Mianchi County 渑池县

Setting and landscape

Across the Yellow River to the north lie the Shanxi counties of Yuanqu (垣曲), Xia (夏县) and Pinglu (平陆); to the east Mianchi wraps around Yima (义马) city, and to the west it meets Shanzhou District (陕州区). The terrain is low mountains and hills at 200 to 1,500 metres. The north is the Eastern Xiao range, whose main peak Shaoshan (韶山) reaches 1,463.2 metres; the south is the lower Western Xiao ridge, Nandaling (南大岭); between them lies a trough-shaped basin along the Jian (涧河) and Hongyang (洪阳河) rivers. The Yellow River valley strip was entirely submerged when the Xiaolangdi Reservoir (小浪底水库) filled.

History

The name comes from an ancient pond, Mianchi (黾池), named after a frog-like creature. In 279 BC the kings of Qin and Zhao met here, and under the Qin it became a county of Sanchuan Commandery (三川郡). The present written form (渑池) dates from the Three Kingdoms state of Wei, and in 629 the county seat moved to Shuangqiao (双桥镇), the site of today's town. Mianchi came under Sanmenxia in April 1986.

What to see

The Yangshao Village site (仰韶村文化遗址), 9 kilometres north of the county town, was first excavated in 1921 by the Swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson (安特生) and the Chinese archaeologist Yuan Fuli (袁复礼), and gave its name to the Yangshao culture. The site covers about 300,000 square metres on a terrace below Shaoshan, and its pottery is decorated with fish, net and petal patterns; it became a national key cultural relics protection unit on 4 March 1961.

The Qin–Zhao Meeting Terrace (古秦赵会盟台), about 1 kilometre west of the town between the Mian River and the Yang River, marks the meeting at which, in the Records of the Grand Historian (史记), the Zhao minister Lin Xiangru (蔺相如) matched every humiliation the Qin king offered his ruler. Its 22-metre pavilion was rebuilt in 1985–86 after damage in the Cultural Revolution. The Yangshao Grand Canyon (仰韶大峡谷) covers 50 square kilometres and six gorges; the county government says it was only discovered in June 2003.

Food and local products

Sanmenxia's municipal intangible-heritage list includes Yangshao liquor brewing (仰韶酒酿造工艺), Nancun homespun cloth (南村老粗布) and Yangshao painted-pottery making (仰韶彩陶制作工艺), in which vessels are coil-built and painted in red or black with fish, deer, frog and bird motifs. At provincial level Mianchi has shipan (十盘), rural percussion-and-wind music of western Henan, and pengkou (棚口), large temple-fair gateways decorated with cloth and cotton figures of opera characters.

Highlights

• Yangshao Village site 仰韶村文化遗址: Type site of the Yangshao culture, first excavated in 1921; national key cultural relics protection unit since 1961.
• Qin–Zhao Meeting Terrace 古秦赵会盟台: Marks the 279 BC meeting of the kings of Qin and Zhao; pavilion rebuilt in 1985–86.
• Yangshao Grand Canyon 仰韶大峡谷: Six gorges over 50 square kilometres, discovered in 2003.
• Shaoshan 韶山: Main peak of the Eastern Xiao range, 1,463.2 metres.
• Yangshao painted pottery 仰韶彩陶: Coil-built pottery painted with fish, deer, frog and bird motifs; a Sanmenxia municipal intangible-heritage craft.