Xunke County

Xunke County (simplified Chinese: 逊克县; traditional Chinese: 遜克縣; pinyin: Xùnkè Xiàn) is a county under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Heihe, in northern Heilongjiang province, China, bordering Russia's Amur Oblast to the north across the Amur River. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Heihe. The county spans an area of 17,344 square kilometres (6,697 mi²), and has a population of about 82,000.

Xunke County got its name from a portmanteau of two previously existing counties in the area: Xunhe County (Chinese: 逊河县) and Qike County (Chinese: 奇克县). Xunhe County derived its name from the nearby Xunbiela River [zh], which means "milk river" in Manchu. Qike derived its name from a nearby mountain called Qikele (Chinese: 奇克勒). The pronunciation of Qikele shifted to Qikete (Chinese: 奇克特) over time, and would commonly be shorted to Qike.

There have been human activities in Xunke County as early as the late Neolithic period.

During the time of the Jin dynasty, the area of present-day Xunke County was inhabited by the Jurchen people.

A number of refugees from the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River fleeing the 1900 Amur anti-Chinese pogroms resettled in present-day Xunke County.

After the 1911 Revolution, in 1913, the Aihui Zhili Ting [zh], which governed the area, was restructured as Aihui County. Qikete, corresponding to present-day Xunke County, was reclassified as the Fourth District of Aihui County. In 1915, Qikete was reclassified from a karun [zh] to a county assistant [zh]. In 1929, Qikete County Assistant was renamed and reorganized as Qike County.

In 1933, Imperial Japan invaded and occupied the area, and established their own county governments in the area. In 1943, Japan merged the two counties it established in the area, Xunhe County and Qike County, into Xunke County.

In June 1946, the Northeastern People's Liberation Army [zh] established county offices. By 1947, the People's Liberation Army established full control of the area.