History

Changchun is a young city with only about 200 years of history. In the year of 1800, Emperor Jiaqing of Qing Dynasty selected a small village on the east bank of the Yitong River and named it as "Changchun Ting", and in the year of 1889, it extended to be "Changchun Fu". In 1930, the Japanese invaded the Northeast China , established the Manchurian Public country, and singled out Changchun as its capital. After liberation, Changchun became the capital of Jilin Province , and a city of education with dozens of universities, institutes and schools built in. Changchun is also famous for automobile and film industry. Both Changchun Automobile Factory and Changchun Film Studio are located in the city.

Geo-location and Population

Changchun City is situated at the heart of Song Liao Plain in northeastern China . Its east longitude is between 124'18" and 127'02" and its north latitude is between 43'05" - 45'15" with an altitude between 250 and 350 meters. The city is broad, mainly composed of plain. Changchun City has an area of 1116 sq. km. and a population of about 2 million.

Climate

Normally, the annual average temperature of Changchun is about 7.0 ℃ , annual rainfall is about 517.2 mm , annual average relative humidity is about 57 per cent, and annual sunshine time is about 2,500 hours(based on data offered by China Statistics Year Book). Take those data of 2003 as example, January was the coldest month of the whole year with a monthly average temperature of -13.7 ℃ , while July is the warmest month with a monthly average temperature of 22.8 ℃ .

City Infrastructure

hangchun Airport lies in the west of the city, offering domestic flights to other China cities including Beijing , Dalian , Guangzhou , Nanjing , Shanghai , Shenzhen etc, and international flights to Hong Kong , Korea , Russia , etc. Changchun Railway Station lies at the north end of Ren Ming Street ( Stalin Street in the former), at the downtown of Changchun City . By train, you can directly arrive at a dozen of cities in China . There are several trains take Changchun Railway station as their departure station, while take Beijing , Shanghai , Xi'an etc. as their terminal station. Five highways pass through Changchun : Sheng Ha Highway , Chang Ji Highway , Chang Yin Highway , National Highway 102 and National Highway 302, connecting Changchun directly with Shengyan , Jilin city, Harbin , Beijing , etc. At the end of 2002, the whole city has a gardening green area of 5,732.3 hectares, a public green area of 1,667.2 hectares, and a constructed virescent area of 6,575.4 hectares. The virescent area covers 39% of the whole city.

Economy

In 2003, Changchun got a GDP of RMB 133.8 billion yuan, taking the twenty-third place among all cities in China .

Main Attractions

n 1950, when Changchun Film Studio was built, it became the first film factory in P. R. C. However, it has lost most of its market to Hollywood Film Factory and Hong Kong Film Studio nowadays. In order to kick up a bit of money, the Changchun Film Studio opened up some of its doors to the general public several years ago and built an extension, the Movie Palace . Visitors can get to see props of palaces, castles and scenery. Here visitors may also see the process of film-making, and even catch a glimpse of favorite Chinese film stars. Visitors to Changchun can also go to such scenic spots as South Lake Park , the Puppet Manchurian Imperial Palace , Film Palace , Jinyue Lake and Kalun Lake Scenic Spot, etc.