Zhongyang County 中阳县

History

A county was first set up here under the Western Han, more than 2,200 years ago. It was folded into Lishi (离石) under the Eastern Han, re-created as Pingyi (平夷县) under the Northern Zhou, renamed Ningxiang (宁乡县) under the Jin, and took back the name Zhongyang in 1914. The Yuan sanqu poet Liu Zhi (刘致) came from here, and the county town keeps 13 stone memorial arches of the Ming and Qing periods.

In 1936 the Red Army's Eastern Expedition, under Peng Dehuai (彭德怀), won its first major victory at Guanshang village (关上村), the battle known as the Guanshang annihilation (关上歼灭战). The Zhongyang soviet revolutionary committee set up the same year was the first county-level soviet government in Shanxi. In the forested mountains the county also has the remains of the Chemingyu (车鸣峪) arsenal from the Third Front programme.

What to see

Baiwa Mountain (柏洼山) combines a Taoist sacred site with a large cypress and pine forest, and Shangding Mountain (上顶山) has natural grassland meadows and unusual rock formations. Naonishanzhuang (闹泥山庄) is a national 3A-rated scenic area. The Shanxi provincial government has named Zhongyang a 'forestry ecology county'.

Paper-cutting and local food

Zhongyang paper-cutting (中阳剪纸) was on the first national intangible-heritage list in 2006. It is made mostly by rural women, usually in red paper and sometimes in purple, black, yellow, green or blue, with motifs such as fish, frogs, snakes and rabbits alongside pieces for festivals, life rites and folk legends. The fine, elegant style of the Nanchuan River (南川河) valley is the main one; work from Liujiaping (刘家坪) is plain and vigorous, and that of the remote western hills bold and heavy.

Zhongyang cypress-seed mutton (柏籽羊肉) is described by the county government as the main ingredient of tounao (头脑), the dish created by the physician Fu Shan (傅山). The county also produces walnuts and black wood-ear fungus.

Highlights

• Zhongyang paper-cutting 中阳剪纸: Red-paper folk cutting by rural women; national intangible heritage since 2006.
• Guanshang battle site 关上村: Village where the Red Army's Eastern Expedition won its first major victory in 1936.
• Baiwa Mountain 柏洼山: Taoist sacred site within cypress and pine forest.
• Cypress-seed mutton 柏籽羊肉: Local mutton named as the main ingredient of Fu Shan's tounao.