Yanshi District () is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

in the

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

Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River (Henan), Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the ...

in western

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

, China. Yanshi lies on the Luo River and is the easternmost

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, ther ...

of Luoyang.

History

After the Zhou conquest of Shang in mid-11th century BC,

King Wu of Zhou King Wu of Zhou () was the first king of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. The chronology of his reign is disputed but is generally thought to have begun around 1046 BC and ended three years later in 1043 BC. King Wu's ancestral name wa ...

founded a garrison town to the east of modern Yanshi to accommodate some of the campaigning troops. When Qin annexed Zhou in 256 BC, Yanshi County was established. The county's borders underwent several changes over the course of history. In 1993, Yanshi County became the county-level Yanshi City. In 2021, it became Yanshi District.

Administrative divisions

As of 2012, Yanshi is divided to 11 towns and 3 townships. ;Towns ;Townships

Climate

Archaeological sites

There are two important archaeological sites in this area.

Erlitou site

The

Erlitou culture The Erlitou culture was an early Bronze Age urban society and archaeological culture that existed in the Yellow River valley from approximately 1900 to 1500 BC. A 2007 study of radiocarbon dating proposed a narrower date range of 1750 to 1530 ...

(1900–1500 BC) was discovered in Yanshi in 1959. Erlitou is the name of the modern village nearby; the traditional name of the settlement was Zhenxun (, ''Zhēnxún'').

Yanshi Shang City

In 1983, a walled city dating from 1600 BC was found north-east of the Erlitou site in Yanshi's Shixianggou Township. This city, now known as Yanshi Shang City (, ''Yǎnshī Shāngchéng''), had an area of nearly and featured pottery characteristic of the Erligang culture. Some scholarsincluding the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Projectidentify it with the first

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Dynasties in Chinese history, Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally suc ...

capital, Western Bo (, ''Xībó'') which was traditionally credited to King Tang after his defeat of the Xia dynasty.

References

External links

Districts of Luoyang {{Henan-geo-stub