Wangdu County 望都县

History

The county government dates a settlement here to the Warring States period and a county to the Qin, and explains the name through an old saying ("登尧山望都山", "climb Mount Yao, gaze at Mount Du"). The Wangdu county name dates from 201 BC; the seat moved to its present site in 634. From 1173 the county was called Qingdu, and the Qianlong emperor restored the name Wangdu because Qingdu was the name of Yao's mother.

Wangdu is the home town of the martial artist Sun Lutang (孙禄堂), founder of Sun-style tai chi (孙氏太极), and of the oracle-bone scholar Hu Houxuan (胡厚宣).

What to see

The Suoyao Village mural tombs (所药村壁画墓), also called the Wangdu Han tombs, are two Eastern Han tombs about 30 metres apart in Suoyao village east of the county town. Tomb No. 1, dug in 1952, has been identified as the tomb of Sun Cheng (孙程), Marquis of Fuyang, begun in AD 132, with more than 100 square metres of wall paintings. Tomb No. 2 was badly robbed and partly collapsed; a brick land-purchase contract found inside dates it to AD 182. The tombs became a Hebei protected site in 1982 and joined the sixth batch of national key protected sites in 2006. In 2009 the county built the Wangdu Han Tomb Museum (望都汉墓博物馆) and restored the murals.

Food and local products

Chillies have been grown in Wangdu for more than 600 years, and Wangdu chilli (望都辣椒) is a national geographical-indication product; the county government describes Wangdu as a major chilli trading centre for northern China. The local variety is the goat-horn chilli (羊角椒), which a county arts-federation essay praises for its aroma, thick flesh, oil content and moderate heat, crediting the water of the Jiulong River (九龙河). Chillies are sizzled (呛辣椒), stir-fried (炒辣椒) or deep-fried (炸辣椒), and turned into chilli sauce, chilli oil and chilli crisps. The county has held six China Wangdu Chilli Festivals and has built the China Wangdu Chilli Culture Museum (中国望都辣椒文化博物馆).

Setting and landscape

The land lies at an average height of 41 metres, with about 509 mm of rain a year. The county government calls Wangdu the northernmost county in China to harvest a tonne of grain per mu, and an old nickname, "land of ten thousand bushels of pearl springs" (珠泉万斛之乡), refers to its water. The county sits between Baoding and Shijiazhuang (石家庄), and the Beijing–Guangzhou Railway (京广铁路), the Beijing–Hong Kong–Macau Expressway (京港澳高速公路) and National Highway 107 (107国道) run the length of it.

Highlights

• Suoyao Village mural tombs 所药村壁画墓: Two Eastern Han tombs; Tomb No. 1, of Sun Cheng, begun AD 132, holds over 100 square metres of murals; national key protected site since 2006.
• Wangdu chilli 望都辣椒: Grown for more than 600 years; a national geographical-indication product.
• China Wangdu Chilli Culture Museum 中国望都辣椒文化博物馆: A museum of chilli culture; the county has also held six China Wangdu Chilli Festivals.
• Sun-style tai chi 孙氏太极: Created by Sun Lutang, a native of Wangdu.