Quyang County 曲阳县

Setting and landscape

The name means the sunny side of a bend, after its position beneath the ancient Northern Mount Heng (北岳恒山), now Damao Mountain (大茂山) in neighbouring Tang County. The land is described as six parts mountain, one part water and three parts fields; from northwest to southeast it runs from low mountains through hills and river flats to plain. Two large reservoirs, Wangkuai (王快) and Xidayang (西大洋), lie in the county, and Tang County adjoins it to the northeast.

History

The Qin set up Quyang County in 221 BC, making it one of Hebei's oldest counties. The Yuan raised it to Hengzhou (恒州) in 1216, governing five counties, and returned it to county status in 1239. It was merged into Ding County in 1958 and restored in May 1961. Ge Zhenlin (葛振林), one of the Five Heroes of Langya Mountain (狼牙山五壮士) of the war against Japan, came from Quyang.

What to see

The Beiyue Temple in the county town was first built under the Northern Wei as the place where emperors sacrificed to Northern Mount Heng. Its east, west and north walls carry a mural 8 metres high and 18 metres long attributed to the Tang painter Wu Daozi (吴道子), painted with raised gilded outlines, and the grounds hold more than 160 inscribed steles from the Northern Dynasties to the Republic. It is a 4A scenic area, as is the Hushan scenic area (虎山风景区).

The Ding kiln site (定窑遗址) stretches about 10 kilometres from east to west around Jianci (涧磁村) and East and West Yanchuan (东西燕川村) in Lingshan Town (灵山镇). The county's other national protected sites include the Xiude Temple Pagoda (修德寺塔), the tomb of Wang Chuzhi (王处直墓) and the Bahui Temple sutra carvings (八会寺刻经). The Julong Cave (聚龙洞) at Lingshan is a 3A scenic area.

Crafts and local products

Quyang stone carving entered the first national intangible heritage list in 2006; the county government traces it from the Han to a peak under the Yuan, when the carver Yang Qiong (杨琼) worked. Ding ware, named after old Dingzhou (定州), to which Quyang once belonged, was fired from the Tang, flourished in the Northern Song and declined in the Yuan; it is praised as "white as jade, thin as paper, ringing like a chime stone", and kilns were revived in the 1970s. The provincial heritage list includes the filling of Heiguinü dumplings (黑闺女饺子), and the county is one of the main producers of the Hebei Yali pear (河北鸭梨) for export.

Highlights

• Beiyue Temple 北岳庙: Northern Wei foundation where emperors sacrificed to Northern Mount Heng; large mural attributed to Wu Daozi and over 160 steles.
• Ding kiln site 定窑遗址: National protected site stretching about 10 km around Jianci in Lingshan Town.
• Quyang stone carving 曲阳石雕: On the first national intangible heritage list (2006).
• Ding ware 定瓷: Porcelain praised as "white as jade, thin as paper"; its kilns are counted among the five famous Song kilns and were revived in the 1970s.