[b] The original Mongolian name for Tongliao city proper (i.e. Horqin District) is Bayisingtu (Chinese: 白音泰赉; pinyin: Báiyīntàilài; lit.

The Donghu people, a tribe who spoke a proto-Mongolian language, settled in today's Tongliao area, north of Yan during the Warring States period.

During the Republican period, the Jirem League and the surrounding Khorchin area was controlled by the Fengtian and Liaoning provinces.

After the Japanese Kwantung Army invaded Manchuria in 1931, a Japanese-controlled puppet state Manchukuo was established in Xinjing, 280 kilometers away from today's Tongliao urban area.

In 1924, Oomoto leader Onisaburo Deguchi, Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba, and Lu Zhankui were arrested by Chinese authorities in Tongliao.

Lu and his men were executed by firing squad, but Deguchi and Ueshiba were released into the customer of the Japanese consul.

[8] Tongliao's topography primarily consists of plains,[7] though the northern stretch of the prefecture extends into the eastern foothills of the southern Greater Khingan.

[1][2] Tongliao has a four-season, monsoon-influenced, continental steppe climate (Köppen BSk), with long, cold, windy, but dry winters, and hot, humid summers.

Much of the year's rainfall occurs from June to August, and even then dry and sunny weather dominates in the city.