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Beijing Regional Map : Datong-Beijing-ShiJiaZhuang-TaiYuan quadrangle, an overview of Beijing Municipality (in Hebei Province) and the Area to the West and South-West of Beijing. Includes Datong, Shanxi Province and nearby Pass to Inner Mongolia (Great Wall of China), BaoDing ShiJiaZhuang and TaiYuan Crossroads-cities. Wutai-Shan and Yuntong-Shan Mountain Ranges.
Mongolia into the Russian sphere of influence, at the same time bringing the Sino-Russian border within 200 kilometers from the Chinese National Capital. Apart from parachute droppings in and around the city of Baotou along the Yellow River (Huang He) in Inner Mongolia, the invasion involved the taking of the cities of Zhangjiakou and Jehol (Today: Chengde) both situated on vital access roads to the "Northern Capital" Beijing. If the Russians would have wanted it at the time, the could have taken Beijing itself and subsequently establish a puppet Government with claim to all of China. However, for various political reasons, in the end a decision was made against any such action.
threatening and impressive enough for Mao Zedong to start making plans for moving the Communist Capital from Yen'An in Shaanxi Province to Zhangjiakou, so that if and when the northern Capital would fall (presumably to a Communist Russian advance as the Chinese Communists were in no position to do so), Mao could easily be installed as the new Leader of a Marxist China supported fully by the Soviet Union (C.C.C.P. / U.S.S.R.). As the book claims, camel caravans laden with Government Documents and equipment had already been sent from Yan'An.
However, although this is roughly what happened in neighboring Korea this was a scenario that would never develop in China and the Civil War in China eventually lasted until the 1st months of 1950 AD, only briefly before war broke out between North and South Korea. All of this was no coincidence.
Although the Russians would eventually withdraw, the power play of the Russian side would not unnoticed by the Chinese Communist Party and the threat from Russia became a long-term concern of China and its Leadership.
THE ISSUE OF INNER MONGOLIA AND MONGOLIAN INDEPENDENCE:
On February 27, 1946, The Republic of Mongolia and the Soviet Union signed the ten-year renewable Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance and the first Agreement on Economic and Cultural Cooperation. With World War 2 over and both the Japanese threat and the Chinese threat to their territory eliminated from Mongolia (for the time being), the way for renewed and continued assertion of Soviet influence in Mongolia was clear. The Republic of Mongolia was considered a strong defense buffer (actually by both sides as it would turn out later), a trading partner, and a dependable ally in international conferences and forums such as the United Nations for supporting the political Line of the Soviet Union.
Apart from the eagerness of the Russian advance to the Great Wall of China at Kalgan ("Heaven's Gate")
China Report - Map of the Great Wall during the Ming Dynasty
Satellite image of China and North-East Asia, with a super-imposed schematic Map of the location and Path of the Great Wall as constructed during the Reign of the Ming Dynasty. Included for reference are City names, geographical features of landscape, Names and locations of Passes on the Great Wall of China.
ZHANGJIAKOU IN THE REPUBLICAN ERA:
In the year 1928, long after the Fall of the Qing Dynasty (1368 AD - 1911), in the year of the establishment of a Kuomintang National Government in Nanjing, Kalgan remained as one of the main trading posts along one of the few traditional roads from the Capital Beijing to the Mongolian Territories and Central Asia beyond. Camel Caravans still trotted along as before however, as a result of the introduction of the railroads Kalgan now also lay within reach of Foreign Treasure seekers and explorers of all kinds.
As a result of the 4th Roy Chapman Andrews expedition (National Geographic) of 1928 AD some knowledge and even images of the Town of Zhangjiakou have been preserved from that year. As the adjacent film-reel shows at the time, it was still a dusty and rather primitive place and much of the Great Wall of China in the area was still relatively well preserved. As for the wider regions, one of Chapman Andrews' Books leaves us a description of the situation at the time; "In the winter, when the dried vegetation exposes the surface soil, the whole aspect of the country is changed and then it does resemble the popular conception of a
desert. But what could be more desertlike than our north China landscape when frost has stripped away the green clothing of its hills and fields?". "The Chinese have already demonstrated the agricultural possibilities in the south and every year they reap a splendid harvest of oats, wheat, millet, buckwheat and potatoes. On the grass-covered meadowlands, both north and south of the Gobi, there are vast herds of sheep, goats, cattle and horses, but they are only a fraction of the numbers which the pasturage could support. The cattle and sheep which are exported through China can be sent to Kalgan "on the hoof," for since grass is plentiful, the animals can graze at night and travel during the day. This very materially reduces the cost of transportation".
