5 Days in Daqing

The memorial to Wang Jinxi — the 1205 team driller who put down his first well in five days and four hours after arriving in 1960 — sits beside the exhibition of the 1959 discovery well; both free, museums closed Mondays.

1. daqing tieren memorial
2. daqing oilfield history museum

The city museum's Ice-Age hall lines up mammoth and woolly-rhino skeletons dug from these plains; the Longfeng wetland spreads over 50 km² inside the city — boardwalks, reeds and herons.

1. daqing museum
2. daqing longfeng wetland

South to the Songji-3 site where the oil came in on 26 September 1959, then to the Sa-55 well the 1205 team drilled in five days and four hours — the two derricks that start every Daqing story.

1. daqing songji well
2. daqing iron man first well

Out to Dorbod county, where 18 linked lakes carry the Lianhuanhu name and the springs resort sits among them — a soak, a lakeside fish lunch and the flat grassland light.

1. daqing lianhuan hu hot springs

A loop of the Liming Lake park, a market lunch of the northeast's dumplings, then the HSR — Harbin about 40 minutes east.

1. daqing liming lake
2. daqing city markets