Mengzhou 孟州市

Setting and landscape

The city sits where the Taihang foothills give way to the North China Plain: the ground falls from 305.9 metres in the north-west to 108.5 metres in the south-east, moving from low mountains through hills to plain, and hills, plain and river flats each take about a third of the area. Qinyang (沁阳) and Jiyuan (济源) lie to the north, and the Zhulong River (猪龙河) roughly marks the border with Wen County (温县) to the east.

The Yellow River runs 26 kilometres along the southern edge. The Mengzhou government notes that here, where the middle and lower reaches meet, the river widens, drops its silt and begins to become a raised "suspended river"; the left-bank levee starts at the Dawang Temple (大王庙) in Zhongcao (中曹), and an old saying holds that the thousand-li Yellow River levee begins at Meng County.

History

Peiligang, Yangshao and Longshan culture finds occur widely across the area. Tradition holds that King Wu of Zhou gathered 800 lords at a Yellow River ford on the north bank, called Mengjin (盟津); that ground, now Luoyang's Jili District (吉利区), belonged to Meng until 1979. In 106 BC the area became Heyang County (河阳县). In 843 the Tang raised Heyang to Mengzhou (孟州), in charge of five counties, and in 1377 the Ming reduced it to Meng County (孟县). It became the city of Mengzhou on 20 May 1996.

What to see

The Tomb of Han Yu (韩愈墓) lies on a hillside north of Hanzhuang village. Han Yu (768–824) is ranked first among the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song. The tomb dates from 825; its mound rises more than 10 metres, and 13 steles in the shrine in front record his life. It became a national key protected site in 2006. The Xiansheng Wang Temple (显圣王庙), with Yuan and Qing buildings, joined the national list in its seventh batch, and the provincial list includes the Heyang ancient city site (河阳故城), Shengfo Temple (圣佛寺) and the Yuan–Ming main hall of Yueyun Palace (岳云宫).

Food and local products

Mengzhou is one of the main growing areas for the four "Huai medicines" (四大怀药): rehmannia, Chinese yam, chrysanthemum and achyranthes.

Highlights

• Tomb of Han Yu 韩愈墓: Tomb of the Tang writer Han Yu, built in 825; national key protected site since 2006.
• Xiansheng Wang Temple 显圣王庙: Yuan and Qing temple buildings on the seventh national list of protected sites.
• Heyang ancient city site 河阳故城: Provincially protected site of the old Heyang city.
• Four Huai medicines 四大怀药: Rehmannia, Chinese yam, chrysanthemum and achyranthes, grown in Mengzhou.