Dengta 灯塔市

Setting and landscape

The city is a wide, shallow strip: 64.4 km from east to west but only 41.5 km from north to south, running from Jiguanshan township (鸡冠山乡) in the east to Wuxing (五星镇) in the west. Benxi (本溪) lies to the east, Shenyang's Sujiatun district (苏家屯) to the north, and Liaoyang's Wensheng (文圣区) and Taizihe (太子河区) districts to the south.

Chinese Wikipedia describes Dengta as a grain and freshwater-fish producer known as the "land of fish and rice of the north" (北国鱼米之乡), growing rice, maize and sorghum, with hawthorn as its local speciality. Coal and iron reserves are large, and heavy coal mining has left subsidence under some towns.

History

The name means "lighthouse" and comes from a 1940 revolutionary song, "You Are the Lighthouse" (《你是灯塔》), with words by Sha Hong (沙洪) and music by Jiu Ming (久鸣). In 1954 residents of the old Yantai street, west of Yantai station on the Changchun–Dalian railway named their cooperative after it; the commune of 1958 and the district created in September 1968 took the same name. The district became Dengta County in 1980 and a county-level city in August 1996.

Settlement is much older. Bronze Age sites have been excavated here, and from the Warring States period the area belonged to Xiangping county (襄平县), the seat of Liaodong commandery at present-day Liaoyang. In 403 Goguryeo (高句丽) took Xiangping and built Baiya fortress (白崖城), which the Dengta government identifies with the Yanzhou mountain fortress (燕州城山城) at Guantun village in Xidayao town (西大窑镇).

What to see

The Yanzhou mountain fortress, dated by the national listing to the Han to Tang periods, was listed as a national key protected site in 2013. Two further sites are on the Liaoning provincial list: the former home of General Li Zhaolin (李兆麟将军故居) at Houtun village in Huazi town (铧子镇), listed in 2007, and the Dengta section of the Ming Great Wall, listed in 2018.

Getting oriented

Dengta lies 25 km north of urban Liaoyang and 25 km south of Shenyang Taoxian International Airport. The Changchun–Dalian railway, the Harbin–Dalian high-speed line, the Shenyang–Haikou expressway and National Highway 202 cross the city from north to south, and the Dengta–Liaoyang expressway runs east–west.

Highlights

• Yanzhou Mountain Fortress 燕州城山城: Han-to-Tang hill fortress at Xidayao; national key protected site since 2013.
• Former Home of General Li Zhaolin 李兆麟将军故居: At Houtun village, Huazi town; provincial protected site since 2007.
• Dengta section of the Ming Great Wall 明长城-灯塔段: Provincial protected site since 2018.