Xin County 新县

History

The county was created in October 1933 by the Nationalist government as Jingfu County (经扶县), named after the courtesy name of the Henan governor Liu Zhi (刘峙), with its seat at Xinji (新集) to direct the campaign against the Communists. In December 1947 Liu Bocheng (刘伯承) and Deng Xiaoping (邓小平) renamed it Xin County. Xinji is still the county seat, and Henan lists Xin County as a provincial historical and cultural city.

What to see

The E-Yu-Wan Soviet Area Capital Revolutionary Museum (鄂豫皖苏区首府革命博物馆) tells the story of the county as capital of the soviet area. Opened on 25 October 1990, it was named a national first-grade museum by the Chinese Museums Association in 2017. Its main display covers ten years of the Land Revolution; another hall presents 43 ranked generals and 50 provincial- or army-level officials born in the county. Exhibits include a "Lenin" aircraft and a wall inscription of the soviet land law, rated a first-grade revolutionary relic.

The county government calls Jianchanghe Township (箭厂河乡) the capital seat of the soviet area and the cradle of the Huangma Uprising (黄麻起义) and of the Fourth Front Red Army. Its scenic area runs from the Jianchanghe meeting site of the E-Yu-Wan special committee to the former home of Wu Huanxian (吴焕先). Along the way are the soviet area's first tax office, the Lenin Primary School site (列宁小学旧址), named a national patriotic-education base in 2001, and the Hongtian massacre site (红田惨案遗址).

General Xu Shiyou's Home Village (许世友将军故里) lies at Xujiawa (许家洼) in Tianpu Township (田铺乡). It includes the general's grave, his former residence, a memorial square and a hall on his life; the memorial hall opened in 1991, and the site became a Henan provincial protected heritage site in 2000.

Tianpu Dawan (田铺大塆), at the foot of Qinglong Ridge (青龙岭), keeps 367 southern-Henan houses and entered the list of Chinese traditional villages in 2014. The county government describes it as Henan's first "maker town", with specialty shops and guesthouses.

Food and local products

Xin County is a mainly forested mountain county. Its cash crops are tea, oil-tea camellia, chestnuts, ginkgo and wild mountain vegetables, and the Huainan pig (淮南猪) is a Chinese geographical-indication product.

Getting oriented

In the core of the Dabie range, at the meeting point of Hubei, Henan and Anhui, the county faces Hefei (合肥) eastward, Wuhan (武汉) southward and Zhengzhou (郑州) northward. The Beijing–Kowloon railway (京九铁路), national highways 106 and 230 and the Daqing–Guangzhou Expressway (大广高速) run the length of the county.

Highlights

• E-Yu-Wan Soviet Area Capital Revolutionary Museum 鄂豫皖苏区首府革命博物馆: Opened in 1990; national first-grade museum since 2017, with a "Lenin" aircraft among its exhibits.
• General Xu Shiyou's Home Village 许世友将军故里: Grave, former residence and memorial hall at Xujiawa, Tianpu Township; provincial protected site since 2000.
• Lenin Primary School site 列宁小学旧址: Soviet-era school site in Jianchanghe Township, named a national patriotic-education base in 2001.
• Tianpu Dawan 田铺大塆: Village of 367 southern-Henan houses, on the Chinese traditional villages list since 2014.