Laiwu District 莱芜区

Setting and landscape

Mountains close the district on the north, east and south, leaving a semicircular basin with gently rolling plain in the centre and west; mountain land makes up 79 percent of the area. The main peak of Lotus Mountain (莲花山), 994 m on the border with Xintai (新泰市), is the highest point. The main stream of the Wen river system here is the Mouwen River (牟汶河) and its largest tributary is the Yingwen River (嬴汶河); both flow west to join the Dawen River (大汶河). The district government calls Xueye Lake (雪野湖) in the north the largest body of water within 50 km of the provincial capital, and describes the Tianchi lake on Lotus Mountain (莲花山天池) as the highest mountain lake in Shandong.

History

The district counts itself among the birthplaces of the Dawenkou culture (大汶口文化) and of the Ying (嬴) clan name; the site of the ancient state of Ying lies near Chengzixian village in Yangli subdistrict (羊里街道). In the Spring and Autumn period this was the border of Qi (齐) and Lu (鲁). In 684 BC Lu defeated Qi at the Battle of Changshao (长勺之战) near Miaoshan (苗山镇), holding back until the Qi drums had sounded three times, and in 484 BC a Wu and Lu army routed Qi at Ailing (艾陵之战). A stele at Chuiyang village (垂杨村) in Kouzhen (口镇街道) marks where Confucius watched the funeral Jizha (季札) of Wu held for his son in 515 BC.

In the Laiwu Campaign of 21 to 23 February 1947, the East China Field Army trapped Li Xianzhou's (李仙洲) Nationalist force between the Qi Great Wall and Laiwu and destroyed 76,000 troops. The Laiwu Campaign Memorial Hall (莱芜战役纪念馆) commemorates it.

Food and local products

Laiwu's characteristic crops are grouped as the "three pungent and one numbing" (三辣一麻): ginger, garlic, jitui scallion and Sichuan pepper. Ginger has been grown here for more than 2,000 years and the district was named China's home of ginger in 1997; the rhizomes are large and thin-skinned with few fibres. The jitui ("chicken-leg") scallion (鸡腿葱) is short and thick with a swollen, slightly curved base, strongly pungent and best stir-fried; a local saying holds that Shandong cooking needs Laiwu scallion in every dish. Sichuan pepper is recorded from the Northern Wei and was planted widely from the Ming Jiajing reign; the Dahongpao (大红袍) variety was a named product at the third China Agricultural Expo, and Laiwu was named China's home of Sichuan pepper in 1998.

Highlights

• Laiwu Campaign Memorial Hall 莱芜战役纪念馆: Commemorates the February 1947 battle in which 76,000 Nationalist troops were destroyed.
• Xueye Lake 雪野湖: Centre of the Xueye tourism zone in the north of the district.
• Lotus Mountain 莲花山: Highest point of the district at 994 m; the district government calls its Tianchi the highest mountain lake in Shandong.
• Laiwu ginger 莱芜生姜: Grown for over 2,000 years; the district was named China's home of ginger in 1997.