Hegang’s mining chief told his men in 1946 that every extra shovel of coal was a grenade for the front, and by 2020 the city had lost almost 16 percent of its people in a decade.
鹤岗矿务局局长一九四六年对矿工们说,多出一锹煤炭就等于给前方送去一颗手榴弹;到二零二零年,这座城市的人口在十年间减少了将近百分之十六。
The first farmer arrived in 1907, and in 1908 the Qing planned a county at the Crane Standing Ridge, only to drop it because there were too few people. In 1914 a hunter named Cao Fengyang found coal on the west bank of the Stone River, and in 1918 the Xinghua Coal Company began mining.
第一位垦荒者一九零七年来到这里;一九零八年,清政府曾计划在鹤立岗设县,却因人烟稀少而作罢。一九一四年,猎户曹凤阳在石头河西岸发现煤田,一九一八年,兴华煤矿公司开始采煤。
A railway to the Songhua opened in 1926, and the town that grew around the mine took its first name, Xingshan, from the company. The Hegang Mining Bureau was founded on 1 December 1945, and in November 1949 Xingshan became Hegang.
一九二六年通往松花江的铁路开通,围绕矿山形成的集镇以公司名称得名”兴山”。一九四五年十二月一日鹤岗矿务局成立,一九四九年十一月,兴山市改称鹤岗市。
Coal for the Front
支援前线的煤
In June 1946, as civil war spread, the bureau chief Li Tianfang told miners that an extra shovel of coal was a grenade for the front and an extra tonne was a shell, according to the National Mine Safety Administration. The mining bureau has paid ¥15.5 billion in taxes since 1945, and its taxes account for 70 percent of the city’s revenue, according to the same administration in 2021. It also supplies power, water and heat to more than 70 percent of residents.
据国家矿山安全监察局介绍,一九四六年六月解放战争全面爆发,矿务局局长李天放对矿工们说,多出一锹煤炭就等于给前方送去一颗手榴弹,多出一吨煤炭就如同送去一颗炮弹。该局二零二一年称,鹤岗矿务局自一九四五年建企以来累计上缴税费一百五十五亿元,上缴税费占鹤岗市财政收入的百分之七十;它还承担了全市百分之七十以上居民的供电、供水和供暖。
Hegang completed China’s first pair of modern shafts, the Dongshan shafts, in 1955, and its mining bureau’s output passed 10 million tonnes in 1978, according to Baidu Baike.
据百度百科介绍,鹤岗一九五五年建成新中国第一对现代化竖井东山竖井,一九七八年鹤岗矿务局煤炭年产量突破一千万吨。
A Mine, a Census and a Cheap Flat
一座矿、一次普查和一套便宜的房子
At 1:37 in the morning of 21 November 2009 a coal and gas outburst hit the Xinxing mine, opened in 1917, and at 2:19 a gas explosion followed, killing 108 miners and injuring 133; 528 were underground and 420 got out. The State Council’s safety office ruled it a responsibility accident, according to the National Mine Safety Administration, and the mine had been ordered to stop production but carried on, according to CCTV.
二零零九年十一月二十一日凌晨一点三十七分,始采于一九一七年的新兴煤矿发生煤与瓦斯突出,两点十九分随后发生瓦斯爆炸,造成一百零八人死亡、一百三十三人受伤;当时井下有五百二十八人,四百二十人升井。据国家煤矿安全监察局发布的通报,国务院安委会办公室认定这是一起责任事故;据中央电视台报道,该矿曾被责令停产却继续生产。
Hegang was named a resource-exhausted city in 2011, according to Yicai. Its population fell from 1,058,665 at the 2010 census to 891,271 in 2020, down 15.81 percent, and the urban population fell as well as the rural, according to the city’s census bulletin.
据第一财经报道,鹤岗二零一一年被确定为资源枯竭型城市。据鹤岗市普查公报,全市人口从二零一零年人口普查时的一百零五万八千六百六十五人降至二零二零年的八十九万一千二百七十一人,下降百分之十五点八一,城镇人口和乡村人口都在减少。
According to the city’s statistical communiqués, GDP was ¥37.63 billion in 2024 and ¥39.22 billion in 2025, up 5.1 percent, with services at ¥20.34 billion, the primary sector at ¥9.97 billion and the secondary at ¥8.91 billion in 2025. Raw coal output rose from 8.75 million tonnes in 2024 to 10.14 million in 2025, and washed coal from 6.07 million to 6.58 million. Real-estate investment rose 59.0 percent in 2025 after falling 43.8 percent in 2024, and commercial housing sales reached 168,000 square metres, up 14.2 percent.
据鹤岗市统计公报,全市地区生产总值二零二四年为三百七十六点三亿元,二零二五年为三百九十二点二亿元,增长百分之五点一,其中二零二五年第三产业二百零三点四亿元,第一产业九十九点七亿元,第二产业八十九点一亿元。原煤产量从二零二四年的八百七十四点八万吨增至二零二五年的一千零一十三点六万吨,洗煤产量从六百零七点一万吨增至六百五十七点八万吨。房地产开发投资二零二四年下降百分之四十三点八,二零二五年增长百分之五十九点零,商品房销售面积十六点八万平方米,增长百分之十四点二。
Faster passenger train services reached Hegang on 26 December 2022; the fastest take 44 minutes to Jiamusi and about three and a half hours to Harbin, according to the Heilongjiang government.
据黑龙江省人民政府报道,更快的动车组旅客列车于二零二二年十二月二十六日开进鹤岗,到佳木斯最快四十四分钟,到哈尔滨最快约三个半小时。
When Yicai reported on the city’s cheap housing, a 62-square-metre two-bedroom flat in the Hebin South estate was listed at ¥55,000.
据第一财经报道鹤岗的低价房时,河滨南小区一套六十二平方米的两居室标价五万五千元。
