Longde County 隆德县

Setting and landscape

The county averages more than 2,000 metres above sea level, which makes it colder than its neighbours. The Liupan range runs along the southeast, so the ground falls from east to west; the main rivers are the Yu (渝河) and the Hulu (葫芦河). The land is hilly and cut by gullies; the flat valley floors, called chuan (川), hold the best farmland, while the slopes are terraced. A road tunnel 2,385 metres long now runs through the Liupan, replacing a winding climb that snow often blocked. The name joins characters from two older places: the fortified town of Yangmu Longcheng (羊牧隆城) and the Deshun Army (德顺军) garrison district. The county was historically under Pingliang prefecture in Gansu.

What to see

The Liupan Mountain Long March scenic area (六盘山红军长征旅游景区), 6 km east of the county town beside National Highway 312, became a national 5A area in December 2024, the first in Guyuan. The Liupan was the last great mountain the Red Army crossed on the Long March, and Mao Zedong wrote his poem "Qingpingyue: Liupan Mountain" (清平乐·六盘山) during the 1935 crossing. The area now covers 12 square kilometres, with a pavilion built on the summit in 1985, a memorial hall opened on 18 September 2005, and a 2.5 km Red Army trail laid out in 2013 with more than 200 sculptures showing 18 scenes from the march.

Hongya Old Alley (红崖老巷子), 1 km from the county town near the Longde exit of the Qingdao–Lanzhou expressway, is a folk-culture village named for its six lanes, the main one about 520 metres long. It has an old stage, mill, well, shops selling calligraphy, paper-cutting and embroidery, and an exhibition on the Red 25th Army, and was rated national 4A in February 2024. Liupan Tianchi (六盘天池), also called Beilianchi (北联池), is a gourd-shaped mountain lake at 2,530 metres, 20 km northeast of the county town, counted among the Eight Views of old Longde and one of the sources of the Hulu River.

Food

Longde hotpot (隆德暖锅) is a local speciality and an everyday household dish, cooked in a pot with a central charcoal chimney, once earthenware and now usually copper in restaurants. A full pot is built in five layers over pork-bone or chicken stock. Radish and cabbage go at the bottom, then pork and spring-onion meatballs, then glass noodles, tofu, soybean sprouts and potato, then pork ribs. A ring of fried pork belly slices, scattered with spring onion, garlic shoots and red chilli, crowns the pot.

Highlights

• Liupan Mountain Long March scenic area 六盘山红军长征旅游景区: National 5A area since December 2024, on the last mountain the Red Army crossed, with a memorial hall and 2.5 km sculpture trail.
• Hongya Old Alley 红崖老巷子: Folk-culture village of six lanes near the county town, national 4A since 2024.
• Liupan Tianchi 六盘天池: Gourd-shaped lake at 2,530 metres, one of old Longde's Eight Views and a source of the Hulu River.
• Longde hotpot 隆德暖锅: Charcoal-heated pot of radish, meatballs, noodles, ribs and a crown of fried pork belly, built in five layers.