Yanchang County () 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 ...

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 ...

Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an) ...

, in the northeast of

Shaanxi Province Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), ...

, bordering

Shanxi Province Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level ...

across the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...

to the east. It has a land area of , and a population of 158,000.

Administrative divisions

Yanchang County consists of one

subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, In ...

and seven

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an or ...

. These are then further divided into 159 administrative villages.

Qilicun Subdistrict

() is the county's sole subdistrict. Qilicun Subdistrict host's the county's administrative offices.

Towns

Yanchang County contains the following seven towns: * () * () * () * () * () * () * ()

Geography

Located on the

Loess Plateau The Chinese Loess Plateau, or simply the Loess Plateau, is a plateau in north-central China formed of loess, a clastic silt-like sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. It is located southeast of the Gobi Desert and is surrounde ...

, the county's terrain is largely hilly, with a low point of above sea level, and a high point of above sea level. The

passes through the county, as does the

Yan River The Yan River () is a river in Shaanxi, China. The river flows from its source, the Xingzi River () in Jingbian County, in the prefecture-level city Yulin, and then flows through neighboring Yan'an, finally flowing into the larger Yellow River i ...

. The county has a

forest cover Forest cover is the amount of forest that covers a particular area of land. It may be measured as relative (in percent) or absolute (in square kilometres/square miles). Around a third of the world's surface is covered with forest, with closed-canop ...

age of 23%.

Climate

Yanchang County experiences distinctive seasons in regards to both temperature and precipitation. The county has warm and wet summers, and cold and dry winters. The county has an average annual temperature of , an average of 2504.6 hours of sunshine per year, and an average of of precipitation per year.

History

Human activity in Yanchang County can be traced back thousands of years, and the first administrative district in the area arose in 266 AD.

Qingjian Uprising and Communist insurgency

Communist activity in the area began in January 1927, when a

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

branch was set up at a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in the county. On October 14, 1927, party leaders and lead an uprising called the , which had failed. However, Communist Party activity in the region continued in subsequent years. In the spring of 1932, a communist uprising in the area occurred yet again, and the Communist Party organized militias afterwards. On May 30, 1935, Communist troops successfully took control of the county. Communist forces would retain control of the county during the rest of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

, as well as during the

Japanese Invasion of China The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific The ...

Economy

As of 2018, the county's

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

was 5.408 billion Yuan, an increase of 8.7% from the previous year. Urban residents had an average disposable income of 34,170 Yuan, and rural residents had an average disposable income of 11,105 Yuan.

Agriculture

The county's main agricultural products are apples, pears, and watermelons.

Mineral Resources

The county has vast deposits, mainly of

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...

, and

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

Oil

The county is home to China's first oil well, which was constructed on June 5, 1907. During Mao Zedong's rule, oil production in the county was encouraged.

= Wangjiachuan Petroleum Drilling Company

= In 1985, the county established its own oil company, called Wangjiachuan Petroleum Drilling Company. The company was run by the county government, the first oil company in China to be structured as such. The company dug its first well on May 29, 1985, and produced 1,005 tons of crude oil by the end of the year. By the late 1990s, the company's output hovered at around 14,000 tons per year. In 2000, the county government launched reforms meant to boost its productivity, and in 2005 the company had merged into the Yanchang Oilfield Company Ltd.

= Present-Day Situation

= After merging into Yanchang Oilfield, the county's oil production further expanded, achieving a stable annual output of approximately 250,000 tons from 2005 through 2010. The county now has three oil production plants, which combine for an annual output in excess of 600,000 tons.

Coal

The county has coal reserves of 20.92 million tons.

Natural Gas

The county's natural gas reserves total in area, and 100 billion cubic meters in volume.

Salt

The county's salt reserves total 4.838 billion tons.

Culture

Like other regions of

Shaanbei Shaanbei () or Northern Shaanxi is the portion of China's Shaanxi province north of the Huanglong Mountain and the Meridian Ridge (the so-called " Guanzhong north mountains"), and is both a geographic as well as a cultural area. It makes up the ...

, the county has a rich tradition of paper cutting. Major tourist sites include historic and archaeological sites,

red tourism Red tourism () is a subset of domestic and international tourism in current or former 'red' countries such as China and Russia in which people visit locations with historical significance to their "red" past. In China, Chinese people visit loca ...

sites, as well as various natural sites, particularly mountains.

Transportation

The county is served by a number of highways, such as Shaanxi Provincial Highway 201 and Shaanxi Provincial Highway 205.

References

External links

Old Yanchang County Government websiteNew Yanchang County Government website
{{authority control County-level divisions of Shaanxi Yan'an