Horinger County 和林格尔县

Setting and landscape

The county government sums up the ground with a local saying of "five parts hills, three parts mountains, two parts plain". Spurs of the Manhan Mountains (蛮汉山) rise in the southeast, loess hills fill the south-centre, and the northwest reaches the edge of the Tumochuan plain (土默川平原). The land is higher in the east and south, from 1,016 to 2,031 metres above sea level.

History

The county belonged to the Qin commandery of Yunzhong (云中郡) and the Western Han commandery of Dingxiang (定襄郡). In 663 the Tang moved a protectorate to the old Han town of Chengle (成乐城), and a year later it became the Chanyu Grand Protectorate (单于大都护府), from then on a political and military centre for central Inner Mongolia. The Liao set up Zhenwu county (振武县) on the same spot, and after the Yuan withdrew north the town of Zhenwu fell to ruin. Under Kangxi a post station for 20 households was set up at today's Chengguan (城关镇), and the Mongolian name Horinger, "twenty houses", comes from it. The county passed from Ulanqab League to Hohhot in 1995.

What to see

The Tuchengzi (土城子) city site, in the Shengle economic park, is reported by China News Service as the largest ancient city site on the north bank of the Yellow River's great bend. It was occupied from the Spring and Autumn period through the Yuan, and the Northern Wei capital and the Tang Chanyu protectorate stood here. Excavations from 1997 to 2014 opened 2,755 tombs outside the walls, and in 2017 the National Cultural Heritage Administration put it on its third list of national archaeological park projects. Finds from the site are shown in the Shengle Museum (盛乐博物馆).

The Eastern Han tomb at Xiaobanshen (小板申) village, found in 1972, is about 20 metres long, with three main chambers and three side chambers. Its chambers carry more than 50 murals with over 250 captions, showing processions of carriages, banquets, farming and herding, and the dress and hair of non-Han peoples. The murals and captions identify the occupant as the Eastern Han's senior official sent to oversee the Wuhuan (乌桓).

Food and local products

Dahongcheng tofu (大红城豆腐), from Dahongcheng township on both banks of the Hun River (浑河), is made with local groundwater and pressed after setting with brine; it is firm and chewy, and its making is on the Hohhot municipal intangible heritage list. It joined the national register of distinctive farm products in June 2026, following Horinger morels (和林羊肚菌) and fresh goat milk in 2023.

Highlights

• Tuchengzi city site 土城子古城遗址: Walled city site of the Northern Wei capital and the Tang Chanyu protectorate; on the 2017 list of national archaeological park projects.
• Xiaobanshen Han tomb 小板申汉墓: Eastern Han tomb found in 1972 with more than 50 murals and 250 captions.
• Shengle Museum 盛乐博物馆: Shows finds from the Tuchengzi site.
• Dahongcheng tofu 大红城豆腐: Brine-set tofu from the Hun River valley; municipal intangible heritage.