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Qiqihar

Also known as Qiqihaer, Qiqiha'er, Chichihar, Tsitsihar, Tsitcikar, Cicigar, Tzitzikar

Qiqihar (also spelled Tsitsihar) is the second-largest city in the Heilongjiang province of China, in the west central part of the province. The built-up (or metro) area made up of Longsha, Tiefeng and Jianhua districts had 959,787 inhabitants, while the total population of the prefecture-level city was shrinking to 4,067,489 as of the 2020 census (5,367,003 as of 2010). In 2024, the total registered population of the city will be 5.06 million. Among them, the rural population is 3.165 million. These are mainly Han Chinese, though the city is also home to thirty-four minorities including Manch

OverviewAI-generated

Qiqihar is a prefecture-level city in China, situated in the Heilongjiang province. It has at various times been located within the administrative territorial entity of the Soviet occupation of Manchuria. The city’s official name is 齐齐哈尔市, and it serves as a big city with an area of 42,255.46 square kilometers. Its capital is Jianhua District, and it contains the administrative entities of Longsha District, Jianhua District, Tiefeng District, and Ang'angxi District.

The city was established in 1691 and has a population of 5,367,003. It lies at an elevation of 147 meters above sea level and operates in the UTC+08:00 time zone. Qiqihar is twinned with Utsunomiya, Jing'an District, Huangpu District, and Xuhui District. The local dialing code is 0452, and the postal code is 161000.

Synthesized by Vinony from 53 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Openweathermap, Open Meteo, OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

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7-day forecast

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Place details

Locality: 建华区
Region: 黑龙江省
Country: 中国
Population: 882,364
Timezone: Asia/Shanghai

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Air quality

32US AQIGood

PM2.5: 10.3 µg/m³
PM10: 11.4 µg/m³

As of 2026-08-11 08:00 · Open-Meteo

Wikipedia views (30d)

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Key facts

Settlement.name: Qiqihar
Settlement.native_name: 齐齐哈尔市
Settlement.native_name_lang: zh-Hans
Settlement.other_name: Ch'i-ch'i-ha-erh, Tsitsihar
Settlement.settlement_type: Prefecture-level city
Settlement.image_skyline: Qiqiharskyline4.JPG
Settlement.nickname: The Crane City ()
Settlement.image_map: Location of Qiqihar Prefecture within Heilongjiang (China).png
Settlement.map_caption: Location of Qiqihar City (yellow) in Heilongjiang (light grey) and China
Settlement.pushpin_map: Heilongjiang
Settlement.pushpin_map_caption: Location of the city centre in Heilongjiang
Settlement.coor_pinpoint: Qiqihar municipal government
Settlement.subdivision_type: Country
Settlement.subdivision_name: People's Republic of China
Settlement.subdivision_type1: Province
Settlement.subdivision_type2: County-level divisions
Settlement.subdivision_type3: towns and townships
Settlement.subdivision_type4: villages

via Wikipedia infobox

Travel guide

Understand

Qiqihar was founded as a walled city in 1691, and for a period the military government of Heilongjiang was based here. For many years, only Manchus were allowed to live in the city, but gradually it transformed to be dominated by Hans. Establishment of the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1903 and later other lines made the city a transportation hub. During 1931-1945 it was an important military base for the Japanese occupation, which helped the city grow in size and importance.

The population of the city is 1.5 million and of the prefecture 6.1 million. The city consists of Longsha District (龙沙区), Tiefeng District (铁锋区) and Jianhua District (建华区), whereas the prefecture further includes 4 districts, 8 counties and 1 city.

See

thumb|Red-crowned crane in Zhalong

Do

Not much. But here you can have easier access to train tickets for nicer places in northeastern China because the Qiqihar station is a large transfer hub.

Look at cranes

There is a national park located in the suburbs of Qiqihar. It is a beautiful grassland with marshes here and there. Qiqihar is famous for its cranes. At a specific time each morning, the park authorities let cranes out of their cages to fly and roam around the park. It's a beautiful sight, make sure you get there early enough to be there when they open the gates.

Listen to bird songs in the morning

At the coordinates: 47.308044,123.949783 in the morning around sunrise, a group of gentlemen get together and hang bird cages from trees. The birds sing back and forth to each other, it's truly a beautiful experience. There's a roundabout with a park of sorts in the center of it. There's a large statue in the middle - the guys meet around the statue and hang the cages from the trees inside this roundabout.

Eat

Qiqihar Barbecue. A local delicacy. Qiqihar, the Daur language is "natural pasture", so here is the natural pasture of barbecue, Nenjiang nurtured the green ecology of Qiqihar. Qiqihar barbecue has "learned" from Manchu, Mongolian, Chaoxian, Hui, Daur, Ewenki and other ethnic groups, combined with each other's strengths, and formed its own style.