Jilin City is in Jilin, in Northeast China.
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Jilin · City Guide
Jilin City, Where a Dam Grows Frost on Willows.
Overview
Why Go
The Fengman dam releases water at around four degrees, so the Songhua does not freeze through the city. On clear nights below minus twenty the vapour off it settles on the riverside willows as rime, which is gone by mid-morning.
Wula Street was a Qing imperial supply town and is one of the places the Manchu language, shamanic ritual and cooking have carried through. Its market day still runs and the three old temple compounds are in the town rather than outside it.
A meteorite shower fell on the county in March 1976 and a large piece recovered weighs about 1,770 kilograms, the heaviest stony meteorite anywhere. It is on show in the city museum, in the crater case it made.
The Changbai foothills catch dry continental snow from December to March, which is why Beidahu and the Songhua Lake resort were built here. The season is long and the base is cold enough that the snow does not pack down.
When Songhua Lake opens in April the opening catch is sold at a fair on the shore. Fish that have been under ice all winter are thinner and firmer, and the fair runs for a few days alone, which is what makes it worth timing.
See
The riverbank in the city and Wusong Island downstream both take rime, the island more heavily and with fewer buildings in the frame. Conditions need a clear cold night after a damp one, so it does not happen on demand.
A reservoir of about 550 square kilometres formed in 1937 behind the Fengman dam, with forested hills around it. Boats and swimming in summer, ice fishing and a ski resort on the shore in winter.
A Qing supply town north of the city with three surviving temple and mansion compounds, the Wula hotpot tradition and a market that still gathers. It is an ordinary working town rather than a restored one.
The city museum holds the meteorite collection from the 1976 fall along with local history and a painting gallery. The main stone is displayed on its own; the smaller pieces show the fusion crust clearly.
A wooded hill in the city carrying a cluster of Qing temples, Buddhist, Taoist and folk, on the same slope. The temple fair in the fourth lunar month fills it. On an ordinary day it is where the city walks.
The larger of the two resorts, about an hour from the city, with a long vertical drop by Chinese standards and a season from late November to early April. It has hosted national competition and is quieter midweek than the Chongli resorts.
On the Map
Approximate locations of the attractions above, across Jilin City.
Eat
A brass chimney pot packed in layers with pork, mutton, pickled cabbage and mushrooms, then simmered rather than dipped to order. It comes from the Manchu court kitchen tradition at Wula Street and is winter food.
Whitefish, carp and bighead from the reservoir, usually stewed in a big iron pot with maize cakes stuck round the rim to cook in the steam. The opening catch after the ice breaks is the one people wait in line for.
Glutinous millet dough around a red bean filling, steamed and then frozen outside by the sackful. Households make a winter's worth at once. Eaten reheated, sometimes rolled in sugar or fried.
Boiled pork belly sliced thin with dark blood sausage and sour pickled cabbage, from the Manchu pig sacrifice tradition. It arrives plain with a dipping sauce of garlic and fermented beancurd, and it is less rich than it looks.
Do
Rime forms overnight and drops off within a few hours of the sun reaching it. Be out by half past six and check the forecast the evening before: it needs a clear night, low wind and a hard freeze after damp air.
The kai-jiang fair runs for a few days in April when the reservoir opens, with stalls on the shore and restaurants cooking on site. Dates move with the thaw, so ask in the city rather than arranging ahead.
The city's Manchu museum stages the Xiketeli clan ritual as part of its permanent display, with the drum, the waist bells and the chant. Check the schedule at the desk; it does not run continuously.
The fair fills the main lane with country produce, frozen fish stacked like firewood and Manchu-style pickles. In winter everything is sold frozen solid, which is worth seeing in itself. Ask at the hotel for the day.
When
The reason many people come: rime on the river, a full ski season and ice on the lake. Daytime highs stay well below freezing, so bring real cold gear.
Thaw, then the ice-break fish fair in April and the Beishan temple fair in late spring. Skiing runs into early April at Beidahu.
Warm and green, with the lake used for boating and the hills good for walking. This is the Northeast's short comfortable season and it is busy in August.
Colour in the hills, then a cold empty gap before the snow settles. Cheap and quiet, with little specifically to see.
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Jilin City is in Jilin, in Northeast China.
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