Northeast Manchu place names

Northeast China, especially Heilongjiang, Jilin and eastern Inner Mongolia, has always been the traditional settlement of ethnic minorities. Although in the large-scale immigration activities in modern times, the Han nationality became the main ethnic group in Northeast China, bringing all kinds of "sloppy" place names, but those big towns in Northeast China with a long history still retained their original names.

Heilongjiang province

Mongolian, Daur, Oroqen and other ethnic minorities live in the west of Heilongjiang Province. Most of the place names in the west of Heilongjiang Province come from these three ethnic groups, such as Qiqihar, which is the Chinese transliteration of Daur language "Qichahari", meaning "natural pasture".

Manchu, Korean and other ethnic minorities live in the east of Heilongjiang. Because the eastern part of Heilongjiang is dominated by plain terrain and fertile land, most of the cities and population in the province are located in this area, and there are many ethnic minority place names translated into Chinese.

Harbin, Manchu means "net drying fields". Before Harbin was built, Manchu people on Songhua River made a living by fishing and hunting, and often dried their nets here, hence the name.

Harbin Songhua River Bridge

Mudanjiang city is named after the river, but this Mudanjiang is not because of peony flowers. Mudanjiang is the translation of Manchu language "Mudanjiang Wula", which means "bend" and "Wula" means "river", so Mudanjiang means "bend the river".

Jiamusi City, which means "Cheng Yi" in Manchu, was called "Jiamuke Temple Kashan" at the end of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty, and was translated into "Jiamu Temple", "Jiamu Temple" and "Jiamusi" in later Han Dynasty.

Helen City in Suihua is named after Helen River. Helen is a transliteration of Manchu "Ling Kai", which means "otter". Helen River is named because it is rich in otters. During the Qing dynasty, it was also the hunting ground of the Manchu royal family.

Xingkai Lake on the Sino-Russian border was renamed as "Xingkai Lake" from the Qing Dynasty, which means "water rat" in Manchu, so it was named after the large number of rats in the lake.

Jixi City was called "Jiguan Kashan" in Qing Dynasty, and "Kashan" was "Mountain" in Manchu. Jixi originally meant "the west of Jiguan Mountain", and some people said that Jixi means "deerskin with fur" in Manchu.