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Known as Kirin during Manchukuo, JILIN city is a pleasant little place with little by way of sights, but great cheap winter sports, and in summer it's the most convenient jumping-off point for Changbai Shan. It's split in two by the Songhua River , with the downtown area spread along its northern shore. A new promenade along the river was finished in 1998, making for a pretty walk, especially in winter, when the trees are coated in frost. This phenomenon, known as shugua in Chinese, is the result of condensation from the city's hydroelectric dam at Songhua Lake, east of town. It's Jilin's claim to fame, along with an ice festival in January and three neighbouring skiing and sledding parks. This makes winter the ideal time to visit Jilin, though its parks - Beishan, Jiangnan and Jiangbei - are said to be nice in summer. The best known of the three, Beishan (Y2), is in the west of town at the terminus of bus route #7. It's filled with pathways and temples, the most interesting of which is Yuhuangge (Jade Emperor's Temple), where rows of fortune tellers gather out front. Jilin's prettiest building and a reminder of the town's past, the Catholic church was built in the 1920s at 3 Songjiang Lu, the road bordering the river promenade. Next door is a hospice for the elderly, which explains why the median age of a Jilin Catholic appears to be 75.
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