Qiqihar (Qíqíhāěr 齐齐哈尔) is a major city in the Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China. The municipal area has 1,438,550 inhabitants. These are mainly Han Chinese; there are thirty-four minorities including Manchu, Daur, and Mongolians. Close to Qiqihar are numerous wetlands and the Zhalong (zhā lóng 扎龙) Nature Reserve, famous in China for being home to numerous red-crowned cranes (dān dǐng hè 丹顶鹤).

History
Qiqihar is one of the oldest cities in the northeast of China and was founded in 1691. From 1931 until 1945 it was an important military base for the Japanese control of northeastern China, going by the name Tsitsihar. During the occupation, the Imperial Japanese Army established in Qiqihar chemical research unit 516 for chemical warfare.

Climate
Under the Koppen climate classification system, Qiqihar has a cold semi-arid climate, with four distinct seasons. It has long, severely cold, but dry winters, with an average January temperature of −18.1 °C (−0.6 °F). Spring and fall are mild, but short and quick transitions. Summers are very warm and humid, with an average July temperature of 23.3 °C (73.9 °F). The average annual precipitation is 415 millimetres (16.3 in), with the majority of it falling from June to August.

Attractions
Jin Dynasty Great Wall

Jin Dynasty Great Wall (Jin Dynasty Northeast Road Border Wall Relics). There is a section of 206.15-km-long Great Wall built in Jin (jīn 金) Dynasty in Qiqihar City, which passes through Gangnan (gān nán xiàn 甘南县) County, Nianzishan District (niǎn zǐ shān xiàn 碾子山县) and Longjiang County (lóng jiāng xiàn 龙江县) of Qiqihar City. Jin Dynasty Great Wall was primarily built by the Nuchen people who compelled people of various nationalities in the construction in the 12th ~ 13th century A.D. The Great Wall started from the Nenjiang River (nèn jiāng 嫩江) bank of Northeast to the Great Bend of Huanghe River, which was a military fortification of more than 4000 km long.

Admission Fee: CNY 10
How to go: You can take special line to go there

Mahayana Temple

Mahayana Temple is also called Temple of Big Buddha (dà chéng sì 大乘寺), which is located at the southeast part of the central city area of Qiqihar City and adjacent to Cemetery of Ximan Revolutionary Martyrs in south. The preparation for construction was started in the
24th year of the Republic of China (1935), the construction was started in the 28 th year of the Republic of China (1939), and the construction was completed in the 32nd year of the Republic of China (1943). The temple covers 31000 ㎡. It's named Mahayana because it was established by family dependants and disciples of the 44th Master Yanxu of Tiantai Sect of Chinese Buddhism. Mahayana is a Sanskrit word, which is a comparison to ferry all the flesh from the temporality of reality to the Faramita nirvana ambit. This temple is currently the largest Buddhist glass tile building complex of Heilongjiang Province, which is called the three large jungles of modern Buddhism in Heilongjiang Province together with the Bliss Temple (pǔ zhào sì 普照寺) of Harbin and the Fahua Temple (fǎ huá sì 法华寺) of Suihua (suí huà 绥化).

Admission Fee: CNY 5
How to go: You can take bus NO.2, 7, 8 to get there

Angangxi Ancient Cultural Relics

Angangxi Ancient Cultural Relics belong to relics of New Stone Age (xīn shí qì shí dài 新石器时代), which was around 6000 or 7000 years ago. It consists of 39 sites and relics points, which is distributed on various sizes of sand hills of the middle and lower reaches of Nenjiang River, together with lowlands, swamps and lakes. There are a lot of relics in these cultural relic sites, which have provided important foundations for the study of the culture of fishing and hunting people in northern prairie of China.

Admission Fee: CNY 10
How to go: You can take a special line to get there

Heilongjiang Military Governor's Mansion

Heilongjiang Martial's Yamun (hēi lóng jiāng jiāng jun1 fǔ 黑龙江将军府) was first built in the 32 nd year of Kangxi's Reign (kāng xī 康熙) (1693), which was located at east of Qiqihar's central city area (the present north end of Pukui (pú kuí jiē 蒲葵街) Street, the former Jianhua District (jiàn huá qū 建华区) Government). Martial of Heilongjiang was transferred from Morgen (the present Nenjiang County) to station in Qiqihar in the 38 th year of Kangxi's Reign (1699), and the Martial's Yamun was built and became the official office of all previous martials of Heilongjiang.

Admission Fee: CNY 3
How to go: You can take bus NO.101, 103 to get there

St. Miller Church
The largest catholic church-St. Miller Church was located at Xianshan Hutong Catholic Church of the Capital City Qiqihar, which was built in July of the 17 th year of the Republic of China (1928) by the Swiss Godfather Enholf to grow followers. The godfather spent 29800 silver dollars in purchasing 45 rooms of Leng Baizhi to build a new church. Enholf demolished the purchased house in the 19 th year of the Republic of China (1930) to build St. Miller Church on the site of the house (the present Haishan Hutong) . The construction was completed at the end of the 20 th year of the Republic of China (1931), and the catholic religious activities were started from then on. St. Miller Church is the largest one in Qiqihar, which covers 6625 ㎡ , with the building area of 4524 ㎡ . The main building big church is of the Gothic type, which is reinforced framed construction with the building area of 1250 ㎡ . The height of the main tower is 43 m, with a big north-south Latin Cross on the top of tower.

