Xin'an County 新安县

Setting and landscape

The ground is higher in the north-west and lower in the south-east, and the county government sums it up as 'high mountains, many ridges and broken valleys: seven parts ridge, two parts mountain, one part plain'. The county also lists Wanshan Lake (万山湖) at Xiaolangdi (小浪底), which it calls the 'Thousand-Island Lake of the north'.

History

A county was first set up here under the Qin, and the name Xin'an is read as 'new rule, peace and quiet'. The seat moved to its present site in the Tang Zhenguan era and has stayed there since; under the Sui the area was called Guzhou (谷州) after Mount Gu (谷山), and the name Xin'an was restored in 1936. Du Fu (杜甫) wrote his poem 'The Officer at Xin'an' (新安吏) here, and local tradition places Wang Xiang (王祥), one of the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars, lying on the ice to catch carp in the county. The Han-era Hangu Pass site (汉函谷关遗址) and a Han granary site at Yandong (盐东) were each named among China's top ten archaeological finds of the year, in 2013 and 1998.

What to see

The Hangu Pass at Xin'an (新安函谷关), described by the county as the first pass west on the Silk Road, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2014. Qiantang Zhizhai (千唐志斋), known as the 'Tang history in stone', is listed by the county government as China's only museum of tomb epitaphs.

The Wangwushan-Daimeishan World Geopark (王屋山—黛眉山世界地质公园) lies within the county. The county government promotes the Longtan Grand Canyon (龙潭大峡谷) as a natural geological museum of an ancient ocean, Daimei Mountain (黛眉山) for the great river between Henan and Shanxi, its cloud-top grassland and its high-mountain meadows, and Qingyao Mountain (青要山) as the Yellow Emperor's (黄帝) 'secret capital'.

Food and local products

Xin'an hot-water dough dumplings (新安烫面角) are one of three traditional Luoyang foods for which the city issued local cooking standards in 2020, alongside beef soup and mutton soup. The dumpling standard was drafted by the county market regulator, a Luoyang testing centre and two Xin'an dumpling shops, among others.

Getting oriented

The Longhai railway, the Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed line and National Highway 310 cross the county from east to west, and the county borders Mianchi (渑池) and Yima (义马) to the west and Yiyang (宜阳) to the south.

Highlights

• Hangu Pass at Xin'an 新安函谷关: Han-era pass on the Silk Road, inscribed as World Heritage in 2014.
• Qiantang Zhizhai 千唐志斋: 4A museum of tomb epitaphs, known as the 'Tang history in stone'.
• Longtan Grand Canyon 龙潭大峡谷: Gorge in the Wangwushan-Daimeishan World Geopark.
• Daimei Mountain 黛眉山: Promoted for its Yellow River scenery, cloud-top grassland and high-mountain meadows.
• Xin'an hot-water dough dumplings 新安烫面角: Local snack covered by a 2020 Luoyang cooking standard.