Ulanqab averages 4.3°C a year, cold enough to help cool servers for Huawei and Apple. It is also China’s potato capital, beside some of the youngest volcanoes on the Mongolian Plateau.
乌兰察布年平均气温只有四点三摄氏度,冷得足以帮助给华为和苹果的服务器降温。它也是”中国马铃薯之都”,城边还立着蒙古高原上一些最年轻的火山。
It also gave China a banker who became governor of Shandong, and the world’s shortest man of 2008.
这里还走出了后来出任山东省省长的银行家,以及二零零八年的世界最矮男人。
The Red Pass
红色的山口
Ulanqab is Mongolian for “red mountain pass”, the place where six Mongol banners first met in 1633, according to Sohu and Inner Mongolia News. The State Council turned the league into a city in December 2003, and the seat, Jining, takes its name from a Yuan-dynasty route, according to Sohu and Zhihu.
据搜狐和内蒙古新闻网介绍,乌兰察布是蒙古语”红色的山口”之意,指一六三三年六个蒙古旗首次会盟的地方。据搜狐和知乎介绍,二零零三年十二月国务院批准撤盟设市,市政府驻地集宁的名字来自元代的集宁路。
The territory has shrunk. Horinger and Qingshuihe counties went to Hohhot in 1995, and Wuchuan and Damao went to Hohhot and Baotou in 1996, according to the city government. The 2020 census counted 1,706,328 residents, according to the census bulletin as summarised by Hongheiku, and at the end of 2023 the city had 2.58 million registered residents but only 1.60 million living there, according to the 2023 communiqué.
领土缩小了。据市政府介绍,一九九五年和林格尔、清水河两县划归呼和浩特,一九九六年武川县、达茂联合旗分别划归呼和浩特和包头。据红黑人口库转载的人口普查公报介绍,二零二零年普查常住人口一百七十万零六千三百二十八人;据二零二三年统计公报,二零二三年末户籍人口二百五十八万,实际居住的只有一百六十万。
The people are also getting older. At the end of 2025 there were 1.557 million residents, and 37.21 percent were 60 or older, according to the city’s 2025 population bulletin. About 4,000 births met 19,000 deaths that year, according to the 2025 communiqué.
人口也在变老。据市二零二五年常住人口主要数据公报,二零二五年末常住人口一百五十五点七万人,其中六十岁及以上占百分之三十七点二一。据二零二五年统计公报,当年出生约四千人,死亡一万九千人。
Volcanoes, Cold Air and Potatoes
火山、冷空气与土豆
In Chahar Right Wing Rear Banner, about 300 kilometres from Beijing, the Ulan Hada cluster, “red rock” in Mongolian, strings its cones across the grassland, according to Sina. It is the only volcano group on the plateau’s southern edge known to have erupted in the Holocene, according to The Paper, and its second phase came within the past 11,700 years, according to Baidu Baike. Baidu counts 20 cones, while the city’s geopark survey counts more than 30, according to The Paper. Locals call three of them the North, Middle and South Alchemy Furnaces, after the cauldron of the Daoist immortal Taishang Laojun, according to National Geographic China.
在距北京约三百公里的察哈尔右翼后旗,乌兰哈达火山群把火山锥串珠般撒在草原上,据新浪介绍,这个名字在蒙古语里是”红色的岩石”。据澎湃新闻介绍,它是蒙古高原南缘唯一确认全新世有过喷发的火山群;据百度百科介绍,它的第二期喷发发生在一万一千七百年之内。据百度百科介绍,共有二十个火山锥,而据澎湃新闻介绍,市里的地质公园考察报告统计有三十多座。据《中国国家地理》介绍,当地人把其中三座叫作”北炼丹炉””中炼丹炉”和”南炼丹炉”,取意于太上老君的炼丹炉。
The area became a regional geopark in 2018, and a national geopark was approved in December 2020, according to The Paper.
据澎湃新闻介绍,该区域二零一八年成为自治区级地质公园,二零二零年十二月国家地质公园的创建获批。
The cold is an asset of another kind. The average temperature lets servers use outside air for nearly ten months a year, according to Inner Mongolia News. Huawei signed in 2013 for a ¥1.6 billion cloud data centre, which began operating in 2016, according to Eraes. The city says it has now signed more than 100 data-centre projects, with Huawei, Alibaba, Apple and Kuaishou among the customers, according to Inner Mongolia News in October 2026. New-energy capacity makes up 67 percent of the city’s power capacity, according to the city’s 2025 plan report.
