Gangbei District 港北区

Setting and landscape

The land rises to the northwest, where the Lianhua Mountains (莲花山脉) culminate in Dapingtian Mountain (大平天山), 1,157.8 metres high and the district's highest point. The southeast is low river plain, part of the Xunyu Plain (浔郁平原), which the district government calls the largest plain in Guangxi and a main grain and sugar base. The Yu River crosses the south of the district from west to east for about 38 kilometres.

History and language

After the Qin unified the south in 214 BC, Guilin Commandery (桂林郡) was governed from Bushan County (布山县), within today's Guigang. In 634 the Tang renamed the local prefecture Guizhou (贵州) after Yigui Mountain (宜贵山), the old name of Gangbei's North Hill (北山), and during the Yuanhe reign the county seat moved to the north bank, into what is now urban Gangbei. The Ming reduced the prefecture to Gui County (贵县) in 1369. Gangbei itself was created in 1995 with the prefecture-level city of Guigang, named for its position in the north of the city on the north bank; Qintang was split off from it in 2003.

Residents speak Zhuang, Mandarin, Hakka and a local vernacular known as Guixian speech (贵县话). This Cantonese-family dialect, centred on Guicheng Subdistrict (贵城街道), is described by the district government as the river-town speech that differs most from Guangzhou Cantonese along the route from Nanning (南宁) to Guangzhou (广州).

What to see

The Site of the First Congress of the Communist Party in Guangxi (中共广西省第一次代表大会旧址) is where the provincial party held its first congress in secret on 1 June 1928; it is on the eighth batch of national key protected sites and houses an exhibition on the meeting. In Qishi Township (奇石乡), the Mid-Autumn Uprising Memorial Park (中秋起义纪念碑园) commemorates fighters killed in the 1947 uprising, with rooms on the war against Japan and the uprising itself. Guigang Garden Expo Park (贵港园博园), a national 4A scenic area built around the city's lotus theme, includes the Guigang Natural History Museum (贵港自然博物馆) and a waterside wetland zone.

Getting oriented

The district lies roughly 200 kilometres from each of Nanning, Liuzhou (柳州), Beihai (北海) and Wuzhou (梧州). The Litang–Zhanjiang Railway (黎湛铁路), the Nanning–Guangzhou high-speed railway (南广高速铁路) and the Xijiang (西江) waterway meet here, and Guigang Port (贵港港) lies on the east side of the city.

Highlights

• Site of the First Congress of the Communist Party in Guangxi 中共广西省第一次代表大会旧址: Where the provincial congress met in secret on 1 June 1928; a national key protected site (eighth batch).
• Mid-Autumn Uprising Memorial Park 中秋起义纪念碑园: In Qishi Township; commemorates those killed in the 1947 Mid-Autumn Uprising.
• Guigang Garden Expo Park 贵港园博园: National 4A scenic area with the Guigang Natural History Museum and a wetland zone.
• Dapingtian Mountain 大平天山: Main peak of the Lianhua Mountains, 1,157.8 m, the district's highest point.