Regardless of its natural and scenic beauties however, Kalgan was hardly a paradise to live in. During the previous years of the Chinese Civil War the border area's to which Kalgan still belonged had yet again fallen into disarray in the absence of normal central authority. In the north White Russians and Cossacks ran wild in the Mongolian territories. Although a "Central Government" was being proclaimed in Nanjing, most of the Chinese Provinces were still under the control of regional warlords and in the case of Kalgan, banditry was rampant along the routes leading to the west and to Central Asia. Basically, with the city serving as an important Garrison town, Kalgan was the last refuge of civilization before entering the "wild west" like regions beyond.
The First Roy Andrews Expedition into Inner Mongolia was not undertaken in 1928, but occurred several years earlier, in the spring of 1922 AD. In that year, after living in the Beijing Legations Quarter for some time already, Chapman, after endless negotiating with Chinese Authorities having finally been granted permission to travel to Zhangjiakou and undertake an expedition across the border into MongolianTerritories could finally take off in search of the scientific "Holy Grail" of the time, the fossil that would provide the so-called "Missing Link (of Human Evolution)". Although at the time a few foreigners, mainly missionaries, had already traversed the regions, not much was known about the Inner Mongolian Territories, except that out there in the huge expanses of the Gobi Desert some magnificent fossils had been found.
Thus, the race to be the first to arrive in the regions had been on and in April 1922 they passed through the Da Jing Gate of the Great Wall of China, the northernmost gate of the defenses around Zhangjiakou. Andrews Chapman, the flamboyant American had just become the first foreigner to launch a scientific expedition from China into the Gobi Desert in an attempt to find new and alien fossils, and if at all possible, the precious "Missing Link".
Not only was the 1922 Chapman expedition well set up, he was also the first ever Foreigner to traverse the sparse roads in the regions making his way by motor-car. Thus, roaring along in a metal machine and on top of that very well armed Chapman and his expedition presented a never before seen sight to inhabitants of the villages and places in its path. It was truly unprecedented, and through a deal with the American Asiatic Association, which had paid him $30,000 for exclusive rights to publish his stories about the expeditions in the magazine Asia, the whole affair was also transmitted and presented to an audience in China and far beyond. Quite possibly, it was the first time that the names Kalgan and Zhangjiakou were made known to the outside world, certainly beyond Asia.
After the thrilling adventure of the initial Chapman Andrews expedition in 1922, several more followed in the years 1923, 1925, 1928 and 1930 AD, with at the beginning of each, the city of Zhangjiakou as the final
The Empire of Japan capitulated on August 15 of 1945 AD, officially bringing an end to World War 2 in Asia and the Pacific. However, although the Japanese Forces had been defeated, a civil war immediately re-ingnited within Chinese Territories. At this important moment in the history of the Regions, the Russian Armies did not stop their Mongolian and Manchurian war offensives but instead continued their war all by themselves driving deep into northern Chinese territories. Ostensibly in support of the Communist Armies of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party of China the Russians made a rather cynical use of the suddenly appearing power vacuum in order to fulfill a longstanding Colonial Dream, the inclusion of all of (Inner- and Outer)
station before the Journey into what largely amounted to a big unknown.
The 5 expeditions undertaken were made at a whapping expense. Funded not by Museums but mainly by wealthy American backers, the American Asiatic Society as well as the National Geographic Society of America and later even by the auction of fossilized Dinosaur Eggs found in Inner Mongolia, the price tag of all Chapman expeditions in China has been estimated at around 700.000 US Dollars, which at the time amounted a mind-blowing sum. Thus financed, the Roy Chapman Andrews Expedition became the best organized and best equipped roadshow in North China, leading Chapman - through his own best efforts - to a fame for daring explorations as well as a solid scientific reputation. Altogether, the Chapman Andrews expeditions yielded many museum pieces, countless fossils - among which the first ever fossilized dinosaur egg found (by western scientists) by Georg Olsen at Shabarakh Usu on July 13 of 1923 - and many volumes
A Map of East Asia by Roy Chapman Andrews depicting the routes of his five expeditions into the Gobi Desert, clearly marking Kalgan as the ultimate last station of Civilization. Taken from the Roy Chapman Andrews Book: "The New Conquest of Asia".
