History of Daqing

The region now known as Daqing Prefecture was a reasonably insignificant place until the Qing Dynasty, known only as an unsettled hunting ground of Dörbet Oirat tribes due to its wetland and prairies. The region began to grow slightly after Czarist Russia constructed the Chinese Eastern Railway (KVZhD) through the area in 1898. The railway has a station at Sartu in today’s Sartu District. It was not until 1959 that oil was discovered in the region as part of the large scale oil exploration put into motion across the Northeast China Plain.

The Daqing oilfield was discovered in the late 1950s, and drilling began in 1958. A town with the same name was founded in 1959 to house workers extracting oil and gas from the Daqing oilfield and to host industries which could take advantage of the energy and petrochemicals, shortly before the 10th anniversary of the founding of the PRC. The name Daqing literally means “Great Celebration”. On 26 May 1960, Anda City was established at former Anda town (today’s Anda City in Suihua prefecture), administering Daqing oilfield area. Five months later, the administrative organs of the oilfield relocated in Sartu. On 23 June 1964, the city was established Anda special administrative region, with Anda county administering its surrounding area. On 14 December 1979, the city was separated from Anda and was renamed Daqing after the oilfield.

Since its foundation it has been advocated as a model of good practice in industry and healthcare by the Chinese government.

Learn from Daqing in industry

The fact that Mao Zedong promulgated his Supreme Directive, Learn from Daqing in industry|In industry, learn from Daqing, in the 1960s reflects how important a role Daqing has historically played in industry in China. Learn from Daqing in industry (Chinese: 工业学大庆; pinyin: gōngyè xué dàqìng) was a slogan during the Cultural Revolution telling the people to use the city as an example for industrial production.

The film Entrepreneurial Pioneers (创业), made in the early 1970s, is a literary rendition of the history of Daqing. During the Mao era, Daqing’s agricultural counterpart was Dazhai, a village in the hilly Xiyang county, Shanxi Province, for which Chairman Mao issued the directive In agriculture, learn from Dazhai, also in the 1960s.