Jinchang 金昌市

Setting and landscape

The city borders Wuwei (武威) to the east, Zhangye (张掖) to the west and Inner Mongolia's Alxa League (阿拉善盟) to the north, and lies in the basins of the Xida (西大河) and Dongda (东大河) rivers. The climate is arid, with frequent northwesterly winds and spring gales. Yongchang County (永昌县) sits on the northern foot of the Qilian range, with wide natural pasture.

History

Xinhua counts the Yuanyangchi site (鸳鸯池遗址), linked to the Yangshao (仰韶) culture, and the Sanjiaocheng site (三角城遗址) in Jinchuan District (金川区), a settlement of the late Bronze Age Shajing (沙井) culture about 3,000 years old, among the area's early remains. Yongchang was a circuit under the Yuan, a garrison under the Ming and a county under the Qing, and the Red Army's Western Route Army entered it in November 1936. A large copper-nickel deposit was found at Baijiazui (白家咀) in 1958 and a nickel mine opened in 1959; Jinchang City, named with one character each from Jinchuan and Yongchang, followed in February 1981.

What to see

The Yongchang Bell and Drum Tower (永昌钟鼓楼), finished in 1587 at the centre of the county town, rises 24.5 m on a brick-faced base pierced by arches on all four sides; damaged in the 1927 Gulang (古浪) earthquake and rebuilt in 1984–86, it became a national key cultural relic in 2006. The two square Tang brick pagodas of Shengrong Temple (圣容寺塔) face each other across a valley in Yongchang; the taller, seven storeys and 16.2 m high, resembles the Small Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an. Xinhua notes that Shengrong Temple appears often in Mogao Cave murals and texts.

The Jinchuan National Mine Park (金川国家矿山公园) and a memorial hall to the nickel capital's pioneers (镍都开拓者纪念馆) draw on more than 60 years of nickel and cobalt industry. Liqian Village (骊靬村) in Jiaojiazhuang (焦家庄) is the supposed setting of a hypothesis, raised by Lanzhou University historians in the 1990s, about a lost Roman legion.

Food and local products

Yongchang mutton sheep (永昌肉羊), raised on Qilian foothill pasture, received national agricultural geographical indication status in 2015, and the Yongchang government lists mutton with dianjuanzi (羊肉垫卷子), casserole mutton and braised mutton among the local ways to eat it. Yongchang paper-cutting, nianjuan (念卷) scroll recitation and xiaoxi (小戏) folk plays are part of the area's intangible heritage.

Getting oriented

The city government sits in Jinchuan District. Jinchang Station on the Lanzhou–Xinjiang railway is at Hexibao (河西堡) in Yongchang County, and Jinchang Jinchuan Airport opened in 2011.

Highlights

• Yongchang Bell and Drum Tower 永昌钟鼓楼: Two-storey timber tower on a brick-faced rammed-earth base 7.2 m high, with a one-tonne iron bell on the platform.
• Shengrong Temple Pagodas 圣容寺塔: The smaller pagoda is solid and 4.9 m high; murals inside the larger one carry inscriptions naming the temple.
• Sanjiaocheng Site 三角城遗址: Shajing-culture settlement site in Jinchuan District; a national key cultural relic.