北大荒 (The Great Northern Wilderness)

[Ian_Lee]

Does anyone remember 北大荒? And does anyone outside China know where 北大荒 is?

Even though 北大荒 was mentioned daily in People's Daily and its pictures printed monthly in the People's Pictorials in the 1960s, hardly anyone outside PRC knew where it was.

Actually the area refers to the extreme eastern portion of China -- the fertile plain that is surrounded by three rivers -- Heilongjiang (Amur), Sunghua (Sungari) and Ussuri Rivers.

I heard that hundreds of thousands of students had been sent there during the Cultural Revolution. Now many of them have even forged a 北大荒 identity!

[bhchao]

Here is an interview with a survivor who was sent to the Great Northern Wilderness.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/15/interviews/wu/

[Ian_Lee]

Actually is the life in Great Northern Wilderness that bitter?

I guess it all depends on whom you speak to.

The area which is just across the Great Northern Wilderness (which is more northward and more frigid) -- the land on the other banks of Amur and Ussuri -- is being called Russia's California.

By comparison, those Russian lands are more inhabitable than a lot others in Siberia.