Pingshan District 平山区

Setting and landscape

Hills ring the district and are thickly wooded, and both the Taizi and the Xi River (细河) flow through it. Pingshan borders Mingshan District (明山区) to the northeast, Nanfen District (南芬区) to the southeast and Liaoyang (辽阳) to the west. Winters are cold: the district records an extreme low of −37.2°C; the freeze sets in in early November and the thaw comes in early April. Its iron ore, silica and limestone reserves are large and high-grade and have been worked for a long time.

History

Benxi County was created in 1906 from parts of Liaoyang, Xingjing (兴京) and Fenghuang (凤凰), and today's Pingshan was part of its first ward. In 1941 the Manchukuo authorities set up Miyahara ward (宫原区), named to honour Prince Kan'in Kotohito, who had fought the Russians at Benxi in the Russo-Japanese War. After 1948 the name was kept, then in 1953 it became Gongyuan (工源), pronounced the same way in Chinese. In November 1955 Gongyuan and Caitun (彩屯) districts merged as Pingshan, named after Pingding Mountain, which the district calls the chief of the surrounding peaks.

What to see

Pingding Mountain Forest Park (本溪平顶山森林公园), a national AAA scenic area, is what the Benxi city government calls the "green lung" of the urban area. The Benxi Zoo and Botanical Garden (本溪市动植物园) on Huanshan Road is also AAA-rated. Two steelworks, the Benxi Steel garden factory (本钢花园式工厂景区) on Gangtie Road and the Beiying garden factory (北营公司花园式工厂景区) inside the Beiying steel plant, are AAA scenic areas, and the China (Benxi) Paper-Cutting Cultural and Creative Park (中国（本溪）剪纸文化创意产业园) on Xinhe Street is AA-rated.

Getting oriented

Benxi station (本溪站), in Pingshan, serves the Shenyang–Dandong Railway (沈丹铁路), the Liaoyang–Benxi Railway (辽溪铁路), the Benxi–Tianshifu Railway (溪田铁路) and the Shenyang–Dandong high-speed line (沈丹客运专线). Opened in 1907, it moved into a new building on 6 December 2013 and began high-speed services on 1 September 2015. Shenyang Taoxian International Airport is 55 kilometres away.

Highlights

• Pingding Mountain Forest Park 本溪平顶山森林公园: AAA forest park on the mountain that gives the district its name.
• Benxi Zoo and Botanical Garden 本溪市动植物园: AAA scenic area on Huanshan Road.
• Benxi Steel garden factory 本钢花园式工厂景区: Steelworks rated as an AAA scenic area.
• Benxi station 本溪站: Station opened in 1907, with high-speed services since 2015.