In 1902, Qing imperial government set up the Linjiang County in today's Baishan region. During the Manchukuo period, Linjiang county was under the jurisdiction of Tonghua. In March 1959, Jilin provincial government promoted Linjiang County to a county-level city and renamed it as Hunjiang City, which is still under the administration of Tonghua Prefecture. In 1985, Hunjiang City developed into a prefecture-level city, administering three districts and three counties including Fusong, Jingyu and Changbai. The city was renamed to Baishan in April, 1994 with the approval of the State of Council. Baishan literally means White Mountain.