Anze County () is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

in the south of

Shanxi Province Shanxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is ...

, China, under the administration of the

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China' ...

Linfen Linfen is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Shanxi province, China, bordering Shaanxi province to the west. It is situated along the banks of the Fen River. It has an area of and according to the 2020 Census, a population of 3,976,4 ...

. The county spans an area of 1,967 square kilometers, and has a population of 82,012 as of 2010.

History

The county was first established in 528 CE as part of the

Northern Wei Dynasty Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei (), Tuoba Wei (), Yuan Wei () and Later Wei (), was founded by the Tuoba (Tabgach) clan of the Xianbei. The first of the Northern dynasties, it ruled northern China from 386 to 535 during t ...

. In 606 CE, the county was renamed to Yueyang County (). During the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, the area belonged to the . In 1971,

Gu County Gu County or Guxian () is a county in the south of Shanxi Province, China, under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Linfen. The county spans an area of 1,196 square kilometers, and has a population of 91,798 as of 2010. History ...

split off from Anze County.

Geography

The county's elevation ranges from 732 meters to 1,592 meters in height, with the county's highest point being Mount Antai (). 45.44% of Anze County's land area is forested.

Climate

The county experiences an average of 2246.1 hours of sunshine annually, 539.1 millimeters of precipitation annually, 172 frost-free days annually, and an average temperature of 9.4 °C.

Administrative divisions

The county is divided into 4

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and 3

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

. The county government is seated in . The county's 4 towns are Fucheng,

Hechuan Hechuan () is a district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, s ...

, , and . The county's 3 townships are , , and .

Economy

Anze County has a number of natural resources, particularly

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

. 1,944 square kilometers of land within the county has been identified as having significant coal reserves, totaling an estimated 24 billion tons of coal.

Iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

deposits within the county total an area of approximately 1.4 square kilometers, containing an estimated 1 million tons of ore. Significant reserves of

calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...

, porcelain clay, and

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...

have also been discovered within Anze County.

Transport

National Highway 309 and Shanxi Provincial Road 326 both run through the county.

References

{{authority control County-level divisions of Shanxi