Jilin is the only city in China that shares its name with its province. The city came first. It was the provincial capital until 1954, and its name comes from the Manchu Girin Ula, meaning “along the river”.
吉林是全国唯一与所在省份同名的城市。先有吉林市，后有吉林省。吉林市曾是吉林省省会，直到1954年；它的名字源自满语”吉林乌拉”，意为”沿江”。
The river is the Songhua, which runs through the middle of the city. The Kangxi Emperor visited in 1682 and wrote a poem that gave Jilin its other name, Jiangcheng, or River City. In 1954 the provincial government moved west to Changchun, and the province kept the older city’s name.
这条江就是穿城而过的松花江。1682年，康熙皇帝东巡至此，留下诗句，吉林由此得名”江城”。1954年，省会西迁长春，而吉林省依然沿用了这座老城的名字。
Warships on the Songhua
松花江上造战船
In the mid-17th century, Russian Cossacks were pushing down the Amur towards the Pacific. The Qing court answered with boats. In 1656 it ordered 44 ships built at Jilin Ula. By 1661 a naval garrison had formally been set up there, with 316 officials and more than 110 warships and transport vessels.
17世纪中叶，沙俄哥萨克沿黑龙江向太平洋推进。清廷以造船应对。1656年，清廷下令在吉林乌拉建造44艘战船。到1661年，吉林水师营正式设立，设官316员，拥有战船和运输船110余艘。
According to China Jilin Net, the garrison had 130 warships by 1668, and each large one could carry 135 soldiers. Jilin-built fleets sailed north in 1685 and helped capture Yaksa, the Russian fort on the Amur. The Qing general Sabsu later travelled to the treaty talks at Nerchinsk aboard a Jilin warship.
据中国吉林网报道，到1668年，水师营已有战船130艘，每艘大型战船可载兵135人。1685年，吉林建造的船队北上，参与攻克沙俄在黑龙江上的据点雅克萨。此后，清军将领萨布素乘坐吉林战船前往尼布楚参加谈判。
A wooden fort followed in 1673. Locals still call the city Chuanchang, “the shipyard”. One of its central districts is named Chuanying, after the naval camp.
1673年，这里又筑起了木城。直到今天，当地人仍把吉林称作”船厂”，市中心的船营区也因当年的水师营而得名。
The River That Will Not Freeze
冬季不冻的松花江
Four famous hills ring the city, among them Beishan and Longtan Mountain. Local tradition holds that the hills and the S-shaped bend of the Songhua together form a taiji pattern, the circle of yin and yang.
吉林市区四周有四座名山环抱，北山和龙潭山都在其中。当地有一种说法：群山与呈S形穿城而过的松花江一起，构成了一幅太极图。
Upstream, the original Fengman Dam was begun under Japanese occupation in 1937; a replacement was completed in 2020. Water released from the hydropower station is about 4°C. It keeps the Songhua’s urban stretch largely ice-free through winter, even when dawn temperatures fall to minus 20 or minus 25°C.
在松花江上游，原丰满大坝于1937年日伪时期开工修建；新坝已于2020年建成。水电站下泄的江水约为4°C，即便冬季清晨气温降至零下20至25°C，流经市区的松花江也基本不封冻。
The warmer water steams in the freezing air. Overnight the vapour settles on the willows along the banks and freezes into rime ice. It forms along kilometres of riverbank each winter, mostly in January and February.
较暖的江水遇到严寒，便蒸腾起浓雾。一夜之间，水汽附着在江岸的柳树上，凝结成雾凇。每年冬季，雾凇在绵延数公里的江岸上出现，以1月和2月最为常见。
As the Jilin Provincial Bureau of Statistics reports, Jilin City’s GDP reached ¥163.32 billion in 2024, up 5.0 percent. The city recorded 95.49 million visitor trips that year, almost double the 2023 figure, and it now has nine ski resorts.
据吉林省统计局数据，2024年吉林市地区生产总值达1633.2亿元，增长5.0%。当年全市接待游客9549.4万人次，几乎是2023年的两倍；全市目前拥有9座滑雪场。
The Changchun–Jilin intercity railway, opened in 2011, covers the 111 kilometres to Changchun in about half an hour. Trains stop at Changchun Longjia International Airport, 22 minutes from Jilin station. Jilin’s own airport stopped commercial flights in 2005.
2011年开通的长吉城际铁路全长111公里，从吉林到长春只需半小时左右。列车途经长春龙嘉国际机场，从吉林站出发约22分钟即可抵达。吉林本地机场已于2005年停止民航运营。
The Qing shipyard stood outside Linjiang Gate, on the bank of the Songhua. The warships are long gone. Each winter, willows along the river turn white with rime.
清代船厂曾坐落在临江门外的松花江畔。当年的战船早已不见踪影。每到冬天，江畔的柳树都会挂满洁白的雾凇。