Tanchang County 宕昌县

Setting and landscape

The county government gives an average temperature of 9.3°C, close to 2,000 hours of sunshine a year and a temperate continental climate, and describes large areas of forest and continuous grassland. Surveys have recorded 692 kinds of medicinal plants, and angelica (danggui, 当归), codonopsis (dangshen, 党参), astragalus (huangqi, 黄芪) and rhubarb (dahuang, 大黄) are grown on more than 400,000 mu every year; the county is known as a "thousand-year medicine village" (千年药乡).

History

The county takes its name from Tanchang Mountain (宕昌山). In 307 the Qiang (羌) leader Liang Qin (梁勤) founded the Dangchang kingdom (宕昌国), whose capital stood west of the present county. After its rulers repeatedly raided the Northern Zhou, the general Tian Hong (田弘) destroyed it in 565 and set up Dangzhou (宕州) in its place. In 1913 the Xigu sub-prefecture of Jiezhou (阶州) became Xigu County (西固县); its seat moved to Tanchang in June 1954, and on 13 November that year the county was renamed Tanchang. In 2014 the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission fixed the official reading of the name as Tànchāng; Dàngchāng is also heard.

The First, Second and Fourth Fronts of the Red Army passed through Hadapu (哈达铺) in September 1935 and again in August 1936. On 22 September 1935 the Party leadership met at the Yihechang pharmacy (义和昌药店) in Hadapu, then part of Min County (岷县), and reorganised the troops as the Shaanxi–Gansu Detachment, with Peng Dehuai (彭德怀) as commander; a meeting of officers followed in the Guandi Temple (关帝庙). The decision to head on to northern Shaanxi was taken here, and it was at a Hadapu meeting that Mao Zedong (毛泽东) formally named this strategic move the Long March.

What to see

Guan'egou (官鹅沟) is a national 5A scenic area and one of 19 large scenic areas that Gansu has chosen for priority development; the county has surveyed 144 scenic spots in all. In Hadapu town, the site of the 1935 meetings is a national key cultural relic protection unit, and there is a Hadapu Long March Memorial Hall (哈达铺长征纪念馆). The county also includes the Xinchengzi Tibetan Ethnic Township (新城子藏族乡).

Getting oriented

Hadapu has a station on the Lanzhou–Chongqing Railway (兰渝铁路) and an exit on the Lanzhou–Haikou Expressway (兰海高速).

Highlights

• Guan'egou 官鹅沟: National 5A scenic area, one of 19 large scenic areas Gansu prioritises.
• Hadapu Meeting Site 哈达铺会议旧址: Site of the Communist Party's September 1935 meetings; a national key cultural relic protection unit.
• Hadapu Long March Memorial Hall 哈达铺长征纪念馆: Long March memorial hall named after Hadapu.
• Medicinal herbs 中药材: Angelica, codonopsis, astragalus and rhubarb grown on more than 400,000 mu a year.