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, municip ...

in 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 ...

Luoyang Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...

in western

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

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

, 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 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 Luoyang.

History

After the Zhou conquest of Shang in mid-11th century BC, King Wu of Zhou 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 of Luoyang City.

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

Erlitou, the type site of the

Erlitou culture The Erlitou culture () was an early Bronze Age society and archaeological culture. It existed in the Yellow River valley from approximately 1900 to 1500 BC. A 2007 study using radiocarbon dating proposed a narrower date range of 1750–15 ...

(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 Chinese royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou d ...

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

Famous people from Yanshi

Xuanzang Xuanzang (; ; 6 April 6025 February 664), born Chen Hui or Chen Yi (), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva, was a 7th-century Chinese Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making ...

(602 - 664), Buddhist monk, traveler and translator

References

External links

{{County-level divisions of Henan Districts of Luoyang