Luotian County () is a county that is located in the northeast of

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

province, China and it is under the administration of

Huanggang Huanggang is a prefecture-level city in easternmost Hubei, Hubei Province, China. It is situated to the north of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and is bounded in the north by the Dabie Mountains and is named after Mount Huanggang, Huang ...

City. The county is on the south side of the

Dabie Mountains The Dabie Mountains () are a major mountain range located in central China. Running northwest-to-southeast, they form the main watershed between the Huai River, Huai and Yangtze rivers. The range also marks the boundary between Hubei Province (n ...

with the highest peak, Tiantangzhai (), situated in the northeastern part of the county. Luotian county covers an area of and had a population of about 500,000 in 2020. The Dabie Mountains attract thousands of tourists from all over the province every year and the most popular tourist sites include Tiantangzhai National Forest Park, Bodaofeng National Forest Park, and Sanlifan Hot Spring.

Geography

Luotian is located in the northeast of

Hubei Province Hubei is a province in Central China. It has the seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland provinces. Its provincial capital at Wuhan serves as a major politi ...

and it is separated from Anhui Province by the Dabie mountains in the north. Most of its area is mountainous and 70% of the land is covered by forests. Five rivers originate from the Dabie mountains and flow to the southwest. They converge into the Ba River and then into the Yangtze River. Luotian County has a subtropical monsoon climate with wet winters and rainy summers. The average annual temperature is about 16.4 °C and the average annual rainfall of the county is 1330 mm. Luotian is rich in water resources with several reservoirs such as: Tiantang reservoir in the north and Bailian reservoir in the south of the county. The neighboring counties are: Yingshan County to the east, Xishui County to the south, Tuanfeng County to the west and Ma Cheng to the northwest. Huangzhou district (city seat of Huanggang) is to the southwest and the provincial capital, Wuhan is about to the west.

Administrative divisions

Luotian County administers:

Climate

History

In the year of 523, (Southern and Northern dynasties of China), Luotian County was first founded in the

Liang dynasty The Liang dynasty (), alternatively known as the Southern Liang () or Xiao Liang () in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the third of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. It was pre ...

. In 621, (

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

) the county was incorporated into Lan Xi County. In 1093, (

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

) Luotian County was refounded and belonged to Qichun prefecture. During the Yuan dynasty, the county was occupied by

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and revoked. Later it was re-established in 1275. During the Ming dynasty, the jurisdiction of the county was changed from Qichun to Huangzhou prefecture. During the Qing dynasty, the county is under the administration of Huangzhou prefecture. During the Republic of China, Luotian is under the administration of Eastern Hubei prefecture. In March 1949, the county was liberated and since then under the administration of Huanggang prefecture. In 1995, the Huanggang prefecture was changed into prefecture-level city.

Economy

The main industry of Luotian County is agriculture and it is well known for its production of

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...

and persimmon. According to a national report on chestnut plantation, Luotian produced 65,000 tonnes of chestnuts in the year of 2013 and it was considered as the biggest producer of chestnuts in China. The annual production of chestnut in Luotian is worth about 500 million RMB. Other industries of Luotian include pharmaceuticals, food processing, electrical machinery, auto parts manufacturing, production of fertilizers and tourism. It is necessary to indicate that tourist industry in Luotian has been developing very fast in recent years and the most popular tourist sites include: Tiantangzhai National Forest Park, Bodaofeng National Forest Park, Sanlifan Hot Spring and Jinshi River Rafting, etc. The mount of Tiantangzhai (1729m) is located in the town of Jiuzihe and it is one of the highest peaks in the Dabie Mountains. People enjoy a very broad and beautiful view from the top of the mountain. The temperature in Tiantangzhai during summer stays around 25 degree Celsius and that is 10 degree lower than in Huanggang or Wuhan. The forest and the comfortable weather in Tiantangzhai attracts thousands of tourists from all over the province every year. Visitors have a wide range of things to do in Tiantangzhai, for example: climbing, hiking, camping, fishing and boating in the Tiantang Lake, exploring the remote villages in the mountains, etc. In addition to Tiantangzhai, the hot spring in the town of Sanlifan has become a major attraction. Sanlifan has produced geothermal energy and mineral water of high quality for more than 150 years and the temperature of the hot spring may reach 90 degree Celsius. The spring of Sanlifan contains a variety of trace elements beneficial to the human body, such as zinc, strontium, metasilicic acid and so on.

Transportation

*Although in a mountainous area, transportation of Luotian is good, with numerous roads and highways. * China National Highway 318 *The Wuhan-Yingshan highway links Luotian to Wuhan, the provincial capital in about 2 hours and

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

airport is 110 kilometers to the west. * Huangzhou port on the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

river is about away to the southwest. *For the north–south transportation, Macheng-Wuxue highway.

Notable inhabitants

* Xu Shouhui () (1320–1360) who was a rebel leader in the late

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

(1279–1368) who proclaimed himself emperor. *Wan Mizhai (1499–1582), was a famous doctor in the Ming dynasty. *Yu Sansheng (1802–1866), one of the founders of the Peking opera.

References

Luotian website
(Chinese)
news.cnhubei.com

External links

{{authority control Huanggang Counties of Hubei