Ju County 莒县

Setting and landscape

Hills ring the county, its centre is a patchwork of low hills, plain and low-lying ground, and the land as a whole falls from north to south; the Yi–Shu fault zone (沂沭断裂带) runs through the middle. The main heights are Qiaozi Shan (峤子山) in the east, Fulai Shan (浮来山) in the west, Laoyingding (老营顶) in the south and Qi Shan (碁山) in the north. The Shu River flows 76.5 km through the county, and Shuhe Park (沭河公园) along it is a national wetland park. The county government lists Qingfengling Reservoir (青峰岭水库) as the fourth largest in Shandong and calls Ju one of China's main ginkgo-growing areas.

History

Ju was a state of the Shang and Zhou periods and, in the Spring and Autumn period, one of three powers in Shandong with Qi (齐) and Lu (鲁). The saying "Do not forget Ju" (毋忘在莒) comes from events here. The Qin made Ju a county, and in 178 BC the Han founded the Chengyang kingdom (城阳国) for Liu Zhang (刘章) with its capital at Ju. Ju Prefecture (莒州) became Ju County in 1913; the county came under Linyi (临沂) in 1953 and passed to Rizhao in 1993. The 1668 Tancheng earthquake (郯城大地震) killed more than 20,000 people in Ju.

What to see

Fulai Shan, 8 km west of the county town where Ju meets Yinan (沂南) and Yishui (沂水), is a national 4A scenic area and provincial geopark with three peaks. On it stands Dinglin Temple (定林寺), where Liu Xie (刘勰), author of the literary treatise The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (文心雕龙), became a monk. A ginkgo in the temple, nearly 4,000 years old by the county's reckoning, is known as the "First Ginkgo under Heaven" (天下银杏第一树). Trilobites and other marine fossils have been found on the mountain.

The county government says the pottery marks from the Lingyanghe site (陵阳河遗址) are more than 1,500 years older than oracle-bone script, and ranks the Juzhou Museum (莒州博物馆) among the three major county-level museums of Shandong.

Local crafts

Ju County door-lintel paper cuts (莒县过门笺) are on the national intangible heritage list.

Highlights

• Fulai Shan 浮来山: Three-peaked 4A scenic area and provincial geopark 8 km west of the county town.
• Dinglin Temple 定林寺: Temple where Liu Xie became a monk, home of a ginkgo nearly 4,000 years old.
• Juzhou Museum 莒州博物馆: Ranked by the county among the three major county-level museums of Shandong.
• Ju County door-lintel paper cuts 莒县过门笺: National intangible heritage paper cuts.