Siping (sì ping 四平) City, located in the hinterland of Songliao (sōng liáo 松辽) Plain, east to the branch of Changbai (cháng bái 长白) Mountains and west to Inner Mongolia Horqin (kē ěr qìn 科尔沁) Grassland, is the South Gate of Jilin Province. The city covers an area of 14080 km2 with a population of 3.3 million. During the period of China Revolutionary War, the famous and successful Siping War was broken out here. Therefore, the city is named Hero City, which is famous far and near. The mountains in Siping City are beautiful and exquisite. Hada (hā dá 哈达) Summit of Changbai Mountains connects all the mountains, which looks complex and steep. There are fascinating natural scenes and interesting cultural artifacts throughout Siping City. With the bright lakes, green trees and clear water, it's an ideal place for tourism.

Siping City, standing in the center of the Songliao Plain, southwest of Jilin Province, is located at the convergence of Jilin, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia. It is bordered by Changchun, the capital city of Jilin in the northeast. And it is enjoying longstanding history, possesses precious cultural relics and natural sights combining grace and glory. Mountain Gate Tourist Resort, the Half Open Mountain Gate, Yehenala (yè hè nà lā 叶赫那拉) Ancient City and Yitong (yī tōng 伊通) Volcano Group are the most famous tourist resorts in Siping City. The history of the city is closely linked to the rise and decline of Qing Dynasty. Xiaocigao (xiào cí gāo 孝慈高) Empress, the mother of Hongtaiji (huáng tài jí 皇太极) (the first emperor of Qing (qīng 清) Dynasty), and Cixi (cí xǐ 慈禧) Empress Mother in the Late Qing Dynasty are both born in this ancient city. Hence, the Hometown of Two Queens, another name of the city, is spread out.

There are unique volcano terrain resources. Yitong Volcano Group, situated in Yitong Manchu Autonomous County, is the only treasury of modern volcano data. 16 grand, continuous and cliffy volcanoes rise and fall, which would be erupting. All these are rare volcano terrain in the world. There are quantities of limestone terrains in Mountain Gate Tourist Resort. Stalactite, stalagmite and with southwest corrosion hole feature can be seen everywhere. It is also the good choice for the tourists to go away for the summer in Erlong (èr long 二龙) Lake, Mountain Gate Reservoir, Zhuanshan (zhuǎn shān 转山) Lake, and Double Dragons Lake etc. on the outskirts of the city.

 

Since the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century BC), this region had been inhabited by settlers. Historically, it was inhabited successively by Fuyu (fú yú 扶余), Korean, Kitanyes (qì dān 契丹), Jurchen (nǚ zhēn 女真), Mongolian, Manchu and kingdoms of these ancient ethnic minorities in Northeast China. Siping, with its green mountains, clear water and picturesque scenery, is one of the places where the Manchu nationality originated. In 1947 a major battle took place in Siping during the Communist revolution, which ended in 1949, and there are several sites in the city commemorating the battle. Siping grew rapidly after the Communist government was established in 1949, and the city was designated a site for industrial development.

 

Located in the hinterland of Songliao Plain, nearly eighty percent of the city's territory is occupied by plain area, while hilly area is in the second place, at a percentage of fifteen. Mountains only account of six percent. On the whole, the terrain of the city declines from southeast to northwest.

Bearing a temperate continental monsoon climate, the city is characterized by dry and windy spring, wet and hot summer, moderate and cool autumn, as well as long and chilly winter. Mainly, the rainfall concentrated on the period from June to August. The annual average temperature falls between 4 and 6 degree centigrade (39.2-42.8 degree Fahrenheit)

 

Yehe (yè hè 叶赫) tribe means the sun near the river in Manchu language. It is an important birthplace of Manchu culture, which is both the birthplace of Xiaocigao (xiào cí gāo 孝慈高) Empress in early Qing dynasty and ancestral home of Cixi (cí xǐ 慈禧) Empress in late Qin dynasty. Therefore it got the name of the hometown of 2 empresses. It is an important folk tourist zone of Jilin Province and an important scenic spot of Siping tourist and economical district. It is also a tie of Mountain Gate and Double-dragon tourist zones.

The architecture of the ancient city is quite unique. There are three city walls: wooden one, earth one and stone one and a city moat in every city. Standing on the high flat, you can enjoy the strong wind and the spacious field. In each castle, octagonal buildings are primitive, simple and splendid. The buildings are rare ancient architecture compound, which is of high archaeological and sightseeing value. The body of castle and inner buildings preserve well, in which lots of famous historical relics of Qing dynasty are scattered. The General Platform and Beacon-fire Platform are especially impressive. The present Yehenala scenic spot has split into 2 parts: the ancient culture district and Zhuanshan lake scenery and holiday enjoyment district. The natural sceneries such as the lake between 2 tortoise-shaped lands and the city on the back of tortoise-shaped land are very marvelous and impressive. This area is regarded as geomantic treasure site.     

