Wuchuan ( Mongolian: ''Üčuvan siyan''; ), is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, it is under the administration of the

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of Chi ...

Hohhot Hohhot,; abbreviated zh, c=呼市, p=Hūshì, labels=no formerly known as Kweisui, is the capital of Inner Mongolia in the north of the People's Republic of China, serving as the region's administrative, economic and cultural center.''The N ...

, the capital of Inner Mongolia. Wuchuan has an area of with a population of 95,869. It is connected to Hohhot by the Huwu Highway; roughly a half-hour's drive. Zhaohe Grasslands, a popular tourist site, is nearby.

Ancient History

According to the earliest records, the name Wuchuan comes from the "

Book of Zhou The ''Book of Zhou'' (''Zhōu Shū'') records the official history of the Xianbei-led Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties of China, and ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. Compiled by the Tang dynasty histori ...

" (周书), dating from 398 AD, and the "History of the North" (北史). Human activity can be traced back as far as 10,000 years. The archaeological site at Daqingshan (大青山) village includes many artefacts from the Dayao Culture (大窑文化) and proves that the area was suitable for human habitation at that time. Another

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

site at Erdaowa (二道洼) Village has an estimated age of 10,000 years. Many stone tools were found there, including knives, cutters and axes, indicating that the occupants of the area were hunter-gatherers. A more recent site from 5000 BC was found at Jinergou (井儿沟). Better stone tools and pottery were unearthed. The tools were of types used for building, harvesting and making clothes, proving that agriculture was already well established at that time. In the

Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were two groups of mythological rulers in ancient north China. The Three Sovereigns supposedly lived long before The Five Emperors, who have been assigned dates in a period from 3162 BC to 2070 BC. Today t ...

period (五帝时期), about 2800BC, many tribes settled at Wuchuan. These included the Yunzhou (荤粥), Shefang (舌方), Tufang (土方) and Guifang (鬼方). The

Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Soverei ...

's war against Yunzhou was recorded in the

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years be ...

. During the

Shang The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

and Zhou Dynasties,

King Wu of Zhou King Wu of Zhou () was the first king of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. The chronology of his reign is disputed but is generally thought to have begun around 1046 BC and ended three years later in 1043 BC. King Wu's ancestral name was ...

(武王) fought against the Guifang tribe many times, finally winning the battle after 3 years; an event which is recorded in the

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zh ...

. Around 302BC, Wuchuan belonged to the

State of Zhao Zhao () was one of the seven major states during the Warring States period of ancient China. It was created from the three-way Partition of Jin, together with Han and Wei, in the 5th century BC. Zhao gained significant strength from the mil ...

(赵国), one of the

Warring States The Warring States period () was an era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the Qin wars of conquest ...

. The king of Zhao defeated Hulinloufan and built a wall near Daqing Mountain to stop the advance of the northern tribes. This event was recorded in the "Water Jingzhu" (水经注). The wall is now called the South Daqing Mountain Great Wall. Wuchuan also plays a role in the history of the Qin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, especially the

Battle of Changping The Battle of Changping () was a military campaign during the Warring States period of ancient China, which took place from 262 BC to 260 BC at Changping (northwest of present-day Gaoping, Shanxi province), between the two strongest militar ...

(长平之战) of Zhao Kuo (赵括). During this time, Wuchuan was controlled by the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...

, a nomadic people famous for their bronzes and animal carvings. A

dagger together with some knife-shaped coins from the

State of Yan Yan (; Old Chinese pronunciation: ''*'') was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. Its capital was Ji (later known as Yanjing and now Beijing). During the Warring States period, the court was also moved to another capital at Xiadu ...

were unearthed at Tuchenzi Village, indicating that cultural exchanges between the

and the Han Chinese were very extensive at that time. A total of more than 20 ancient tombs of the Qin and Han period have also been discovered in Wuchuan. Later, Wuchuan was one of the capitals of the

Southern and Northern Dynasties The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as ...

. A tomb was found at Tuchenliang village, containing ancient coins, weapons, and many other bronze and iron artefacts. A Roman gold seal was unearthed at Touhao village and some Persian silver coins from the

Sassanid Dynasty The Sasanian dynasty was the house that founded the Sasanian Empire, ruling this empire from 224 to 651 AD in Persia (modern-day Iran). It began with Ardashir I, who named the dynasty as ''Sasanian'' in honour of his grandfather (or father), Sasa ...

were discovered at Baidao Cheng village. This indicates that during the period of the Northern Wei, Sui and

Tang Tang or TANG most often refers to: * Tang dynasty * Tang (drink mix) Tang or TANG may also refer to: Chinese states and dynasties * Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) ...

dynasties, a northern silk road existed, stretching from

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqi ...

Datong Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 ce ...

Huhhot Hohhot,; abbreviated zh, c=呼市, p=Hūshì, labels=no formerly known as Kweisui, is the capital of Inner Mongolia in the north of the People's Republic of China, serving as the region's administrative, economic and cultural center.''The ...

and crossing Daqing Mountain to Wuchuan, eventually reaching the Middle East and finally Rome. In 916, Wuchuan belonged to the state of Qidan(契丹). Archeological sites have also been found from the Yuan, Liao and Jin states. Some

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the res ...

coins were also unearthed. In addition, eight ancient tombs and seven ruins of towns from that period were discovered around the area of Dongtucheng along the river Qiangpan.

Climate

References

{{authority control County-level divisions of Inner Mongolia