寒冷是另一种资产。据内蒙古新闻网介绍,年均气温让服务器每年近十个月可以用室外冷空气降温。据时代储能网介绍,华为二零一三年签约,投资十六亿元建设云数据中心,二零一六年投入运营。据内蒙古新闻网二零二六年十月报道,全市已签约数据中心项目一百多个,华为、阿里巴巴、苹果、快手等企业在列。据市二零二五年计划执行情况报告,新能源装机占全市电力装机的百分之六十七。
The potatoes came first. The China Food Industry Association named Ulanqab “China’s potato capital” in March 2009, according to Baidu Baike, and 86,000 hectares were planted in 2025, according to the 2025 communiqué. GDP was ¥126.03 billion in 2025, up 4.8 percent, according to the same source, and 22.3 million domestic visitors came in 2024, according to the city’s 2024 plan report.
土豆是更早的产业。据百度百科介绍,二零零九年三月中国食品工业协会授予乌兰察布”中国马铃薯之都”称号;据二零二五年统计公报,二零二五年马铃薯播种面积八点六万公顷。据同一来源介绍,二零二五年地区生产总值一千二百六十点三亿元,增长百分之四点八;据市二零二四年计划执行情况报告,二零二四年接待国内游客二千二百三十万人次。
Getting There
前往乌兰察布
Ulanqab station on the Zhang–Hu high-speed line stands on Hada Street in Chahar Right Front Banner, according to gaotie.com.cn. The fastest trains take 1 hour 40 minutes from Beijing’s Qinghe station, with second-class fares from ¥162, according to Ctrip, and 36 minutes from Hohhot East for ¥47, according to gaotie.com.cn and Ctrip.
据高铁旅行网介绍,张呼高铁上的乌兰察布站位于察哈尔右翼前旗哈达街。据携程介绍,从北京清河站出发最快一小时四十分钟,二等座票价一百六十二元起;据高铁旅行网和携程介绍,从呼和浩特东站出发最快三十六分钟,票价四十七元。
Conventional trains use Jining South, which the K89 reaches at 04.24 from Beijing Fengtai, according to Ctrip. From 1956 the through train from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar changed its bogies at Jining, because the line beyond was converted to a wider gauge, according to Baidu Baike. The K23/K24 to Ulaanbaatar is still listed as calling at Jining South, according to the same source.
据携程介绍,普速列车停靠集宁南站,K89次从北京丰台出发,次日四点二十四分到达。据百度百科介绍,一九五六年起,北京开往乌兰巴托的直通列车在集宁换转向架,因为集宁以北的线路已改为宽轨。据同一来源介绍,开往乌兰巴托的K23/24次仍列有集宁南站停靠。
Two Natives
两位乌兰察布人
He Pingping was born in July 1988 in Gonglahu township, Hua’de County, weighing less than 1 kilogram, and was raised on goat’s milk because his mother had no milk, according to Xinhua and Sina. A hospital in Inner Mongolia attributed his height to a rare bone disease and gave him a life expectancy of 20 to 30 years, according to Sina. On 22 March 2008 Guinness World Records certified him as the world’s shortest man, at 74.61 centimetres, according to Xinhua. He died in a Rome hospital on 13 March 2010, aged 21, after feeling chest pain while recording a television show, according to Xinhua.
何平平一九八八年七月出生在化德县公腊胡洞乡,出生时不到一公斤,母亲没有奶水,他是喝羊奶长大的,据新华网和新浪介绍。据新浪介绍,内蒙古的一家医院诊断他的矮小由罕见的骨病所致,并说他的寿命为二十到三十岁。据新华网介绍,二零零八年三月二十二日吉尼斯世界纪录认定他为世界最矮男人,身高七十四点六一厘米。据新华网介绍,二零一零年三月十三日他在罗马录制电视节目时感到胸痛,在当地医院去世,终年二十一岁。
Guo Shuqing, born in August 1956 in Chahar Right Wing Rear Banner, became governor of Shandong in June 2013, according to People’s Daily, after chairing China Construction Bank from 2005 and the securities regulator from October 2011, according to China Economic Net. In February 2017 he moved to chair the banking regulator, according to China News Service.
郭树清一九五六年八月出生在察哈尔右翼后旗,二零一三年六月当选山东省省长,据人民网介绍;此前他自二零零五年起任中国建设银行董事长,二零一一年十月起任证监会主席,据中国经济网介绍。据中国新闻网介绍,二零一七年二月他出任银监会主席。
His own road began on the same plateau. According to The Paper, at 18 he was sent down to Hongger commune in Siziwang Banner, more than 60 kilometres from his school, and he left in March 1978 for Nankai University.
他的路也从这片高原开始。据澎湃新闻介绍,十八岁那年他作为知青被送到四子王旗的红格尔公社,离学校六十多公里,一九七八年三月才离开,去了南开大学。
