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Sprawling along the Songhua River, Jilin City is the second largest city in Jilin Province, with an area of 27,000 square kilometers and a population of 4.276 million. It is also the only city in China having the same name with its province.
Jilin City is situated in hilly area near the Songhua River. There are four famous mountains surrounding Jilin City, which is North Mountain in the west, Long Tan Mountain in the east, Zhuque Mountain in the North, and Turtle Mountain in the south, plus Songhua River, it forms a bagua (the Eight Trigrams) in Taiji pattern. North Mountain, called Beishan, is the most famous mountain in Jilin City, it's said, Emperor Qianlong had come and visited the mountain. It is also said that there are several Buddhist temples on the mountain.
Jilin was formerly called "Jilin Wula", which means "along the river" in the Manchu language. Jilin is referred to as a river city because of Boat Sailing on the Songhua River, a verse composed by Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty during his inspection tour of the east. It is surrounded on all sides by the offset of the Changbai Mountains, and the Songhua River that flows in a S-shaped course through the urban area looks like a blue ribbon.
Rime
The best season to visit Jilin is winter, because people can see the rime whose name spreads among travelers nationwide. The rime on the Songhua River is one of four natural wonders in China, enjoying equal fame as Guilin Mountains and Streams, Yunnan Stone Forest and the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River do. The rime, also called "snow willow", "tree hanging", "ice flowers", "water vaporized flowers", "silver flowers", is a kind of phenomenon, in which winter fog condenses on the branches and leaves of trees to form separate, white ice crystals, according to metrology.
Besides the banks of the Songhua River, the Songhua Lake, located beyond the Fengman Power Station nearby Jilin City is another good place to enjoy the beautiful rime. In winter, the ice on the lake is over a meter thick, but the water underneath the ice is not below freezing. In fact, the turbines of the power station make the water flow fast and this raises its temperature to 5 C degree even if the outside temperature is 30 C degree below zero and the water within 50 kilometers below the dam is not iced over. This causes fog during the day. But when the temperature drops during the night, rime and icicles form on the trees around the lake. When the sun rises the next morning, it turns the area into a crystal fairy world, with trees glistening in every shape. Willow branches become silver bands and pine trees turn into white chrysanthemums. "A sudden visit by the spring breeze," a poem says, "brings white pear blossoms to thousands of trees." Around noon, the white frost melts away, dropping on the people below.
The rime appears from about mid-December to the first half of March and is best seen from the dam and along the shore.
Other Scenic Spots
 
Zhuque Mountain
 
Zhuque Mountain is located in the north of Jilin City. Its height is about 817 meters. Zhuque (Red Phoenix) is one of the four deity animals in China's ancient legend which protects the northern side of China.
 
Zhuque Mountain is also called Zhu Mountain (a mountain in the shape of pig). It's very steep and has many absurd stones. Standing at the foot of its eastern mountain and looking at the peak, people can see a huge stone which is in the shape of a 10-meter pig and ready to run. Five small pigs followed it closely. The stone pig's head is toward the peak while its tail downward. It is so vivid and lifelike that it can be called a natural stone carving.
 
Visitor can enjoy themselves by climbing the mountain both in summer and winter. In summer, people can climb up to the main peak – knifepoint peak and look down at the whole city from the summit. The mountain is standing by Songhua River which makes the scene of mountains and rivers more attracting. In winter, people can do skiing in the mountain.
 
Meteorite Museum
In March 1976 a heavy meteorite shower hit the area around Jilin. This shower is reputed to have been thrown from the planet strip between Jupiter and Mars.
After the 1976 activity, local astrologers took action to preserve the 138 pieces of meteorite that they could find, and many of these pieces can now be seen in the Meteorite Museum. The heaviest piece weighs a hefty 1,775kg and it is said to be the largest extant meteorite in the world (the scholars in and outside China call it a "wonder in China from Space"). After further scientific analysis the pieces here were found to be around 4.6 billion years old, about the same age as the earth.
The visitors in the museum can be taught great amount of knowledge about the meteorite, the planet and the space. The museum makes use of light, sound and electronics to make such a complicated thing easier and more interesting to be learned. The Jilin Municipal Government organizes students in Jilin City to visit the museum annually.
Songhua Lake
Songhua Lake is 24km east of the city center, is a popular tourist magnet out of town. This is an attractive location, the long narrow lake is surrounded by forests and pretty hills and it is easy to get lost, boating on the lake or strolling along leaf strewn paths.
Looked at from above, the lake resembles a string of shining pearls set in-between heavily vegetated mountain peaks. Covering a total area of 700 square meters, Songhua Lake boasts eight scenic spots within the lake area, ranging from islets, peaks and ponds to attractive hilly slopes. It is possible to pay a visit to this area in all four seasons - outings in spring when the lake is at its highest, boating and bathing in summer, angling in the autumn and of course, skiing in winter. Boating on the lake is quite inexpensive at about RMB 5 Yuan (USD 0.71) an hour.
Apart from its picturesque scenery, the lake also abounds in flora and fauna: whitefish, carp and nameless fish as well as over 160 species of herbal medicines. If you are lucky enough, you may also bump into rarer species such as roe deer, black bear and lynx. The lake even has its own myth, in a similar vein to the Loch Ness stories. In 1992 a soldier visiting the lake on leave reported being attacked by a dragon-like creature. Truthful or not, the tourism industry here has never looked back.  
In recent years, thanks to this booming travel industry, the lake has reaped in considerable revenue with the completion of the Songhua Lake Ski Resort. For detailed information, check the entertainment overview. Tours can also be arranged here from an office at 105 Jilin Street.
Longtan Mountain Deer Farm
With the beautiful scenery, Longtan Deer Farm is a national corporation that integrate feeding deer, trading and touring together. With its advantaged geographic location and convenient transportation, it covers an area of 380 hectares. Longtan Mountain Deer Farm has an amount of over 1000 deer stock on hand with an annual production of deer antler of about 750 kg.
The deer farm service department mainly sells the antler series production that is produced by this factory branded as "Longtan Mountain", Such as: the antler of the spotted deer, three forks deer antler, beheaded deer antler; different specs antler pieces, deer antler powder, deer heart, common red ginseng; different kinds of ginseng pieces, frog oil, Changbai Mountain never old grass; glossy ganoderma series of cordial wine and cosmetics. The products are famous for "reputation, excellence, newness, specialty, purity and low price".
The "Sanbao Garden" provides an admirable "northeast Sanbao" for tourists from home and abroad. You can enjoy the leaves, stem, flower and fruits of the ginseng; and some rare animals such as: reindeer, mink, fox and pheasant, etc.
Tourist Tips:
1. Some people praise the Songjiang Road (Middle) as beautiful as the Shanghai Bund. It is the best location to appreciate the nightscape of Jilin City, and an excellent place to admire the rimed trees along the Songhua River.
 
2. There are special buses in front of the Jilin Train Station running to the Songhua Lake every 40 minutes. The external transportation of Jilin is convenient. It is 130 kilometers (81 miles) away from Changchun and dozens of buses depart every day to Changchun within every two hours.
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