Roy Chapman Andrews blazing the trail into Central Asia in his Dodge motor-car. Photo taken near Kalgan (Zhangjiakou) in current day Hebei Province.
of irreplaceable scientific knowledge on area's hitherto virtually unreported on and certainly not scientifically explored by others than
the Chinese and perhaps the locals themselves.
For a number of reasons, among which the Economic Depression, the Russians accusing him and his team of spying and the Chinese accusations of theft of priceless cultural relics, Andrews and the American Museum of Natural History halted their expeditions into Mongolia in the early 1930's after being forced to cancel the 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1929 expeditions. The 1930 Chapman Andrews expedition was the last one of its kind. Although the find of a graveyard of rare shovel-tusked mastodons, along with other outstanding fossils made this last mission yet another success even Chapman Andrews himself found that conditions in the lawless regions were becoming to dangerous for any foreigner. Because of the dangers, the 1930
expedition had but a brief one, the whole Expedition returned only a month after it had left. Ad Chapman Andrews later wrote about it: "Two days after (our party) had reached Kalgan the entire region was taken over by bandits and all traffic on the plateau ceased. Had our people been delayed, the consequences would have been serious". It was yet another example of the good luck which has been a constant factor in the success of the Chapman Andrews Expeditions. A further line in that book notes "The camels carrying our collections (of fossils) were met at a village thirty-four miles from Kalgan by Young and Liu and the fossils brought safely to Peking".Thus ended the last adventure in the Gobi Desert.Thereafter Roy Chapman Andrews never returned to Zhangjiakou.
Not planned and not also expected at the time, it would be only after 60 years, in 1990, that the American Museum of Natural History was invited to return to China and Mongolia for another scientific expedition and further explorations of the Gobi Desert. In that same year a new team was sent.
READ MORE IN: "Famous Foreigners in Chinese History - Roy Chapman Andrews".
In 1937, after the so-called Marco Polo Bridge Incident as a prelude to the Fall of Beijing, the Japanese Army occupied the region and made Kalgan the capital of the autonomous Cha-nan (South Chahar) Province. Due to the city walls of the Ming Dynasty Era as well as the availability of the railroad from Beijing to Kalgan, the Japanese remained in control of the city until the end of world war 2. Immediatly after the establishment of a military type administartion, the Federated Mengjiang Commission was set up to supervise the economic affairs, banking, communications, and industry of Japanese-occupied Inner Mongolia (Mengjiang).
The heaviest earthquake to hit Zhangjiakou in the last 15 years measured 5.7 on the Richter scale. It struck at the end of the year 1997. In the aftermath of the earthquake Oxfam Hong Kong's started a relief program for earthquake victims in Zhangjiakou Prefecture. After one day transport by train from Datong City, the neighboring "Coal Capital of the North", on Monday January 19 of 1998 distribution of coal started in Dahe Township of Zhangbei County and also in Kangleng Township of Shangyi County as due to the enduring winter cold this was identified as the most urgent need in these most effected area's. The coal was intended to be used as fuel for keeping warm and cooking.
As rescue operations continued temperatures dropped to minus 30 Celsius with heavy snowfalls continuously hampering both transportation and the distribution of relief materials. In its report Oxfam mentioned that as the programme officer moved into even more remote areas in the counties of Zhangjiakou Prefecture keeping up regular communications wass getting increasingly difficult. This was presumably due to the mountainous terrain and the fact that telephone lines had been cut. No mention is made of any
casualties.
Except for the coal, other relief materials were locally available and were therefor purchased from nearby towns around Zhangjiakou City where possible. These items included wooden planks, nylon sheets and other materials for building shelters are being distributed in the two townships since Tuesday. Not much later additional relief items - grain and fertilizers for spring farming were distributed around the time of the Chinese New Year. In the period since, over 20 smaller and larger quakes are recorded in the wider regions of Zhangjiakou- Beijing and Datong each year.
In the summer following the 1997 earthquake, Zhangjiakou was the setting for Zhang Yimou's film Not One Less (1999), a modern rural drama in which a rural teacher travels to the city in search for one of her students, lost. Among things the film accurately shows the arid scenery found in some of the villages in the area.
On September 7 of 2005 the new expressway linking Beijing via Zhangjiakou to Ulanqab (Jining) in Inner Mongolia and territories beyond was officially opened adding another key road to make Zhangjiakou into a logistics and manufacturing center for the larger hubs of Beijing and Tianjin.