Location: Yehe County and Lishu (lí shù 梨树) County

Transportation: take bus to Yehe County or Lishu County at Siping City

Opening Time: 8:00-17:00

Tel: 0434-5496131

Admission Fee: CNY 20

 

The building of Manchu fork custom museum is completed and put into use in August, 1992, which has a building area of 1,350 square meters. There are seven separate exhibiting halls. The part for historical relics mainly displays historical material such as sculptures, rubbings, charts, pictures etc., which records the reproducing trace of Manchu ethnic group in Yitong area. The hand-down cultural relics are mainly family diagram, genealogies, family books, amnesty papers, imperial mandates. The ancestors sacrifice and fork custom parts are mostly wares for sacrifices of Manchu group. Shaman culture part mainly displays some wares for god sacrifice of Shaman group. And the life facilities part mostly exhibits some unique life wares and delicate handicrafts of Manchu family. So far, there are over 3,000 items of 310 kinds of historical objects in the museum.

Address: No.1129 Renmin (rén mín 人民) Road, Yitong (yī tōng 伊通) County

Transportation: take bus to Yitong County at Siping City

Tel: 0434-4236949

Admission Fee: Free

 

In front of Mountain Gate tourist resort there is a half-split mountain gate, so it got the name of mountain gate. The tourist resort is consisted of Xinghua (xìng huā 杏花) Mountain, Derentang (dé rén tang 德仁堂) Mountain and Mountain Gate Reservoir, which takes Mountain Gate Reservoir as its center and radiates to all directions. Layer upon layer of peaks and knolls, the mountain ranges comprised each other. The pine and cypress trees are also very lush and dense. Mountain Gate tourist resort boasts its natural forest, in which ancient trees reach the sky, birds contend to singing, butterflies flying over the bushes, wild animals tramp all round. There are also over tens of precious medicinal materials, flowers, wild grass. Refreshing and fragrant, you will feel so comfortable in the forest that you will forget to return. In early spring, the apricot flowers, on Xinhua Mountain to the west of the lake, will attract numerous bees and colored butterflies. Shimen (sì mén 四门) Mountain, Tortoise Rock, Panfeng (pān fēng ting 攀峰亭) pavilion and Mudan (mǔ dān 牡丹) pavilion are also worthwhile to visit.

Location: in the south of Siping City

Transportation: take bus No.5 at Siping Bus Station

Tel: 0434-4226568

Admission Fee: CNY 5

 

The body of the volcano group is formed of rock pillars, and the section of which has a shape of polygon. The unique tower group is formed of numbers of tower-like rocks.   Standing in the tower group, you will feel you have entered a bizarre world of gods and spirits. Diversified volcano bodies will be present before you. Some look like knife edges, some swords, some lying tigers, and some sleeping lions. Yitong volcano group distributes at an area of about 600 square meters on Yishu (yī shū 伊舒) valley. Large-scaled rift grottoes are also found in the volcano groups, which is the first finding of this kind of grottoes in our country. The complex and varied rock pillar joints constitute its grand, unique and rare volcano scene and geographical sightseeing. It is also of important scientific and watching value.

Location: Yitong County

Transportation: take bus to Yitong County at Siping Bus Station

Admission Fee: Free

 

There are lots of kinds of glutinous snacks in Siping City such as glutinous cake that made of stewed glutinous rice starch, red bean, and sugar, glutinous bean bun that made of stewed glutinous rice starch and red bean stuffing, bean starch buns. There are also other kinds of snacks that similar to those of Korean flavor such as Chinese glutinous cake, pasted cake, bean starch cake, fried cake etc. Glutinous snacks integrate fragrance, sweet, and glutinousness. It is very delicious and stands hungry, so it is very popular among all the people from urban and rural area.

 

Since siping is near to Inner Mongolia, hand picked mutton of Mongolia area is popular here long ago. Cook a whole skinned sheep into a boiler of prepared water with pepper, aniseed, salt until it is off bone, and then put it into a big basin. Visitors can enjoy it with their hands instead of chopsticks (now most people use knife and chopsticks instead). It is a very delicious dish.

 

There are mostly hilly lands and grassland, therefore, hare meat produced here are full of protein and very delicate. The hare meat, after processed with orange peel, cassia, clove, aniseed, scallion, garlic, pepper, anise, ginger, stewed soap, and sugar, looks golden yellow color, tastes very savory and crisp, and has endless aftertaste.

 

 

As the crucial hub of transportation in northeast China, the railway lines in Siping City extend in all directions. So many important lines, like Shanghai-Harbin, Beijing-Harbin etc., connecting the North to the South, all pass through Siping City.

         

Siping City lies in the middle of Changchun-Shenyang Expressway, so there are also buses open to Shenyang, Jilin and Changchun. It takes one hour and 20 minutes to Changchun City and 100 minutes to Shenyang City. The buses set out from Siping to Shenyang at 8:30 am, 11:00 am and 15:00 pm, to Jilin at 6:15 am and 15:00 pm, while to Chuangchun (cháng chūn 长春) at 6:15 am and 17:00 pm 9 (the interval is half hour).