Zhang County 漳县

Setting and landscape

Altitudes range from 1,640 to 3,941 metres, and the ground is higher in the west than in the east. The northeast is gullied loess hill country, while the southwest is stony mountain terrain of the western Qinling. Three main rivers cross the county, the Zhang (漳河), the Bangsha (榜沙河) and the Longchuan (龙川河), all part of the Wei River system. Lugu Mountain (露骨山) keeps snow all year.

History

Under the Eastern Zhou, the state of Qin set up the Yanchuan stockade (盐川寨) at Yanjing (盐井, "salt well"). A county was founded in AD 76, under Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han, and called Zhang (障, "barrier") because it was seen as the Han empire's western shield. Empress Wu renamed it Wuyang (武阳县), and in the Hongwu years of the Ming it took its present name, explained by the Zhang River watering the land and its "precious wells" (宝井) serving the people and the state.

The county was merged into Longxi (陇西) in 1829 and restored in 1913, then absorbed into Wushan County (武山县) in April 1958 and restored in December 1961.

What to see

Zheyang Mountain (遮阳山), named because the rising sun is hidden behind it, serves as a training base for China's national rock-climbing team; the city government describes its sinkholes and slot-like gorges as rare in northern China. Guiqing Mountain (贵清山) and Zheyang together form a national forest park, whose protected animals include leopards, bears, serows and golden pheasants. The county also has a national nature reserve for rare aquatic animals such as the Qinling lenok (秦岭细鳞鲑) and the otter.

The Wang family cemetery (汪氏家族墓地), with burials from the Yuan into the Ming, was listed as a national key protected site on 25 June 2001. The city government calls it the most complete and largest Yuan tomb group of its period in China. Other sites include the Danxia landforms of Hanjiagou (韩家沟) and the site of the Yanjing Meeting (盐井会议) of the Northwest Bureau, held when the Red Army's Long March passed through the county.

Food and local products

Zhang salt (漳盐) is treated as the county's founding tradition and carries the title "the first salt well of the northwest" (西北盐业第一井). Rock salt and andalusite are among the minerals the county has worked.

Getting oriented

Zhang County lies between Lanzhou (兰州) and Tianshui (天水), bordering Wushan to the east, Zhuoni County (卓尼县) to the west, Min County (岷县) to the south, and Longxi and Weiyuan (渭源县) to the north. The Lanzhou–Chongqing railway stops at a station here.

Highlights

• Zheyang Mountain 遮阳山: Training base of the national rock-climbing team, with sinkholes and slot-like gorges.
• Guiqing Mountain 贵清山: Forms a national forest park together with Zheyang Mountain.
• Wang family cemetery 汪氏家族墓地: Yuan-to-Ming family tombs, a national key protected site since 2001.
• Zhang salt 漳盐: Salt tradition handed down for a thousand years and known as the first salt well of the northwest.