Pingli County 平利县

Setting and landscape

The county is shaped like an irregular inverted triangle, about 96 kilometres north to south and 60 kilometres east to west, and mountains make up 78% of it. The south holds more than 50 peaks above 1,000 metres; the highest point is Hualong Mountain (化龙山), the main peak of the Daba range, at 2,917.2 metres, while the lowest, at Toudongzi (头洞子) in Xihe, is 300 metres. In the hilly north, strings of wide flats and basins line the Ba River (坝河) and the Huangyang River (黄洋河). Six of them, Chang'an (长安), Taiping (太平), Luohe (洛河), Dagui (大贵), Xihe (西河) and Chonghe (冲河), hold the county's best farmland. Winters are dry and clear, while summers are wet with spells of midsummer drought.

History

County status began in 280, when Shanglian County (上廉县) was named after the Shanglian River. The Tang created Pingli County in 618, taking the name from the Pingli river valley (平利川), and in 1805 the seat moved from Laoxian (老县), "old county", to the present town. The county government dates the Chu wall at Guanya (关垭), built by the State of Chu in the Eastern Zhou, to 2,700 years ago and calls it the oldest Great Wall in China. The county also presents itself as an important origin of the culture of Nüwa (女娲), a figure of Chinese myth: legends of her and of Nüwa Mountain (女娲山) appear in the Huayang Guozhi (华阳国志) and the New Book of Tang. A 2003 seminar held by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Chinese Folklore Society concluded that Pingli has the earliest and most concentrated records of Nüwa culture.

What to see

Forest covers 75.6% of the county. Scenic areas named by the county government include the Zhengyang Grand Meadow (正阳大草甸), Tianshu Gorge (天书峡), Taohua Creek (桃花溪) and Peony Valley (芍药谷).

Food and local products

Tea has a long record here. Under the Tang, Pingli was listed among the eight main tea-producing areas of the Shannan region, and Sanliya Maojian (三里垭毛尖) became a tribute tea in the Qianlong reign of the Qing. The county now has about 230,000 mu (roughly 15,300 hectares) of tea gardens.

Highlights

• Guanya Chu Great Wall 关垭楚长城: Eastern Zhou wall of the State of Chu, dated by the county to 2,700 years ago.
• Hualong Mountain 化龙山: Main peak of the Daba range and the county's highest point, 2,917.2 m.
• Tianshu Gorge 天书峡: One of the scenic areas the county government names.
• Sanliya Maojian tea 三里垭毛尖: Tribute tea from the Qianlong reign.