Hanggin Rear Banner 杭锦后旗

Setting and landscape

Most of the banner is flat alluvial and flood plain at about 1,030 to 1,050 metres, irrigated with Yellow River water as part of the Hetao irrigation district. Across the river lies Hanggin Banner (杭锦旗) of Ordos; to the west lies the Ulan Buh Desert (乌兰布和沙漠). The climate is dry and continental, with around 137 mm of rain a year.

Dajian Lake (大碱湖) lies about 2 km north-east of the headquarters of Taiyangmiao Farm (太阳庙农场), a farm of the banner on the north-eastern edge of the desert where Hanggin Rear, Dengkou and Urad Rear meet. The banner government describes a lake some 4 km long from east to west, backed by the Yin Mountains and ringed by sand, where white and black swans, egrets, swan geese and grey cranes breed.

History

Shaanba grew from settlers who came from the Qing onward in the migration known as "going beyond the western pass" (走西口), bringing the food customs of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia. It rose to prominence during the war against Japan, and in 1939 the Suiyuan provincial government moved there. In 1942 General Fu Zuoyi (傅作义) founded Fendou Middle School (奋斗中学) in the town; its history museum has five rooms, the last on Fu Zuoyi's life, and keeps a bronze bell from Shaanba's late-Qing Catholic church. The banner itself was formed in 1953 from Micang County (米仓县).

Food and local products

The centrepiece of "Shaanba flavour" (陕坝味道) cooking is the "four hard dishes" (硬四盘): braised pork strips, crisp chicken, steamed mutton and beef meatballs, without which, the banner government says, a Hetao wedding or funeral banquet does not count as a proper feast. The Fulaihao (蚨来号) shop, founded in Shaanba in the late 1920s, was known for its own "eight-treasure" pickles (八宝菜), packed in small red-willow baskets.

The Hetao Liquor industrial tourism area (河套酒业工业旅游区) in Shaanba is a national 4A scenic area. It holds the Inner Mongolia Liquor Culture Museum (内蒙古酒文化博物馆), with more than 1,000 objects, two old distilleries, the Yongji (永记酒坊, founded 1850) and Longji (隆记缸房, founded 1928), and Princess Spring (公主泉), a site protected at autonomous-region level and linked to the legend of Wang Zhaojun (昭君). Sandaoqiao watermelons (三道桥西瓜) and Hanggin Rear Banner muskmelons carry geographical-indication status.

Getting oriented

Linhe District (临河区) borders the banner on the east, and Dengkou County on the west. The Linhe–Hami railway (临哈铁路) has a Hanggin Rear Banner station, and the G6 Beijing–Lhasa and G7 Beijing–Ürümqi expressways cross the banner.

Highlights

• Hetao Liquor industrial tourism area 河套酒业工业旅游区: National 4A site in Shaanba with a liquor museum and distilleries founded in 1850 and 1928.
• Fendou Middle School history museum 奋斗中学校史馆: School founded by Fu Zuoyi in 1942; five exhibition rooms.
• Dajian Lake 大碱湖: Desert-edge lake about 4 km long where swans and cranes breed.
• Four hard dishes 硬四盘: Braised pork strips, crisp chicken, steamed mutton and beef meatballs served at Hetao banquets.
• Sandaoqiao watermelon 三道桥西瓜: Geographical-indication product of the banner.