Mudanjiang is a prefecture-level city in Heilongjiang Province of the People's Republic of China. The administrative seat of the prefecture resides in Mudanjiang City. It was called Botankou when it was under Japanese occupation. It serves as a regional communications hub with a railway junction and an international airport connecting with several major Chinese cities as well as Seoul, Korea. Mudanjiang is also an important border city, located only 248 km from Vladivostok, Russia. In 2011 Mudanjiang had a GDP of RMB 93.48 billion with a 15.1% growth rate. The city of Mudanjiang is named after for the Mudanjiang River (literally, "Peony River") flowing through it. Its population is 2,798,723 at the 2010 census whom 805,584 live in the built up area made of 4 urban districts.