Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County 民和回族土族自治县

History

The Lajia site (喇家遗址) at Lajia village in Guanting (官亭镇) is a Qijia culture (齐家文化) settlement from about 4,000 years ago and a nationally protected heritage site. Its advanced culture and sudden destruction have earned it the name "Pompeii of the East"; the remains of 32 people who died unnatural deaths were found in eight of its houses. Researchers disagree on the cause, proposing an earthquake with flooding, a landslide that dammed the Yellow River and then burst, or an earthquake followed by rainstorm mudflows. A pottery bowl from the site held noodles; analysis by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences found them to be made mainly of foxtail millet with some broomcorn millet.

Minhe County reported directly to the province until 1978, when it was placed under Haidong Prefecture, and it became a Hui and Tu autonomous county on 6 November 1985.

Festivals and Tu culture

The Sanchuan (三川) area around Guanting in the south-east is the main Tu settlement in the county. Its Nadun festival (纳顿节), on the national intangible-heritage list since 2006, is found only among the Tu of Sanchuan; "nadun" means "games" in the Tu language. More than seventy villages in seven townships, including Guanting and Zhongchuan (中川), hold it in turn in harvest order, moving from lower to upper Sanchuan, starting at Songjia village on the 12th day of the seventh lunar month and ending on the 15th of the ninth, 63 days later. The main day has three parts: the huishou (会手) dance, masked nuo dances and the "fala" (法拉) shaman dance; the festival also takes in the worship of Erlang Shen (二郎神) and Guan Yu (关公). The China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network dates its origin to the mid-Yuan dynasty.

At Lunar New Year Guanting holds its fire-flower festival (火花节). Haidong Daily describes shehuo (社火) folk performances, lion and dragon dances and bamboo-horse performances from the 15th to the 29th of the first lunar month, a Nadun mask dance, and a drum dance from Heyan village (河沿村) that won a performance award at Qinghai's first ethnic-minority games.

Getting oriented

Minhe borders Yongdeng County and Lanzhou's Honggu District to the north-east and Yongjing to the east, all in Gansu; Jishishan (积石山) in Gansu faces it across the Yellow River to the south. Xunhua, Hualong and Ledu lie to the west and north.

Highlights

• Lajia site 喇家遗址: Nationally protected Qijia culture settlement of about 4,000 years ago, destroyed by a sudden disaster; millet noodles were found in a bowl there.
• Tu Nadun festival 纳顿节: National intangible heritage: a 63-day harvest festival of masked dances held village by village across Sanchuan.
• Guanting fire-flower festival 火花节: Lunar New Year festival of shehuo, drum and Nadun mask dances in Guanting.