Yang Yang, who trained in Qitaihe, won China’s first Winter Olympic gold in 2002; the coal city, home to fewer than 700,000 people at the 2020 census, has produced 14 world champions in short-track speed skating, though it had no large indoor rink until 2013.
杨扬在七台河训练成长,二零零二年夺得中国第一枚冬奥会金牌;这座煤城在二零二零年人口普查时常住人口不足七十万,却先后走出十四位短道速滑世界冠军,而直到二零一三年,这里才有了大型室内冰场。
Wang Meng won three golds at Vancouver in 2010 and Fan Kexin a gold and a bronze at Beijing in 2022, both from Qitaihe, and the coaching began in the 1970s with Meng Qingyu. An eight-storey former observation tower in the city is now a hall to the champions.
王濛二零一零年在温哥华一人夺得三枚金牌,范可新二零二二年在北京夺得一金一铜,她们都来自七台河,而这里的执教传统始于上世纪七十年代的孟庆余。城里一座八层的原观光塔,如今成了冠军馆。
According to Sina Finance in March 2025, Qitaihe’s athletes had won 186 world-level gold medals and 601 national golds, and in June 2022 the Chinese Olympic Committee gave the city an Olympic Champion City commemorative trophy, according to China Daily.
据新浪财经二零二五年三月报道,七台河籍运动员共获得世界级金牌一百八十六枚、国家级金牌六百零一枚;据中国日报网报道,二零二二年六月,中国奥委会向七台河授予”奥运冠军之城”纪念奖杯。
Coal, Graphite and Not Much Water
煤、石墨与不多的水
Qitaihe was developed from 1958 and became a prefecture-level city in 1983. Its coalfield has proven reserves of 2.215 billion tonnes, 82 percent of them coking coal, and is one of three coalfields nationally under protective mining, according to a NetEase profile of the city.
七台河一九五八年起开发,一九八三年升格为省辖市。据网易的一篇城市介绍,七台河煤田累计探明储量二十二点一五亿吨,其中炼焦煤占百分之八十二,是国家保护性开采的三个煤田之一。
The same profile puts graphite ore at 478 million tonnes, of high-grade, large-flake quality; gold and marble also occur, according to Baidu Baike.
同一篇介绍称,七台河石墨矿石储量约四点七八亿吨,为高品位、大鳞片石墨;据百度百科介绍,当地还有黄金、大理石等矿产。
Fresh water is the scarce resource. The city’s water resources total about 238 million cubic metres a year, or 466 per head, less than a quarter of the provincial average and a fifth of the national one, according to Baidu Baike.
淡水才是稀缺资源。据百度百科介绍,七台河多年平均水资源总量约二点三八亿立方米,人均四百六十六立方米,不足全省人均水平的四分之一,仅为全国人均水平的五分之一。
Mining has left 251 heaps of coal gangue holding about 47.82 million tonnes, and six companies now use it, according to the Heilongjiang government. A ¥350 million project processes coal gangue into kaolin and ceramic products. The city has the province’s only coal-gangue research institute and passed China’s first local regulation on coal-gangue pollution, according to The Paper.
据黑龙江省人民政府介绍,采煤留下了二百五十一座煤矸石山,存量约四千七百八十二万吨,全市现有六家企业利用煤矸石;其中一个总投资三点五亿元的项目,把煤矸石深加工为高岭土和陶瓷制品。据澎湃新闻报道,七台河组建了全省唯一的煤矸石综合利用产业研究院,并出台了全国首部煤矸石污染防治地方性法规。
At the city’s coal-chemical plants, coke-oven gas makes methanol, tar and hydrogen make fuel oil and asphalt, and steam, gangue and coal slurry feed power stations whose fly ash goes into building materials, a loop that raises the value of the coal at least fourfold, according to the National Energy Administration.
据国家能源局介绍,在七台河的煤化工企业里,焦炉煤气用来生产甲醇,煤焦油和氢气用来制造燃料油和沥青,蒸汽、煤矸石和煤泥送去发电,粉煤灰又成为建材原料;这样的循环使煤炭的价值至少提高四倍。
A Slump, a Rebound and a Champion Tower
低谷、反弹与冠军塔
In 2024 GDP fell 7.2 percent to ¥23.66 billion, with the secondary sector down 29.7 percent, washed coal output down 59.2 percent to 2.81 million tonnes and coke down 36.7 percent, according to the city’s statistical communiqué. In 2025 GDP grew 5.5 percent, the fastest in the province, and raw coal output rose 24.4 percent, according to Baidu Baike.
据七台河市统计公报显示,二零二四年全市GDP同比下降百分之七点二,降至二百三十六点六亿元,第二产业下降百分之二十九点七,洗精煤产量下降百分之五十九点二,降至二百八十一万吨,焦炭产量下降百分之三十六点七。据百度百科介绍,二零二五年全市GDP增长百分之五点五,增速居全省第一,原煤产量增长百分之二十四点四。
The city had 920,471 permanent residents at the 2010 census and 689,611 at the 2020 census, a quarter fewer; its registered population was 726,329 at the end of 2024, according to the city statistics bureau.
据七台河市统计局公布的数据,二零一零年人口普查时全市常住人口为九十二万零四百七十一人,二零二零年为六十八万九千六百一十一人,减少了四分之一;二零二四年末户籍人口为七十二万六千三百二十九人。
Qitaihe joined the high-speed network on 6 December 2021, when the Mudanjiang–Jiamusi line opened with a station at Qitaihe West; Harbin is within three hours, according to People’s Daily.
七台河于二零二一年十二月六日接入高铁网,当天牡佳高铁开通,七台河西站同时启用;据《人民日报》报道,从哈尔滨到七台河三小时内可达。
The Champion Tower on Shanhu Road presents Yang Yang on its third floor as a miner’s descendant who became a world champion, and holds Wang Meng’s skates, helmet and medals on its fourth, according to China Radio International.
据国际在线报道,山湖路上的冠军塔第三层展示杨扬从矿工后代成长为世界冠军的经历,第四层陈列着王濛的冰刀、头盔和奖牌。
