Pingwu County () is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the north of

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

province, China, bordering

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 to the north. It is the northernmost

county-level division The administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since 1412, due to mainland China's large population and geographical area. In the People's Republic of China, the constitution provides for three levels of government. Ho ...

of the

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 ...

Mianyang Mianyang ( zh, s=绵阳, t=綿陽, w=Mien2-yang2, p=Miányáng; Sichuanese Pinyin, Sichuanese romanization: ''Mien-iang''; formerly known as Mienchow, zh, t=綿州, p=Mianzhou, links=no; Sichuanese romanization: ''Miencheo''; ) is the second lar ...

. It has an area of and a population of 180,000 in 2018, making it one of the smallest counties by population in Sichuan.

History

The history of Pingwu goes back over 1,700 years. In 108 CE, the

Eastern Han The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

established Guanghan County, which was ruled from present day Wen County. Beginning in the 3rd century CE, a number of kingdoms belonging to the Di tribe were set up in and around Pingwu County. In 280 Pingwu County was first established. The name Pingwu originates from the name of the previous Yinping () and Guangwu () counties. In 347, Pingwu became part of the

Eastern Jin Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

. By the 6th century, the Di kingdoms saw their power wane, and much of the area surrounding present-day Pingwu County was integrated into the

Yarlung dynasty The Yarlung dynasty (;, is a Tibet, Tibetan dynasty of List of emperors of Tibet, 42 kings, dating from 127 BCE to 842 CE. This dynasty gave rise to the Tibetan Empire period from 614 CE to 848 CE, credited to the 33rd king Songtsen Gampo, and la ...

. Despite this, the area of contemporary Pingwu County was not occupied by the Yarlung dynasty during the 7th century, resulting in a linguistic identity more akin to that of the Di tribe.

Geography and climate

Pingwu is a mountainous county located along the upper reaches of the Fujiang river, in the far northwest of the

Sichuan Basin The Sichuan Basin (), formerly transliterated as the Szechwan Basin, sometimes called the Red Basin, is a lowland region in southwestern China. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides and is drained by the upper Yangtze River and its tributar ...

. 94% of the county's area is above 1,000 m elevation. The average yearly temperature is .

Economy

Pingwu is a large production base of

Shiitake The shiitake (; ''Chinese/black mushroom'' or ''Lentinula edodes'') is a macrofungus native to East Asia, which is cultivated and consumed around the globe. Taxonomy The fungus was first described scientifically as '' Agaricus edodes'' by ...

and

wood ear Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin tha ...

mushroom, with an output of 1.1 million kg in 2009.

Administrative divisions

Pingwu County has six

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

, two

townships A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

, and twelve

ethnic townships An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, rel ...

. ;Towns * () * () * () * Daqiao () * () * () ;Townships * () * () ;Ethnic townships * () * () * () * () * () * (, ) * () *

Baima Tibetan Ethnic Township Baima Tibetan Ethnic Township () is an ethnic township for Tibetan people under the administration of Pingwu County in northern Sichuan province, China. The Baima language, a threatened language with approximately 10,000 speakers, is spoken in th ...

() * () * (, ) * () * ()

Demographics

Languages

Pingwu County is one of three counties in

where the

Baima language Baima ( autonym: ') is a language spoken by 10,000 Baima people, of Tibetan ethnicity, in north-central Sichuan Province and Gansu Province, China. Baima is passed on from parents to children in Baima villages. It is spoken within the home domain ...

is spoken.

Attractions

Pingwu county is the center of the biggest remaining

giant panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white animal coat, coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. ...

habitat in China, i.e. the Minshan Mountains. Close to the Baima Ethnic Township, for example, the national panda reserve "Wanglang" is located. The WWF has conducted an Integrated Community Development Project in the Baima township to reduce direct and indirect poaching threats to the panda population. Bao'en Temple, a

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

dating back to the

15th century The 15th century was the century which spans the Julian calendar dates from 1 January 1401 (represented by the Roman numerals MCDI) to 31 December 1500 (MD). In Europe, the 15th century includes parts of the Late Middle Ages, the Early Re ...

, is located in Pingwu County.

Fauna

There are two species of

Megophryidae Megophryidae, commonly known as goose frogs, is a large family of frogs native to the warm southeast of Asia, from the Himalayan foothills eastwards, south to Indonesia and the Greater Sunda Islands in Maritime Southeast Asia, and extending to t ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Pingwu County, namely ''

Scutiger pingwuensis ''Scutiger pingwuensis'' is a species of toad in the family Megophryidae known commonly as the Pingwu lazy toad and the Pingwu alpine toad.Frost, D. R''Scutiger pingwuensis''.Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 5.6, 2013. ...

'' and '' Oreolalax chuanbeiensis''.

Notable residents

* Li Ziqi (vlogger)

References

External links

Official website of Pingwu County Governmentlocal WWF panda info
{{authority control County-level divisions of Sichuan Mianyang