Xiangning 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 ...

in the southwest of

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, 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 across the

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

to the west. It is under the administration 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 ...

Linfen Linfen () is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Shanxi province, People's Republic of China, China, bordering Shaanxi province to the west. Linfen City is located in the southern part of Shanxi Province, with the remaining branches of T ...

. The county spans an area of , and is home to a population of 240,000 people as of 2013.

History

During the

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period () was a period in History of China, Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou (256 BCE), characterized by the gradual erosion of royal power as local lords nominally subject t ...

Marquis E of Jin Ji Xi (), commonly known as Marquis E of Jin (), was a marquis of the Jin state. He reigned for six years from 724 BC to 718 BC. According to the ''Records of the Grand Historian'', when Count Zhuang of Quwo heard the news of the death of Marqu ...

lived in what is now present-day Xiangning County. In the Warring States period, the area had been occupied by both the Han and Zhao states. During the

Northern Wei Dynasty Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei ( zh, c=北魏, p=Běi Wèi), Tuoba Wei ( zh, c=拓跋魏, p=Tuòbá Wèi), Yuan Wei ( zh, c=元魏, p=Yuán Wèi) and Later Wei ( zh, t=後魏, p=Hòu Wèi), was an imperial dynasty of Chi ...

, the area was initially named Changping (), and was later changed to Pingchang (). Eventually, the name was changed to Changning (), but in 923 was changed to Xiangning (), its present-day name. From 1958 to 1961, Xiangning County was briefly merged with neighboring Ji County.

Geography

The county is located in the

Lüliang Mountains The Lüliang Mountains are a mountains of China, mountain range in central China, dividing Shanxi's Fen River valley from the Yellow River. The range forces the Yellow River southwards on the eastern side of the Ordos Loop but tapers off to the so ...

of 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 ...

, and has a largely hilly terrain with an average elevation of about . The county's highest point is Gaotian Mountain (), which reaches in altitude; the county's lowest point is along the banks of the

, at in altitude. 38.2% of the county is forested.

Climate

Administrative divisions

Xiangning County is divided into five

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 ...

and five

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 ...

. These are then divided into 182

village-level division Villages (), formally village-level divisions () in China, serve as a fundamental organizational unit for its rural population (census, mail system). Basic local divisions like neighborhoods and communities are not informal, but have defined bo ...

s. The county's five towns are , , , , and . The county's five townships are , , , , and .

Economy

The county is home to a large coal field, which covers of the county's area. Said coal field is estimated to have 15.3 billion tons of coal in reserve. Xiangning also has a number of tourist sights, such as the , Yunqiu Mountain (), and a number of temples and pagodas. Major agricultural products from Xiangning include

Zanthoxylum ''Zanthoxylum'' is a genus of about 250 species of deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs and climbers in the Family (biology), family Rutaceae that are native to warm temperate and Subtropics, subtropical areas worldwide. It is the type gen ...

, apples, walnuts, Chinese yams, , and wine.

Transportation

National Highway 209 The following highways are numbered 209: Canada * Manitoba Provincial Road 209 * Nova Scotia Route 209 * Prince Edward Island Route 209 * Quebec Route 209 * Saskatchewan Highway 209 China * China National Highway 209 Costa Rica * National Ro ...

and National Highway 309 both run through the county, as well as three provincial highways.

References

{{Coord, 35, 58, 13, N, 110, 50, 49, E, region:CN-14_type:adm3rd_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title County-level divisions of Shanxi