The Historical Changes Of Qiqihar In Modern Times (1897-1949)

Qiqihar is an important centre of politic, economy, military and literature in Heilongjiang Province. She is the provincial capital since 255 years ago. In modern times, however, due to the construction of the Middle East Rail, the interference of the Russo-Japanese forces, the impact of colonial rule and the combined effects by a variety of factors, the development of independent historical process of Qiqihar was interrupted, urban development increasingly slow, and even showed declined trend. Since the construction of the Middle East Rail in 1897 to 1937 when Japanese Puppet Regime carried out the economic control policy, which was the only relative decline period of Qiqihar. In this period, the construction of the Middle East Rail altered the original traffic route, as a result, cities and towns along the railway increased rapidly and the distribution pattern of the old town was also changed. Meanwhile, the rapid growth of boom cities further led to the shift of the economic center of the Heilongjiang region. Take Harbin as an example, she took the place of Qiqihar and became the new regional economic centre in the northeast. The slow growth of the population and economy in Qiqihar show the stage characteristics of relative decline. Since the economic control policy carried out by Japanese Puppet Regime in 1937 to 1945 when the Japanese surrendered, it is the absolute decline period of Qiqihar. In these difficult times, there were much serious deterioration and various problems in the entire northeast region , such as slump, shortage, inflation and collapse. All of these throw Qiqihar into a desperate mess. The liberation period from 1946 to 1949 was the short-term recovery times. As a result of the powerful reform of the government, there was a slight development in population and economy, Qiqihar gradually fading out of the plight of the absolute decline.In this paper, the author takes the development of Qiqihar in modern history as target to study the transformations in the city, and focuses on the city's population, city size, industrial and commercial economy, municipal facilities, cultural and educational changes. On this basis, the paper tries to illustrate two aspects. On one hand, the author tries to sum up the historical reasons which lead to the decline of Qiqihar. On the other hand, the paper attempts to make people learn from the profound lessons of history and provide constructive ideas for the revival of Qiqihar.