Yiyuan (; Wade-Giles: iyüan) is a county in the centre of China's

Shandong province Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizatio ...

and is located in the deep Tai-yi Mountains, and is the southernmost

county-level division The administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since ancient times, due to China's large population and geographical area. The constitution of China provides for three levels of government. However in practice, there ...

under the jurisdiction of

Zibo Zibo (, ) is a prefecture-level city in central Shandong province, China. It borders the provincial capital Jinan to the west, Tai'an to the southwest, Linyi to the south, Weifang to the east, Dongying to the northeast, and Binzhou to the ...

City. It had a population of 576,000 according to the county government, of which 104,200 lives in the county town. Yiyuan has the nickname of “Roof of Shandong” because of its highest average altitude among all counties within the province.

History

Yiyuan county is home to a number of archaeological finds, particularly humanoid fossils. One such fossil, referred to as the "Yiyuan ape-man fossil" is estimated to date back between 400,000 and 500,000 years ago. Yiyuan people are also proud of local archeological findings from the Palæolithic and

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

Ages as well as cultural findings since the Shang Dynasty. The county is thought to be the setting for the famous Chinese legend of

The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" are characters found in Chinese mythology and characters appearing eponymously in a romantic Chinese folk tale. The story tells of the romance between Zhinü (; the weaver girl, symbolizing the star Vega) and N ...

. It is estimated by the county government that 23,000 people from Yiyuan fought 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 ...

. Of these 23,000 people, approximately 1,800 are thought to have died, with another 2,100 thought to be injured.

Geography

Yiyuan is located in the middle of Shandong Province, approximately away from

Jinan Jinan (), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized as Tsinan, is the Capital (political), capital of Shandong province in East China, Eastern China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is the second-largest city i ...

and

, and away from

Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

. The county town is located beside one of the most important rivers in the province- the Yi River, and the name "" literally means "the beginning of (the) Yi (River)". Yiyuan County is generally mountainous, with the highest peak, the Lu Mountain, having an altitude of . 58% of the county is covered with forests, which has helped it receive a number of titles from the national government.

Climate

Administrative divisions

Yiyuan County is divided into 2 subdistricts and 10

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 ...

Subdistricts

The county's 2 subdistricts are and .

Towns

The county's 10 towns are , , , , , , , Yanya, , and .

References

External links

{{authority control Counties of Shandong Zibo