| Changchun
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Changchun, Jilin Province
Changchun, located northeast of Beijing, is the capital of Jilin province. It is a Chinese version of a combination of Detroit and Hollywood. It has China's largest motor vehicle plant and its biggest film studio.
Located in the center of the northeast plain, Changchun, meaning "eternal spring", was first settled more than 1,000 years ago. But it did not develop much until the turn of this century. The city grew enormously in the 1930s after it was made the capital of the Japanese puppet state, Manchukuo, during the Japanese military occupation of the area (1930--1945).
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Changchun has witnessed rapid development since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, and has become a major industrial and cultural city in China. It has few sites of historical values or ancient monuments to offer tourists. But if you are interested in how cars and trucks are made in China, then you can visit the No. 1 Automobile Plant. If film-making interests you, you can arrange a tour of the Changchun Film Studio, the same way you visit the Universal Studio at Hollywood.
The only major historical site you can visit is the imperial palace of China's last emperor. It is nothing like the imperial palaces in Beijing or Shenyang. It is comprised mostly of simple houses with crude lay-outs, reflecting the hasty establishment of the Japanese puppet state, headed by Puyi, China's last emperor dethroned in the 1911 Revolution.
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