The area around present day Baicheng was a nomadic area which was inhabited by several nomad tribes in Northeast China. As Qing Government forsook the settlement of Han Chinese in the 19th century, no farming was allowed until 1902. By 1938 it was finally renamed Baicheng, which Mandarin means white town. Baicheng used to belong to Heilongjiang province before it became a city within Jilin province. Baicheng's importance started to increase after a railway from Qiqihar to Siping through Baicheng was constructed in the 1920s. In the 1930s another railway connecting Baicheng to Ulanhot and the mines at Arxan was opened northwestward. These two lines enabled Baicheng to become a regional transportation hub in western Jilin Province. One more rail line connecting Changchun was opened in the mid-1930s as well.