Danfeng County 丹凤县

Setting and landscape

The county government sums up the terrain as "nine parts mountain, half water, half field". Three Qinling spurs, the Mang (蟒岭) in the north, the Liu (流岭) in the middle and the Hu (鹘岭) in the south, alternate with the valleys of the Dan and its three main tributaries, the Yinhua (银花河), Wuguan (武关河) and Laojun (老君河) rivers. The land tilts from north-west to south-east, from Yuhuangding (玉皇顶, 2,057.9 m) down to Leijiadong (雷家洞, 412 m). Forest covers 70 per cent of the county, which has more than 500 kinds of medicinal herbs and is known as a home of the Asiatic cornel (山茱萸).

History

The county government traces settlement here back six thousand years and identifies the area as the ancient state of Shang (商). In the Warring States period it became Shangyi (商邑), the fief of the reformer Shang Yang (商鞅), and it is also given as the retreat of the Four Elders of Mount Shang (商山四皓). The present county was set up on 1 June 1949, when Communist forces took Longjuzhai (龙驹寨) for the second time; it was abolished in December 1958 and restored on 1 October 1961. The novelist Jia Pingwa (贾平凹) was born in Dihua (棣花镇).

What to see

Of the county’s 231 cultural relic sites, its government singles out the Han-dynasty Tomb of the Four Elders (四皓墓), the Jin-dynasty Erlang Temple (二郎庙), the Qing-dynasty Boatmen's Guild Hall (船帮会馆), the Wuguan Pass fortress (武关要塞) and the Longtai Taoist temple (龙台观). The tomb, the temple and the guild hall are Shaanxi provincial protected sites, as are the Shangyi site (商邑遗址), the Wuguan city site (武关城遗址) and the Qin–Chu boundary wall at Wuguan (武关秦楚分界墙). Rafting on the Dan River is promoted as the "first rafting in the Northwest".

Food and local products

Danfeng niujin noodles (丹凤牛筋面) are the commonest snack in Danfeng. A stiff dough of flour and water, with no additives, is pressed by machine into chopstick-thick strands whose bubbled surface gives the chewy bite behind the name, "ox-tendon noodles". They are dressed with chilli oil or sesame paste, sesame oil and beef sauce, and eaten dry-tossed, cold, fried or dipped for a few seconds in a separate bowl of vegetable soup; most people choose the numbing-hot version.

Getting oriented

Longjuzhai, the county seat, is 170 km from Xi'an and 50 km from Shangzhou (商州), the seat of Shangluo. National Highway 312, the Xi'an–Hefei railway (西合铁路) and the Shanghai–Shaanxi expressway (沪陕高速) all cross the county.

Highlights

• Tomb of the Four Elders 四皓墓: Han-dynasty tomb of the Four Elders of Mount Shang; a Shaanxi provincial protected site.
• Boatmen's Guild Hall 船帮会馆: Qing-dynasty guild hall; a Shaanxi provincial protected site.
• Wuguan Pass 武关: Fortress, city site and Qin–Chu boundary wall, the last two on the provincial protected list.
• Danfeng niujin noodles 丹凤牛筋面: Machine-pressed chewy wheat noodles, served dry-tossed, cold, fried or with vegetable soup.