Qianyang County 千阳县

Setting and landscape

The county covers 996.46 square kilometres, about 45 kilometres north to south and 40 kilometres east to west. Its government sums up the terrain as seven parts hills, two parts loess tableland and one part river flats, between 710 and 1,545.5 metres above sea level. It borders Lingtai (灵台县) in Gansu to the north, Chencang District to the south, Linyou and Fengxiang to the east and Long County to the west. Summers are cool and autumn brings long spells of rain. Water from the county flows into the Fengjiashan Reservoir (冯家山水库).

History

The area was anciently called Yumi (隃糜) and became a county in the early Han. The Northern Zhou set up Qianyang County in 570, then written with a rare character (汧) that was replaced by a common one (千) in October 1964; since then every place name using the old character has used the new one. The county government also calls Qianyang a stage on the ancient Silk Road and the home of Yan Ji (燕伋), one of the 72 worthy disciples of Confucius, who is counted with the Western Han official Guo Qin (郭钦) and the Tang general Duan Xiushi (段秀实) as the county's three worthies.

What to see

Yan Ji's Wanglu Terrace (燕伋望鲁台), the platform named for looking toward Confucius's home state of Lu, is promoted by the county as the first terrace for honouring teachers in China. Qianhu National Wetland Park (千湖国家湿地公园) is a 3A scenic area where the crested ibis (朱鹮) rests. The county government says the master Huang Zhou (黄胄) left his footsteps in Yangyuan village (仰塬村), and it promotes sketching trips to his former home.

Crafts and local products

Qianyang is the main home and production area of Xiqin embroidery (西秦刺绣), a national intangible-heritage craft. The county also calls itself China's home of dwarf-rootstock apples (矮砧苹果), keeps a large herd of Saanen dairy goats and counts itself a core area of Baoji's "China honey capital" (中国·蜜都).

Highlights

• Yan Ji's Wanglu Terrace 燕伋望鲁台: Terrace linked to Yan Ji, a disciple of Confucius from Qianyang.
• Qianhu National Wetland Park 千湖国家湿地公园: 3A scenic area where crested ibis rest.
• Xiqin embroidery 西秦刺绣: National intangible-heritage embroidery made mainly in Qianyang.