Kalgan

English

Etymology

From Mongolian ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠯᠭᠠᠨ (qaɣalɣan, “gate”), from Mongolian ᠴᠢᠭᠣᠯᠠᠯᠲᠣ
ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠯᠭ᠎ᠠ (čiɣolalto qaɣalg-a, “meeting or assembly gate”), from its important position on Mongolia's trade routes with northern China.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kälgänʹ

Proper noun

Kalgan

1. (dated) Synonym of Zhangjiakou
   • [1767, Annual register, or a view of the history and politics and literature for the year‎^[1], page 38, column 2:

     Of the Mongall Tartars.
     The Mongalls are a numerous people, and occupy a large extent of country, from this place to the Kallgan, which ſignifies the everlaſting Wall, or the great wall of China. From this wall they ſtretch themſelves northward as far as the river Amoor; and from the Amoor, weſtward, to the Baykail ſea ; where they border with the territories of the Kontayſha, or prince of the black Kalmucks. On the ſouth, they are bounded by a nation called Tonguts, among whom the Delay Lama has his residence.]

   • 1900, Archibald R. Colquhoun, The 'Overland' To China‎^[2], Harper & Brothers, page 121:

     It may here be mentioned that the traveller who obtains Russian official assistance can cover the distance between Moscow and Peking in thirty and a half days—that is to say, by rail to Irkutsk, ten and a half days; thence to Kiachta by the post-road, four days; Kiachta to Urga by post-road, three days; thence to Kalgan over the Gobi Desert in ten days, or even less; Kalgan to Peking in three days.

   • 1913, Elizabeth Kendall, A Wayfarer in China: Impressions of a Trip Across West China and Mongolia‎^[3], Houghton Mifflin Company, pages 233-234:

     So you turn your back upon Peking, and the railway takes you to Kalgan on the edge of the great plateau. […] The Kalgan-Peking railway was the first thing of the kind constructed by the Chinese, and the engineer in chief, Chang-Tien-You, did the work so well (he was educated in America, one of the group that came in the early seventies) that he was later put in charge of the railway that was to be built from Canton northwards.

   • 1914, Frank L. Brown, A Sunday School Tour of the Orient‎^[4], Doubleday, Page & Company, page 307:

     While the main party was at Peking, Dr. Wilbur went northward to visit the interesting and important mission station at Kalgan.
     Kalgan is one hundred and twenty miles to the northwest of Peking, and is reached by a Chinese government railroad, the first railroad built by a Chinese engineer.

   • 1946, Mrs. S. Baker-Car, “Kalgan”, in Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society‎^[5], volume 33, number 2, page 213:

     Just before my arrival in Kalgan a fête had been given by the Ter Wang, a Mongol Prince of Inner Mongolia.

   • 1951, Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover, Years of Adventure 1874-1920‎^[6], New York: Macmillan Company, →OCLC, →OL, page 42:

     On one occasion on a return journey from Shensi I came into Kalgan, a gate to the Great Wall of China, on Christmas Eve, with snow and temperatures below zero. The caravan was tired out from my days of pushing to arrive home for Christmas with Mrs. Hoover, and that proved impossible, for our retinue had to rest.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Kalgan.

Further reading

• Kalgan in Encyclopædia Britannica
• “Kalgan, pn.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “Kalgan”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• Kangal