Hezhang County 赫章县

Setting and landscape

Heights range from 1,230 metres to 2,900.6 metres, with an average of 1,996 metres, and the county government describes ranges of peaks cut by deep river valleys. Qixingguan District (七星关区) and Nayong County (纳雍县) lie to the east, Weining County (威宁县) to the west, and the Zhongshan (钟山区) and Shuicheng (水城区) districts of Liupanshui (六盘水) to the south. The Bijie–Weining Expressway (毕威高速) and National Road G326 cross the county from east to west, and the Zhenxiong–Shuicheng Expressway (镇水高速) and Provincial Road S212 run north to south.

History

In the Warring States period the area belonged to Yelang (夜郎), the kingdom remembered in the idiom "Yelang thinks itself great" (夜郎自大). Yi-language texts record Kele (可乐乡), whose Yi name means "great central city", as Yelang's political and cultural centre at its height. The Kele site (可乐遗址), on both banks of the Kele River, dates from the Warring States to the Han (475 BC to AD 220): a Han town with rammed-earth walls south of the river, a Yelang settlement about 1 km away to the north, and 14 burial groups. Some of the Yelang graves use "head-covering burial" (套头葬), a form rare in China. The site was named one of the country's ten major archaeological discoveries of 2001.

Hezhang was also a battleground of the Red Army's 2nd and 6th Army Groups and keeps more than ten revolutionary sites, including the Yemachuan meeting site (野马川会议遗址). The county government calls Hezhang the birthplace of the Bijie Pilot Zone for development-based poverty relief and ecological construction, approved by the State Council in June 1988, and traces it to a 1985 Xinhua internal report on poverty in Haique village (海雀村).

What to see

Jiucaiping (韭菜坪) is known for its belt of wild chive flowers, and the stone forest on Little Jiucaiping (小韭菜坪) was rated one of China's top ten summer-retreat mountains three years running. Other sights include the Axi Lixi grassland (阿西里西大草原), which the county government calls a "grassland in the clouds", and the Jiugushui hot-spring resort (九股水温泉度假区). More than 100 old Yi-script stone inscriptions survive here. The Yi bell dance (铃铛舞) is on the second national intangible-heritage list, the Miao "great migration dance" (大迁徙舞) on the first provincial list, and the Yi Cuotaiji (撮泰吉) on the sixth provincial list.

Food and local products

The county holds the titles "home of walnuts", "home of cherries" and "home of pinellia" (半夏). It promotes thin-shelled walnuts, sweet cherries, Kele pigs (可乐猪) and gastrodia (天麻), used as both food and medicine.

Highlights

• Kele site 可乐遗址: Warring States to Han site with a Han walled town, a Yelang settlement and 14 burial groups on the Kele River.
• Jiucaiping 韭菜坪: Upland known for its belt of wild chive flowers; the Little Jiucaiping stone forest was rated a top ten summer-retreat mountain three years running.
• Axi Lixi grassland 阿西里西大草原: Grassland the county government calls a "grassland in the clouds".
• Yi bell dance 铃铛舞: On the second national intangible-heritage list.