Journal paper

Issue No.	No. 57
Title	Chinese Settlements between Urga and Kyakhta during the Qing Dynasty (1755-1911)
Author	Wang, Shih-ming
Page	83-140
Abstract	By 1755, the Dzungar-Qing Wars were finally at an end; the Tushetu Khan region was also becoming more stabilized. Subjects of the Qing dynasty thus began applying to the Lifan Yuan ( 理藩院 , sometimes translated as the Board for the Administration of Outlying Regions) for permission to conduct business in the Urga and Kyakhta regions. To keep Qing subjects and the Mongols separate from one another, in 1764 the Qing court issued an order to its Urga Consular Office (庫倫商民事務衙門), telling it to tighten control over Qing subjects, by requiring them to have passports and by monitoring their whereabouts in the Tushetu Khan region. 　　At first the Qing subjects operated between Urga and the military outposts of Khyakta region. They built houses near roads, planted wheat, raised livestock, stored goods, and conducted credit trade with the Mongols. The Qing subjects settled far and wide, from the Khalkh River, to the Orkhon River, to the Selenga River basin. Contact—and tension—between Qing subjects and the nomadic Mongolians began to increase. Thus in 1803 the Qing court announced that it would gradually restrict the number of settlers allowed into the Urga and Kyakhta regions. Designated settlement areas would be curtailed as well. Henceforth Qing subjects would only be allowed to set up temporary tents for the purposes of conducting business transactions: they could no longer build long-term housing. The court also conducted extensive searches for citizens without passports, so as to protect the lifestyle of the Khalkha nomads. By the 1880s, as Russian meddling in the Khalkha region began to intensify, the Qing court once again allowed its citizens to settle in the Tushetu Khan region, and Qing citizens once more began to settle by the Khalkh River, the Orkhon River, and the Selenga River basin. These regions, which had hitherto been isolated from the outside world, were relatively undeveloped. Contact with the Qing subjects influenced the Mongols profoundly: they began to trade and to grow crops, with many of them giving up their nomadic lifestyle completely. 　　By the 1890s, the Qing court, whose finances were not in good shape, began to increase taxes on its citizens in Tushetu Khan. This policy brought about severe economic problems in Tushetu Khan; it became more difficult, for example, to settle debts between Qing merchants and Mongolians. 　　As a result of all these developments, many jasaghs and lamas came to feel that the Qing dynasty did not properly protect their interests and nomadic lifestyle. They turned instead to Russia for help. In the end, many Khalkha Mongols came to support calls for their independence.
Keyword	Khalkha Mongols, Urga, Kyakhta, Lifan Yuan, passports, independence
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