Jungar Banner 准格尔旗

Setting and landscape

Hills and gullies make up 74 percent of the banner. Its neighbours include Togtoh (托克托县) and Qingshuihe (清水河) counties to the east, and Pianguan (偏关县) and Hequ (河曲县) in Shanxi and Fugu (府谷县) in Shaanxi to the south. The banner government describes a semi-arid mid-temperate continental climate with an average yearly temperature of 7.9°C and about 418.6 millimetres of rain, most of it in summer. The Jungar coalfield (准格尔煤田) lies within the banner.

History

The Qing created the Ordos Left Wing Front Banner (鄂尔多斯左翼前旗) here in 1649; the Mongolian word for "left wing" was rendered as Jungar, which gave the banner its common name. Han settlers began farming the strip north of the Great Wall from 1697, and in 1905 the Qing handed parts of that southern strip to Hequ and Fugu counties. The banner seat was later at Shagedu (沙圪堵镇). The national intangible-heritage register traces Manhan tunes (漫瀚调) to the end of the Qing, when large numbers of Han moved into the banner and it became an area of mixed Mongol and Han settlement; Mongolian short songs absorbed Han folk song to form a new genre.

What to see

Jungar Zhao (准格尔召), in the southwest of the banner, is a Gelug Tibetan Buddhist monastery whose halls were finished in 1623 under the Ming, built by craftsmen from Shenmu (神木县) with 50,000 taels of silver raised by local nobles and herders. The banner government calls it the largest monastery complex in Ordos, blending Mongol, Han and Tibetan art, and it was listed as a nationally protected heritage site in 2013.

The banner government lists six national 4A scenic areas, among them the Yellow River Grand Canyon (黄河大峡谷), the Pine King (油松王) area around an ancient Chinese pine, the Kubuqi Desert Shenquan (库布齐沙漠神泉) area and the Zhunneng (准能) mine eco-tourism area. Where the Yellow River meets the Great Wall, the banner government describes boats passing through high gorges and a still lake. Manhan tunes, national intangible heritage since 2008, are sung mostly indoors to flute, sihu fiddle and yangqin dulcimer.

Highlights

• Jungar Zhao 准格尔召: Gelug monastery completed in 1623; nationally protected since 2013.
• Yellow River Grand Canyon 黄河大峡谷: One of the banner's six national 4A scenic areas.
• Pine King 油松王: National 4A scenic area around an ancient Chinese pine.
• Manhan tunes 漫瀚调: Mongol-Han folk song genre, national intangible heritage since 2008.