Changchun- Automotive City Of China Part 2

Let me now do some research on the-

History of Changchun

Changchun is the capital and largest city of Jinlin. Located in the northeast of the People’s Republic of China, it is situated in the center of the Songliao Plain. The name, which means “Long Spring”, originated from the Jurchen language.

It is also known as China’s Automobile City. It is an important industrial base with a particular focus on the automotive sector.

Early history

Changchun was initially established as a small trading post during the reign of theEmperor Jiajing. Trading goods were mainly furs and other natural products during this period. In 1800, Emperor Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty selected a small village on the East bank of the Yitong River and named it “Changchun Ting”.

At the end of 18th century peasants from overpopulated provinces such as Shandong and Hebei began to settle in the region. In 1889, the village was promoted into a city and came to be known as “Changchun Fu”.

Railway era In May 1898, Changchun got its first railway station located in Kuancheng as a part of the railway line from Harbin to Lushun, constructed by the Russian Empire. Soon after the completion of the railway, Changchun emerged as a major population center in Jilin province

The South Manchuria Railway office of Changchun

After Russia’s loss of the southernmost section of this branch as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, the Kuancheng station became the last Russian station on this branch. The next station to the south – the new “Japanese” Changchun station, just a short distance to the south – became the first station of the South Manchuria Railway, which now owned all the tracks running farther south up to Lushun. Changchun expanded rapidly as the junction between the Japanese-owned South Manchurain Railway and the Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railway which continued to have different rail gauge sizes as well as permit licenses until 1935. Changchun had railway repair shops, and the branch lines originating in Changchun extended into Korea and Inner Mongolia.

Manchukuo and World War II

City planning map of Changchun 1932

In 1932 the capital of Manchuchko, a Japan-controlled puppet state in Manchuria, was moved to Changchun. The city was then known as Hsinking which literally means “New Capital”. Pu Yi the puppet ruler resided in the Imperial Palace which has been converted in to the museum. During the Manchukuo period, the region experienced tyranny, brutality, forced conscription and labor and other Japanese sponsored government barbarity. There was a rapid industrialization and militarization as well.

Hsinking was a well-planned city with broad avenues and modern public works. The city underwent rapid expansion in both its economy and infrastructure. Many of buildings built during the Japanese colonial era are there even today, including the Eight Major Bureaus of Manchukuo as well as the Headquarters of the Japanese Kwantung Army.

Hsinking Master Plan Map (1934)

Hsinking was the only Direct–Controlled Municipality in Manchukuo after Harbin incorporated into the jurisdiction of Binjiang Province. The Metropolitan Plan of Great Hsinking was influenced by the renovation plan of Paris in the 19th century, the garden city movement, and theories of American cities’ planning and design in the 1920s.

The city development plan included extensive tree planting. By 1934 Hsinking was known as the Forest Capital. By 1942, Hsinking’s public green space per capita reached 2,272 m² (24,460 sq ft), which was 5 times more than Japan’s major cities.

Because the effects of war, the Metropolitan Plan of Great Hsinking remained unfinished. Hsinking was planned to be the administrative center and military commanding center. Only light manufacturing units including packing industry, cigarette industry and paper–making were developed during this period.

The population of Hsinking experienced rapid growth after it became the capital of Manchukuo. According to the census in 1934 taken by the police agency, the city’s municipal area had 141,712 inhabitants but by 1944 the city’s population had risen to 863,607, more than 150,000 out of which were the Japanese settlers.

Chemical Destruction and Unit 100

An epidemic of pneumonic plague occurred in surrounding Manchuria from 1910 to 1911. In 1936, the Japanese established “Unit 100” to develop plague biological weapons, although the declared purpose of Unit 100 was to conduct research about diseases originating from the animals.

Here is some account of the depths of depravity to which human being can sink. It is sickening but sadly true. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army in Changchun- the headquarters of Unit 100 ( Wakamatsu Unit), under the command of a veterinarian named Yujiro Wakamatsu experimented with biological warfare. Though the Unit was involved in research of animal vaccines to protect the Japanese resources but secretly the research was more diabolic in nature. Diseases were tested for use against Soviet and Chinese horses and other livestock. In addition to these tests, Unit 100 ran a bacteria factory to produce the pathogens needed by other units. Biological sabotage testing was also handled at this facility and that meant everything from poisons to chemical crop destruction and whatever that can bring misery and death on mass scale was the subject focus of the Unit. Such little was the importance of human life to the devils doing research that following hair raising account needs no explaining.

This is one Sgt. Kazuo Mitomo’s account of some of Unit 100’s human experiments:

I put as much as a gram of heroin into some porridge and gave this porridge to an arrested Chinese citizen who ate it; about 20 minutes later he lost consciousness and remained in that state until he died 15-16 hours later. We knew that such a dose of heroin is fatal, but it did not make any difference to us whether he died or lived. On some of the prisoners, I experimented 5-6 times, testing the action of Korean bindweed, bactal and castor oil seeds. One of the prisoners of Russian nationality became so exhausted from the experiments that no more could be performed on him, and Matsui ordered me to kill that Russian by giving him an injection of potassium cyanide. After the injection, the man died at once. Bodies were buried in the unit’s cattle cemetery.

Siege Of Changchun

The city was extensively damaged during the World War II. The city was taken by the Soviet Red Army in 1945. The Russians maintained a presence in the city during the Chinese Civil War in 1946. Kuomintang forces occupied the city in 1946 but they were not able to stop the take over the Countryside by advancing Communist forces. The city fell to the communists in 1948 after the five months of siege by the People’s Liberation Army. The siege caused famine and consequently between 100,000 to 300,000 civilians reportedly died.

People’s Republic

People’s Republic of China renamed the city as Changchun and made it the capital of Jilin in 1954. The Changchun Film Studio is film studios of that era. Changchun Film Festival has become a unique gala even for film industries since 1992.

From the 1950s, Changchun was selected to be developed as a center for China’s Automobile Industry. Construction of the First Automobile Works (FAW) began in 1953 and production of the Jiefang CA-10 truck, based on the Soviet ZIS-150 was started in 1956. In 1958, FAW introduced the famous Hongqi Limousines.

Changchun hosted the 2007 Winter Asian Games and is the second Chinese City to do so after Harbin hosted them in 1996.

Note:- Most of the above information has been sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changchun

This article was recreated for website on 06-Feb-2026

The comments on this post as were posted until this post was copied on 15/06/2014 and saved by me.
There are many more pictures in the folder named Changchun. These were sent to me by many Chinese who interacted with me at that time. Those pictures will be added to the YouTube videos and the book, when published.

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navneetkumarbakshi / / 7 months ago

Hello Michelle,
My response to the comments is becoming a cliched repetition for every Chinese who is fuming over the atrocities committed by the Japanese. You may not be knowing much about the Indian history but we were brutalized, raped, tortured, persecuted, converted by the Invaders. Our religious places were demolished and the riches were looted for one thousand years. I will bring the stories from Indian history when I start my own website which I plan to do soon. Child marriage became a custom in India because the mughals would kidnap girls. Sati ( immolation ) by sitting on the pyre of the dead husband came in vogue because the invading armies of Islamists would rape the captured women. Let me keep the comment short by saying that revenge can never bring peace. It’s said that “Forgiveness is divine”. Yes it is very difficult to forget the injustice done to our loved ones but tell me how can hate resolve issues?
Navneet

Changchun- Automotive City Of China Part 2

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