7 Days in Qiqihaer

Settle downtown and learn the local table — beef and scallions over table-top charcoal; the market streets are the city's late-evening engine.

1. qiqihaer city markets

The 26-km run southeast ends in about 2,100 sq km of reed marsh; be at the release ground for the mid-morning flight of captive-bred red-crowned cranes, then walk the boardwalks.

1. qiqihaer zhalong reserve

Lakeside lanes of the 1897 park, the mansion quarter remembering 1699-1954, and an evening on the riverside square of 2005 as kites go up over the Nen.

1. qiqihaer longsha park
2. qiqihaer general mansion
3. qiqihaer peace square

Follow the lake chain through the west of town, then sit a while in the grounds of the temple built 1939-1943; rowboats run on the water in summer.

1. qiqihaer labor lake
2. qiqihaer dacheng temple

Cross into Meilisi district for the village rebuilt after the 1998 floods — culture hall, wood houses, river wind — then follow the bank road back into town.

1. qiqihaer hala new village
2. qiqihaer nen river bank

An hour west by rail, Fulaerji grew around the First Heavy Industries works laid out in the 1950s; the exhibition hall keeps the cranes, presses and photographs of the first machine age here.

1. qiqihaer fulaerji exhibition hall

A second, slower Zhalong morning — herons in the shallows instead of cranes overhead — then back for luggage and the afternoon train.

1. qiqihaer zhalong reserve