Shandan County 山丹县

Setting and landscape

The county measures 136 kilometres north to south and 89 kilometres east to west. Its highest point, 4,444 metres, is on the Lenglong Ridge, and its lowest, 1,549 metres, is on the Xitun sand river (西屯沙河) in Dongle township (东乐乡). The climate is continental, cold and semi-arid.

History

A county was first set up here in 111 BC under Emperor Wu of Han, as Shandan County (删丹县), written with a different first character; the present form dates from the Yuan. After Zhang Qian (张骞) opened the Silk Road, Shandan became a relay station on the route west, and Huo Qubing (霍去病) camped at what is now Huocheng town (霍城镇). From 121 BC successive dynasties kept troops and horses here. In 609 the Sui emperor Yang received envoys from 27 states of the Western Regions below Yanzhi Mountain (焉支山). In the 1940s the New Zealander Rewi Alley (路易·艾黎) moved the Bailie technical school (培黎工艺学校) here from Shaanxi and lived in Shandan for ten years.

What to see

Yanzhi Mountain, also called Dahuang Mountain for the rhubarb that grows there, lies 50 kilometres southeast of the county town. It is a 4A scenic area and provincial forest park with pines and cypresses, a Jade Emperor temple (玉皇观) and Zhongshan Temple (钟山寺), whose fair on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month draws people from Shandan and nearby counties.

The Han and Ming Great Wall scenic area lies southeast of the county town and runs about 30 kilometres west from Xiakou village (硖口村) to Xinheyi (新河驿). The county lists it as the most complete rammed-earth section of the wall in China, and it is a national protected site. Along it are the Xiakou fort ruins, beacon towers, cliff carvings and a Great Wall museum.

The Shandan Horse Ranch (山丹马场) lies on the northern slopes of the Lenglong Ridge and spans Gansu and Qinghai; the county describes it as the oldest and largest horse ranch in the world, founded after Huo Qubing's campaigns of 121 BC. The Shandan horse, a cross of Mongolian and Don horses, was named as a breed in 1984. In the new town, the Rewi Alley cultural site (山丹艾黎文化旅游景区) is a national third-grade museum displaying the objects Alley donated.

Getting oriented

Shandan borders Yongchang (永昌县) to the east, Minle (民乐县) to the west, Ganzhou District (甘州区) to the northwest and Huangcheng town of Sunan Yugur Autonomous County (肃南裕固族自治县) to the southeast.

Highlights

• Yanzhi Mountain 焉支山: 4A scenic area 50 km southeast of the county town, where Sui emperor Yang met envoys of 27 states in 609.
• Shandan Han and Ming Great Wall 山丹汉明长城: National protected site; a scenic stretch of about 30 km of rammed-earth wall with beacon towers and a museum.
• Shandan Horse Ranch 山丹马场: Horse ranch dating from Huo Qubing's campaigns of 121 BC, home of the Shandan horse breed.
• Rewi Alley cultural site 山丹艾黎文化旅游景区: National third-grade museum on Rewi Alley and his donated objects.