954.

On August 11, 1999, eight counties originally assigned to the Songhua River area were merged into Harbin, making Harbin a sub-provincial city.