On August 6, of 2012 the word went out to the world that there had been a bad early morning collapse of the famous Da Jing Gate of the Great Wall of China at Zhangjiakou. The next day in the afternoon, the news office of Zhangjiakou City People's Government issued a statement on the "big door of the Great Wall collapse" issue telling that a part of Da Jing Gate, a "Key Protected Cultural Relic", had collapsed as a result of the unusual rainfall. The news went unreported internationally, but the unusual rainfall in Beijing at some 200 kilometers which flooded and wrecked large parts of the suburban area's received worldwide attention. In Beijing a relatively high number of people were drowned as a result of the flooding.
In the aftermath it has become clear that a section of wall immediatly adjacent the Da Jing Gate had fallen down exposing a 30 meter wide gap. This is roughly the same section that had fallen in 1995 but had been "restored" the next year. Luckily, because the collapse occurred early in the morning during dreadful weather, no tourists and residents were present within the scenic area and thus the accident caused no casualties. The record breaking downpours of the wet season, coupled with the construction of a plaza outside of the Gate (on the Mongolian side), were blamed as reasons for causing the damage.
Read More of the History of Zhangjiakou on Previous Page:
A side effect of the Russian military advance to the Great Wall and its arrival at Kalgan was that it made the city once again a location of great strategic importance. Where the city always had been a crucial gateway to the northern Capital Beiping, it now also became the most important place of contact between the Russian invader-allies and the Chinese side. Although it was yet unclear if the final Russian intentions would turn out to be aggressive, or (semi) friendly only wishing to provide stability and security while defending its own interests. However, both Chinese sides in the Civil War had a clear agenda which they had a keen interest in defending, among things towards the Russians. As a result, soon after the Sino-Soviet convention arranged by the Communist side (who held all the surrounding rural area's through a guerilla war), a struggle for control of Kalgan ensued.
After the brief cease-fire in the (2nd) Chinese Civil War between the Communists and Chiang Kai-Chek's (Jiang Yishi) Nationalist armies in June of 1946 AD Zhangjiakou was the only important city in the region in the hands of the Communist side. In June the city was attacked by Nationalist troops, who at that time were still far superior to the Communists in both weaponry and numbers and the city fell in October. After this battle the city fell back in the hands of the Kuomintang National Government while the communist forces faded into the surrounding country-side and the rough loess hills of adjacent northern Shanxi Province, territories which they had held for years already. That winter was the coldest winter in many years and the communist forces made use of the extremely low temperatures make small guerilla attacks and ambushes. Although the strategy was successful in undermining the military position of the Nationalist Armies in Zhangjiakou, the majority of casualties fell on the Communist side as their armies were inadequately supplied and dressed. According to interviews with long since retired veterans of the P.L.A. the winter of 1946 caused over 100 thousand casualties from freezing alone among the assembled Communist soldiers. Their commanding officer, was hailed by Mao Zedong for his "ruthless efficiency" and later even made it to the rank of 2nd in Command under his ultimate leadership. This officer, General Lin Biao, is well remembered as the main person in charge of the Chinese Military during the turmoil, crackdowns and political suppression during the 1960's and the "Cultural Revolution Era" at the end of which the Chinese Army was the most important power in the Nation. Although Lin Biao was a successful General know for various historic raids and battle victories, the morality of his style of Leadership was questionable at best and over time had huge repercussions for his subordinates.
In the aftermath of the struggle for control of Kalgan the city was held by the Nationalist Forces of Fu Zuoyi (傅作义), some 500.000 forces, which would hold the city until its surrender to the Communist side in 1949 AD. By that time surrounded by Communist agents among whom his oldest daughter, as well as his own secretary Yan, on January 31, 1949 it was Fu Zuoyi who negotiated the surrender of the city of Beijing (with Lin Biao), allowing for the final take over of north China by Communist Forces. No doubt the Communists offered Fu Zuoyi favorable terms for the surrrender of Beijing and by efect Kalgan to the Communist side. As wikipedia notes: "Fu’s contributions to the Communist Party of China's success were (later) rewarded with high posts, including the Minister of Hydraulics and posts in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. However; "During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1975) Fu was unable to protect his own family members, despite his position in the government".
In other words, although he was promised a grreat future under the Peoples Republic of China, at a later time the political bill for his actions would be presented regardless. Fu Zuoyi died a forgotten man in 1974 AD, however his daughter, a Communist agent who had helped turn him around for the Communist cause and who had been ceaselesly denounced during the Cultural Revolution for her wrongful "class background", went on to serve at the notorious United Front division, the parties core machine for promulgating correct socialist thought. She retired in 1995 and died in 2007.
