Yichun, Heilongjiang

Yichun is a prefecture-level city on the Songhua river in Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China. The city is separated from Russia by the Amur River and has an international border of 246 km. At the 2010 census, Yichun has a total population of 1,148,126 while 729,202 people live in 15 districts separated by forests. The greening rate of Yichun is up to 83%. The nickname of Yichun is Lindu.

History
Yichun was named after the Yichun River (伊春河), which is a small tributary of Tangwang River (汤旺河). The word Yichun means "nine" in Mongolian language. During the Shang dynasty Yichun was populated by the Sushen (肃慎). Before the Tang dynasty, the region was inhabited by several nomad tribes in the northeastern border area of China including Sushen and Donghu. During the Qing dynasty, Yichun was under the administration of Qiqihar and Hulan's Deputy Lieutenant-General (Fudutong) before it became a minor town under Tangyuan County's jurisdiction in the 1890s.

The region's real development began after the establishment of Manchukuo after Japanese force seized Manchuria in 1932. In November 1941, a railway from Suihua to Jiamusi was built before its branch was extended to today's Yichun district from Nancha in July 1942. In 1945, Yichun was established as Yichunjie (Yichun Street) under Tangyuan County's control. As a major center of lumber industry, Yichun has grown at an astonishing rate since 1949. In 1952 Yichun County was established by the PRC Government. On 13 Feb 1958 Yichun was designated a Prefecture-level city. However, in order to set up a pilot of the combination of enterprise management and government, The CPC Central Committee and State Council approved to establish Yichun Special District (伊春特区) instead of Yichun City in 1964. In 1979 the City of Yichun was reinstated. Jiayin and Tieli were put into Yichun's jurisdiction.

Geography
Yichun is located in the northeast part of Heilongjiang with a border length of 2495 km, part of which faces Russia across the Amur River. The Lesser Khingan Mountains cross the city. The total administrative area is 33000 km2. The channels and valleys are densely covered with trees and grasslands. There are 702 rivers, all of which are in the Amur and Songhua River drainage basins; the total water pondage is 10.2 e9m3. The Tangwanghe River is the main river.

Climate
Yichun has a monsoon-influenced, hemiboreal climate (Köppen Dwb), with long, bitterly cold, but very dry winters, and very warm, humid summers. With an annual mean temperature of 1.6 °C, it is among the coldest Chinese cities, and diurnal temperature variation tends to be large, especially in winter and spring. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −21.3 °C in January to 20.9 °C. During the warmer months, rainfall is somewhat enhanced by the mountainous topography, allowing for a generous annual precipitation total of 627 mm. However, the monsoon still means that more than 60% of the annual precipitation falls from June to August alone.



Subdivisions
On 13 Jun 2019, the District division adjustment plan of Yichun, which plans to merge all of the original 15 districts to 4 districts and 4 counties was approved by the State Council.

Yichun, Heilongjiang currently comprises 4 districts, 1 county-level city and 5 counties.

Districts: Yimei, Wucui, Youhao and Jinlin

County-level city: Tieli

Counties: Tangwang, Fenglin, Nancha and Dajingshan

Economy
The city's GDP topped RMB 20.24 billion in 2010, featuring a growth of 15.7% over the previous year. In 2010, value-added industrial output generated by enterprises with designated size or above rose 29.3% to RMB 7.12 billion. In 2010, the foreign trade value of Yichun totaled US$302.23 million, up 36.3% year on year.

Wood processing and metallurgy are the main industries in Yichun. In 2010, value-added industrial output from wood processing increased 34% to RMB 2.01 billion, while that from metallurgy rose 39.2% to RMB 2.2 billion, accounting for 33.6% of the industrial sector's total. These two industries accounted for 91% of Yichun's total value-added industrial output according to the statistics in 2009.

Transportation
Yichun Lindu Airport, located in a forest approximately 9 km from downtown Yichun, is the city's airport. It started operations in August 2009, and is capable of serving 142,000 passengers a year. Yichun Railway Station operates daily trains to Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province. The Yichun-Hegang Highway and the Yichun-Harbin Highway(part of Hegang-Harbin Highway) connect the city with other cities in Heilongjiang Province.