Panji District 潘集区

Setting and landscape

The land falls very gently from northwest to southeast and mostly lies 18 to 22 metres above sea level. The highest point, Gulugang (古路岗) in Hetuan (贺疃乡), reaches only 23.86 metres; the lowest is Tangyu Lake (汤渔湖) at Gaohuang (高皇镇), at 16.9 metres. The Huai runs 34 kilometres along the southern edge, fed here by the Jiahe (架河) and Nihe (泥河) rivers, and the man-made Cihuai New River crosses the north. Repeated floods of the Yellow River and the Huai left silted valley plains and scattered low mounds.

Panji is a coal-and-power district with four very large coal mines and four power plants, and mining subsidence has created about 3,235 hectares of new water surface. A local saying, "zou qian zou wan bu ru Huaihe liang'an" (走千走万不如淮河两岸), holds that however far you travel, nowhere beats the two banks of the Huai.

History

In the Western Zhou the area belonged to the state of Zhoulai (州来), later taken by Chu. Wu entered Zhoulai in 584 BC, and in 493 BC moved Marquis Zhao of Cai (蔡昭侯) here from Xincai (新蔡) in Henan, after which the place was renamed Xiacai (下蔡). When Fengtai County was created in 1733, almost all of the present district came under it.

In 1940 the Communist Huaishang office set up a Fengtai branch at Panji, and in February 1941 the Fengtai County Anti-Japanese Democratic Government was formally founded there. Panji became a district of Huainan in 1972.

What to see

The Fengtai County Anti-Japanese Democratic Government Memorial Park (凤台抗日民主政府纪念园) stands in Panji. Huagudeng (花鼓灯), the flower-drum lantern dance on the national intangible heritage list that the district calls the "Oriental ballet", is performed here, and Qiwei Village (祁圩村) in Qiji (祁集镇) is known as the "first village of Chinese tofu culture".

Jiagou (夹沟) has held a farmers' culture and sports festival since 1984, fixed on 20 April each spring; in 2009 it became the Huainan Farmers' Culture Festival, with basketball, shuttlecock kicking, opera, huagudeng, suona and drumming among its events. In 2024 the Ministry of Culture and Tourism named the Miaoqian (庙前) village gala a national demonstration site for spring village galas.

Highlights

• Fengtai County Anti-Japanese Democratic Government Memorial Park 凤台抗日民主政府纪念园: Memorial to the county government founded at Panji in February 1941.
• Qiwei Village 祁圩村: Village in Qiji known as the first village of Chinese tofu culture.
• Huainan Farmers' Culture Festival 淮南市农民文化节: Festival begun at Jiagou in 1984 and held around 20 April.