Boli

Boli stands near the meeting of the Ussuri and the Amur, where the waters of eastern Manchuria join the great river flowing towards the sea. Communities of the lower Amur occupied a region of rivers, floodplains and wooded hills. Some historical accounts associate Boli with Poali, one of the Five Nations known to the Liao and Jin.

In the seventeenth century Russian parties descended the Amur and demanded tribute from its inhabitants, bringing them into conflict with local communities and the Qing. The Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 ended the immediate war and left the Amur basin under Qing control. The land around the confluence remained part of a river frontier linked to the Qing administration at Sanxing, far upstream on the Songhua.