In the early 1960's at the height of Sino-Soviet tensions caused by the De-Stalinization process in the Soviet Union and Mao Zedong's denunciations and hatred for it that Zhangjiakou briefly became the vital strategic border point between two rivalling Nations. At least, in propaganda skeems which perhaps tried to revive some of China's rich history for the sake of mobilizing the nation, it was considered one of the most important cities in China (P.R.C.) from a military strategic viewpoint. At this time, when Russian tank armies stood battle ready along the border in the south of the Republic of Mongolia, Zhangjiakou was commonly nicknamed, "Beijing's Northern Door", because whoever controlled Zhangjiakou would be able to hold or take the National Capital of Beijing. While tensions lingered well into the notorious Cultural Revolution period ( 1966 - 1976), the citizens of nearby Beijing dug a network of tunnels in the hope of surviving the expected nuclear war (See: Beijing Underground City Air Raid shelters). Luckily, regardless of all the fear and paranoia, in the end the Leaderships of both nations were sufficiently sane not to attempt any such thing. However, smaller scale skirmishes and offensives did occur along the Mongolian border and more specificially up in the north along the Amur Border river. In the end, no war came to Zhangjiakou at all.
In 1995, after heavy rainfall, a section of the Great Wall of China immediatly west of Da Jing gate, collapsed. According to an article named "Trading Places" (see offline sources) in China Daily newspaper, the wall section was rebuilt a year after but remained closed to the public.
Baotou
Hohhot
Ulaanbataar
Kalgan
Satellite Image Map of the Entire Gobi Desert Region. Map overviews North-Eastern Qinghai Province, Gansu Province, Mongolia, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and North and North-Eastern China giving a Full Overview of the Gobi Deserts and a large part of the flow and path of the Yellow River.
A United Comunist National Front ? An idealized portrait of Josef Stalin & Mao Zedong as posing together. In reality, the Chinese & Russian communist movements split very early (1930's), as the Chinese under Leadership of Mao (& Zhou Enlai) insisted on following their own Line, instead of becoming Soviet stooges. A line that has become known as Communism or Socialism-with-Chinese-Caracteristics.
the adoption in February 1946 of the Cyrillic alphabet for use in schools and military units gave a further strong indication of close ties that the Soviet Union planned to hold with the Republic of Mongolia and associated parts of Mongolia's (former, or historic) territories. In effect, for a while it seemed as if the official international border was the be drawn right along the Great Wall of China and the border town of Kalgan.
In the Spring of 1946, during the brief interval of an American brokered post-war cease fire a Conference was held between (representatives of the) Chinese Communist Party and various parties from Inner-Mongolia and the Mongolian Peoples Republic, the latter fully supported by the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.).
For the occasion, an Agent from the Beijing Strategic Services Unit, one Frank Bagnall Bessac, was sent by car to Kalgan (Today: Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province) in order to attend the Conference and observe its proceedings. In the aftermath Bessac took an additional few days to drive northward into Inner Mongolia with unknown intentions.
Somewhere within Inner Mongolia Bessac was met by an American Douglas DC-4 troop ("Dakota") transport plane which took him further northward deep into Mongolian territories to land at a valley known in Chinese terms as Peitzemiao. In the valley and on the Steppes, Bessac spent considerable time and got acquainted with the nomadic peoples and their way of life. Apparently, the
entire trip went with the consent of the Chinese Communist Party (and supposedly the Kuomindang Nationalist Government), which was eager to promote the grand National Policy it had planned for the Mongolian people, all of who were regarded by both the Communist and Nationalist Chinese as "ethnic minorities" who were to be made part of a Great Nation which was of course to be led by the Han i.e. the actual Chinese. However, in light of the security of the strong Russian presence and in light of the prevailing thoughts sweeping the world at the time the Mongolians felt comfortable to communicate to the American Agent that their Nationality, if any, was Mongolian and that they strongly disagreed with Chinese definitions, which they regarded as historical fraud and trickery. In the end, the overriding message was that the Mongolians feared the ongoing Chinese attempts to claim and colonize their lands, and their request was to communicate this information to the highest circles in Washington D.C.
It is unknown when Bessac's Mongolian excursion ended and he returned to his station in Beijing.
