Pingliang ( zh, s=平凉 , t=平涼 , p=Píngliàng , l="Pacify Liang") is a inner land

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

in eastern

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

province, China, bordering

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

province to the south and east and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to the north. The city was established in 376 AD. It has a residential population of 2,125,300 in 2019. The urban population is almost 900,000. Pingliang is well known for the nearby Kongtong Mountains, which are sacred to

Taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

and location of the mythical meeting place of the

Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch, or Huangdi ( zh, t=黃帝, s=黄帝, first=t) in Chinese, is a mythical Chinese sovereign and culture hero included among the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. He is revered as ...

and Guangchengzi, an immortal. The Book of Sui and

Tongdian The ''Tongdian'' () is a Chinese institutional history and encyclopedia text. It covers a panoply of topics from high antiquity through the year 756, whereas a quarter of the book focuses on the Tang dynasty. The book was written by Du You from ...

record that the

Ashina tribe Ashina may refer to: * Ashina tribe, a ruling dynasty of the Turkic Khaganate * Ashina clan (Japan), one of the Japanese clans * Ashina District, Hiroshima, a former Japanese district * Empress Ashina (551–582), empress of the Chinese/Xianbei dyna ...

who founded the First Turkic Khaganate (also known as Göktürk Khaganate) were from Pingliang.杜佑, 《通典》, 北京: 中華書局出版, (

Du You Du You () (735 – December 23, 812), courtesy name Junqing (), formally Duke Anjian of Qi (), was a Chinese historian, military general, and politician. He served as chancellor of the Tang dynasty. Du was born to an eminent aristocratic family ...

, ''

'', Vol.197), 辺防13 北狄4 突厥上, 1988, , p. 5401.

List of divisions

Geography and climate

Pingliang ranges in latitude from 34° 54' to 35° 46' N and in longitude from 105° 20' to 107° 51' E. Bordering prefecture-level cities are

Xianyang Xianyang ( zh, s=咸阳 , p=Xiányáng) is a prefecture-level city in central Shaanxi province, situated on the Wei River a few kilometers upstream (west) from the provincial capital of Xi'an. Once the capital of the Qin dynasty, it is now int ...

(

) to the east,

Baoji Baoji ( zh, s= , t= , p=Bǎojī; ) is a prefecture-level city in western Shaanxi province, People's Republic of China. Since the early 1990s, Baoji has been the second largest city in Shaanxi. Geography The prefecture-level city of Baoji had a ...

(Shaanxi) and Tianshui to the south, Dingxi and Baiyin to the west, and Guyuan ( Ningxia) and Qingyang to the north. It is located on the

Loess Plateau The Loess Plateau is a plateau in north-central China formed of loess, a clastic rock, clastic silt-like sediment formed by the accumulation of Dust#Atmospheric, wind-blown dust. It is located southeast of the Gobi Desert and is surrounded by t ...

with elevations ranging from ; the city proper itself is at an elevation of around . Due to its elevation of around , Pingliang has a

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

-influenced, four-season,

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Dwb''), with cold but dry winters, and warm and humid summers. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to in July. Much of the annual rainfall occurs from June to September, and the annual mean temperature is . With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 46% in September to 65% in December, the city receives 2,381 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Transport

* G22 Qingdao–Lanzhou Expressway, which motorists can take to reach the south of neighbouring Ningxia and eventually

Lanzhou Lanzhou is the capital and largest city of Gansu province in northwestern China. Located on the banks of the Yellow River, it is a key regional transportation hub, connecting areas further west by rail to the eastern half of the country. His ...

, the capital of Gansu * China National Highway 312, which motorists can take to reach

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

Notable residents

* Zhao Jiping, film composer (b. 1945)

Notable births

Pingliang is the birthplace of Huangfu Mi, who wrote the first book on

acupuncture Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientif ...

, of novelist Niu Sengru, and of Southern Song dynasty generals Wu Jie (吴玠) and Wu Lin.

References

External links

Official site
{{authority control Prefecture-level divisions of Gansu