Ning Zhongyan won China’s first Olympic gold in the men’s 1500 metres speed skating on 19 February 2026, in an Olympic record of 1:41.98; he grew up in a village in Ning’an, the old Ninguta that once ruled the land where Mudanjiang now stands.
宁忠岩于二零二六年二月十九日夺得中国首枚冬奥会速度滑冰男子1500米金牌,成绩1分41秒98,刷新奥运纪录;他在宁安的一个村庄长大,而宁安就是旧时的宁古塔,曾经管辖着今天牡丹江所在的土地。
He first skated on a patch of the schoolyard that a teacher iced over in the winter of 2009. A year later a coach from the Mudanjiang youth sports school started cycling out to the village to see him, and at 11 he joined the school, more than an hour away by train; he made the national team in 2018.
他第一次滑冰,是在二零零九年冬天老师在校园里浇出的一片冰面上。一年后,牡丹江市青少年业余体校的教练开始骑自行车往返于学校和村庄之间,十一岁的他进入体校,从村里坐火车要一个多小时;二零一八年,他入选国家队。
In Milan he beat the American Jordan Stolz, who took silver in 1:42.75, and the Dutch world-record holder Kjeld Nuis, who took bronze. He finished 1.07 seconds inside the Olympic record that Joep Wennemars had set earlier the same day, and it was China’s third gold of the Games.
在米兰,他击败了获得银牌的美国选手乔丹·斯托尔兹(1分42秒75)和获得铜牌的荷兰世界纪录保持者凯尔·努伊斯。他的成绩比乔普·温内马斯当天刚刚创造的奥运纪录快了一点零七秒,这也是中国队本届冬奥会的第三枚金牌。
The Station that Outgrew Ninguta
超过宁古塔的车站
At the start of the 20th century the site of Mudanjiang was a meadow called Huanghuadianzi, with four or five households under Ning’an’s fifth district, according to Baidu Baike. The Russian-built Chinese Eastern Railway opened a station there in 1903, named after the river, and from 1920 streets were laid out around it and shops multiplied, according to the Boya place-name site.
据百度百科介绍,二十世纪初,今牡丹江所在之地还是一片名叫”黄花甸子”的荒甸,只有四五户人家,归宁安第五区管辖。据博雅地名网介绍,一九零三年,俄国修筑的中东铁路在此设站,以牡丹江命名车站;一九二零年起,车站周围丈放街基,店铺日益增多。
Ning’an, the old Ninguta, was by contrast a Qing frontier seat, and in 1929 it had more than 170,000 residents and ranked as a first-class county, according to Baidu Baike. Manchukuo then made Mudanjiang a provincial capital: Mudanjiang Province was set up on 1 July 1937 and Mudanjiang city on 1 December, at the crossing of the Harbin–Suifenhe and Tumen–Jiamusi railways, and in 1943 it became seat of the East Manchuria general province, according to the xzqh.org place-name site.
相比之下,宁安即旧时的宁古塔,是清代的边疆重镇;据百度百科介绍,一九二九年全县人口十七万多,为一等县。随后伪满洲国将牡丹江设为省会:据区划地名网介绍,一九三七年七月一日设牡丹江省,十二月一日设牡丹江市,城市位于滨绥、图佳两条铁路的交会处;一九四三年又成为东满总省的驻地。
Ning’an was placed under the Mudanjiang special district, seated in the city, in 1956, and it is now a county-level city administered by Mudanjiang, according to xzqh.org.
据区划地名网介绍,一九五六年宁安县划归设在牡丹江市的牡丹江专区管辖,如今是牡丹江市代管的县级市。
Ice in a Schoolyard
校园里的冰
That teacher who poured the ice was Geng Yuhua at Heping Primary School, and the coach who cycled between school and village was Zhu Yuliang, according to Xinhua. At 13, Ning began training under Chen Peijun at the Mudanjiang Winter Sports Training Centre, in a group of eight skaters in which he was the youngest, Chen told CNR.
据新华社报道,在校园里浇冰的是和平小学的耿玉花老师,骑着自行车往返学校与村庄之间的教练是祝玉良。十三岁起,宁忠岩在牡丹江市冬季运动项目训练中心跟随陈培军训练;陈培军对央广网说,当时他所在的小组有八名运动员,他是最小的一个。
According to Mudanjiang’s statistics bureau, GDP reached ¥105.14 billion in 2024, up 3.8 percent, with farming at 19.5 percent of output, the secondary sector at 18.1 percent and services at 62.4 percent. Its 2025 statistical communiqué records 5,904 births against 27,694 deaths, among a registered population of about 2.30 million.
据牡丹江市统计局公布,二零二四年全市GDP达一千零五十一点四亿元,增长百分之三点八,三次产业占比为百分之十九点五、百分之十八点一和百分之六十二点四。其二零二五年统计公报记录全年出生五千九百零四人、死亡二万七千六百九十四人,户籍人口约二百三十万。
The Harbin–Mudanjiang high-speed line opened on 25 December 2018, cutting the fastest journey between the two cities to 1 hour 28 minutes from at least 4½ hours, according to China News Service.
据中国新闻网报道,哈牡高铁于二零一八年十二月二十五日开通,两地最快运行时间缩短至一小时二十八分钟,此前至少需要四个半小时。
At the family home in Ning’an, the medals Ning Zhongyan has won over the years fill both sides of the television cabinet, according to Xinhua.
据新华社报道,在宁安的宁忠岩家中,电视柜两侧摆满了他这些年赢得的奖牌。