Bright Moon Island
The former name of Bright Moon Island (míng yuè dǎo 明月岛) is Sishui Island, which is located in the center of Nenjiang River 7 km northwest to the urban area of Qiqihar City. It's a naturally-formed river center island surrounded by water on four sides, with the total area of 766 hectares.

Admission Fee: CNY 10
How to go: You can take bus NO.6 to the dock and take ship to the island

Nenjiang River

Nenjiang River is a perennial river, which is also one of the major rivers of Qiqihar. It's originated from the southeast slop of Yilehuli Mountains (yī lè hū lǐ shān 伊勒呼里山) in the northwestern part of Heilongjiang between the Greater Xing'an Mountains (dà xìng ān lǐng 大兴安岭) and the Lesser Xing'an Mountains (xiǎo xìng ān lǐng 小兴安岭). The altitude of the headstream is 1030 m, which flows south across the Greater Xing'an Mountains Area, Nenjiang County (nèn jiāng xiàn 嫩江县), Molidawa Banner (mò lì dá wǎ zì zhì qí 莫力达瓦自治旗), Nehe City (nè hé shì 讷河市), Gannan County (gān nán xiàn 甘南县), Fuyu County (fú yú xiàn 扶余县), Qiqihar City, Tailai County (tài lái xiàn 泰来县), Longjiang County (lóng jiāng xiàn 龙江县), Zhalaite County (zhā lái tè xiàn 扎莱特县) and Zhaoyuan County and merges into Songhuajiang River (sōng huā jiāng 松花江) at Sanchahe River (sān chà hé 三岔河) in Zhaoyuan County of Jilin (jí lín 吉林) Province. The total length of the river is 1370 km, with drainage area of 282748 k㎡ . The height difference between the headstream and the river is 902 m. The river has more than 20 branches altogether.

Zhalong Natural Reserve
According to the application made by Qiqihar Municipal Government and Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Forestry in 1979, Heilongjiang Provincial People's Government approved Qiqihar to establish Zhalong Provincial-Level Natural Reserve, which was promoted to be National-Level Natural Reserve and was ranked among the Important International Wetland List by Chinese Government in 1992. Zhalong Natural Reserve is located at the lower reaches of Wuyur River of Songnen Plain, the western part of Heilongjiang Province, where is the common boundary area between Qiqihar City, Tailai, Fuyu, Lindian and Durbote Mongolian Autonomous County, with the total area of 210,000 ha.The formation of the wetland in Zhalong Natural Reserve originated by the acaudal state of the area from the Wuyur River of the Lesser Xing'an Mountains to this area, the overflow and flood of river has formed vast and permanent fresh water reed marshes and lakes, such a big and relatively intact reed marsh wetland is ranking in the first place in China and is rare in the world as well.
The wetland is praised as Kidney of Earth, which constitutes the important natural environment for the existence and multiplication of people, together with forest and sea. Zhalong Wetland is a gift endowed by the nature to us. As an important wetland of international influence, it is an important integral part of the global natural environment, however it directly benefits Qiqihar and blesses the biologic diversity in its surrounding areas, which brings great ecological benefits, social benefits and economic benefits to us.

Zhalong Wetland is a paradise of birds and a heaven of cranes. There are more than 260 species of birds in Zhalong Natural Reserve, including 35 species of national protection birds. The Reserve is particularly renowned in the world for its large amount diversified species of cranes. There are currently 15 species of cranes survived in the world, China has 9 species, while Zhalong Reserve has 6 species. Especially the red-crowned crane, there are over 2000 wild red-crowned cranes in the world, while Zhalong Reserve has more than 400 of them. Therefore, Zhalong Wetland is the largest inhabiting and multiplying place of red-crowned cranes in the world as well. Moreover, there are also “posthouses” and “shelters” for many transnational migrate birds that live through the winter in island countries of Pacific Ocean, Southeastern coast and the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River but multiply in Mongolia and Russia. Hundred of thousands of birds pass by Zhalong Wetland and every spring and autumn and have food here to recover their physical strength for further migration.

Zhalong Reserve is also an important base for scientific research, practice teaching research and ecological environment education. Northeast Forestry University, Life Engineering College of Qiqihar University and other higher education institutes have established teaching and scientific research base in Zhalong Natural Reserve. There are throngs of experts and scholars coming for scientific research every year. The International Crane Academic Symposium was held in Zhalong Natural Reserve in 1987, with representatives from more than 30 countries and areas from the world and other NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation) projects have been implemented in Zhalong Reserve. Zhalong Wetland is endowed with huge aesthetics value. The environment education base is also open for ecological tour, which could yearly receive more than 100,000 visitors and has generated great social benefits.