High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Qiqihar is a major city in the Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China. The municipal area has 1,438,550 inhabitants. These are mainly Han Chinese; there are thirty-four minorities including Manchu, Daur, and Mongolians. Close to Qiqihar are numerous wetlands and the Zhalong Nature Reserve, famous in China for being home to numerous red-crowned cranes. In 2007 it had a GDP of RMB 56.9 billion with a 14.6% growth rate. Qiqihar is one of the oldest cities in the northeast of China and was founded in 1691. From 1931 until 1945 it was an important military base for the Japanese control of northeastern China, going by the name Tsitsihar. During the occupation, the Imperial Japanese Army established in Qiqihar chemical research unit 516 for chemical warfare. A major mustard gas tank leftover from the Second Sino-Japanese War buried underground was accidentally damaged in 2003. It caused major injuries and one death.