大庆市

Why this place

Daqing is the oilfield that made modern China's industry possible: discovered in 1959, it was for decades the country's largest oil field. The city was built from nothing on the Songnen plain, and it still has a frontier-planned feel, plus a large wetland park created from the subsidence lakes.

What to see

• The Iron Man memorial and the oilfield exhibition, which tell the story of the 1960s discovery
• Longfeng Wetland, the largest urban wetland park in China, full of reeds and birds
• The surrounding grassland and the Xianfeng oil wells still working in the fields

What to eat

• Northeast stews and millet
• Freshwater fish from the wetland lakes

Best time

June–September