Botou 泊头市

Setting and landscape

Botou lies in the heart of the Hebei plain, with no hills. The land dips gently from south to northeast, between a high point of 16.1 metres at Qin village (秦村) and a low of 10.1 metres at Chujiadu (楚贾杜村). A line of shallow trough-shaped hollows, left by old river banks and silted lakes, runs west to east across the north. Its waters include the Southern Grand Canal (南运河), the Qingliang River (清凉江), the Fuyang New River (滏阳新河) and the Heilonggang River (黑龙港河). The mean temperature is 12.7°C and most of the 543 millimetres of yearly rain falls in July and August.

History

In the Western Han, Liu De (刘德), Prince Xian of Hejian, built the Rihua Palace (日华宫) in what is now Botou to collate pre-Qin texts. Jiaohe (交河), now a town of Botou, was made a town in 1073, became a county in 1167 and moved its seat to the present town in 1371; Jiaohe County was merged into Botou in 1983. The Yonghua Match Factory (永华火柴厂) dates from 1912, and 20th-century Botou was known across mainland China for its matches.

What to see

Botou Mosque (泊头清真寺) was built in 1404 and enlarged in the Chongzhen reign. It has a main mosque and a women's mosque with more than twenty buildings, and was listed as a national protected site in 2001. In Jiaohe, the county government compound, rebuilt on Soviet models after 1949, keeps its Soviet-style gateway and hall; the 1950s Red Star Auditorium (红星礼堂) across the street was then the county's largest building. Botou's grove of ancient black mulberry trees is recognised as an Important Agricultural Heritage System of China.

Food and local products

Pear trees have been grown commercially here since the Western Han; "Botou Yali pear" (泊头鸭梨) is a national geographical-indication certification mark, and Botou was again named China's home of the Yali pear in 2014. The city also has more surviving ancient black mulberry trees than anywhere else in China, and its mulberries carry geographical-indication status. Jiaohe pancakes (交河煎饼) won praise from Vice-Premier Li Xiannian (李先念) as "a unique food" in 1965. Casting has a history of more than 1,400 years here, pig-iron smelting and casting is on the national intangible heritage list, and the city cites the 100.08-tonne Cangzhou Iron Lion, cast in one pour in 2011, as a world record.

Getting oriented

The Beijing–Shanghai and Shijiazhuang–Huanghua expressways and the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway cross the city, and Botou station is on the Beijing–Shanghai railway.

Highlights

• Botou Mosque 泊头清真寺: Built in 1404 and enlarged in the Chongzhen reign; a national protected site since 2001.
• Jiaohe historic county compound 交河镇历史建筑: Soviet-style gateway and hall of the county government compound rebuilt after 1949, and the 1950s Red Star Auditorium, in Jiaohe town.
• Botou Yali pear 泊头鸭梨: Grown commercially since the Western Han; a national geographical-indication certification mark.
• Botou mulberries 泊头桑椹: From the largest surviving stand of ancient black mulberry trees in China; geographical-indication status.
• Jiaohe pancakes 交河煎饼: Praised by Li Xiannian in 1965 as a unique food.