Chiping District 茌平区

Setting and landscape

The plain drops gently from 35 metres in the southwest to 26.5 metres in the northeast, following the flow of its rivers. Old Yellow River floods left a pattern of low rises, slopes and shallow hollows; in the west, fans of silt and sand dropped where the river broke its banks carry lines of dunes and gullies. The district drains to the Hai River (海河) basin: its eleven main watercourses, including the Tuhai (徒骇河) and Majia (马颊河), are all seasonal. Qihe (齐河) in Dezhou lies to the east, Dong'e (东阿) to the south, Dongchangfu (东昌府) and Linqing (临清) to the west and Gaotang (高唐) to the north.

History

The district reports sites of the Yangshao, Dawenkou and Longshan cultures. Natives include Lu Zhonglian (鲁仲连), a Warring States recluse, Ma Zhou (马周), a chief minister of the early Tang, and Cheng Wuji (成无己), a Song physician. Old sites named by the district include the place where Confucius turned his carriage back (孔子回辕处), the drill ground of Lord Mengchang (孟尝君) and a shrine to Lu Zhonglian.

Food and local products

Named products include Yuanling jujubes (圆铃大枣), Luxi yellow cattle (鲁西黄牛), ten-hole lotus root from Nanlianchi (南莲池十孔藕), Chinese toona shoots (香椿), and straw and wicker weaving.

Chiping paper-cutting (茌平剪纸) is bold and silhouette-like; its round 'red moon' designs, of which there are more than a hundred, are pasted on windows for weddings. The county was named a home of Chinese folk art by the Ministry of Culture in 1993. Its carved black pottery (茌平黑陶) includes the 'Nine Dragon Censer' (九龙薰), presented to the Hong Kong government by Shandong in 1997. The district also claims Li Banxian (李半仙) and Zhang Dabianzi (张大辨子), founders of modern acrobatics in the Liaocheng area, as natives.

Getting oriented

Chiping is 35 kilometres from Liaocheng and 80 kilometres from Jinan (济南). National highways 309 and 105, the Jinan–Liaocheng and Gaotang–Dong'e expressways, the Jinan–Handan railway and the Jinan–Zhengzhou high-speed railway, with Chiping South Station, pass through the district.

Highlights

• Chiping paper-cutting 茌平剪纸: Bold, silhouette-like folk paper-cuts; 'red moon' window designs for weddings.
• Chiping black pottery 茌平黑陶: Carved black ware; the 'Nine Dragon Censer' was Shandong's 1997 gift to Hong Kong.
• Yuanling jujube 圆铃大枣: Jujube named among the district's long-known products.
• Nanlianchi ten-hole lotus root 南莲池十孔藕: Lotus root named among the district's long-known products.