Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County (;
Qiang: Juda Rrmea nyujugvexueaji xae) 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 ...
under the jurisdiction of
Mianyang
Mianyang (; formerly known as Mienchow) is the second largest prefecture-level city of Sichuan province in Southwest China. Located in north-central Sichuan covering an area of consisting of Jiangyou, a county-level city, five counties, and thre ...
City in northern
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
province, China. It is located in an ethnically diverse mountainous region of Sichuan. Its Chinese name literally means "North" (bei) "River" (chuan). Its new county seat is located at
Yongchang after the
2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Geography
Beichuan County has an area of .
The county varies in elevation from 540 to 4,769 meters in height.
The county's major rivers, which include the , the , and the
Pingtong River () belong to the larger
Fu River watershed.
History and culture
The first administrative county of Beichuan was set up in 564
A.D.
The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means 'in the year of the Lord', but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", ...
during the
Northern Zhou
Zhou (), known in historiography as the Northern Zhou (), was a Xianbei-led dynasty of China that lasted from 557 to 581. One of the Northern dynasties of China's Northern and Southern dynasties period, it succeeded the Western Wei dynasty and ...
dynasty.
The
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
first created another county, Shiquan () inside the original Beichuan county in 634 A.D., then in 651 A.D. merged Beichuan county into Shiquan.
The
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
changed the county name back to Beichuan in 1914 because there had been a ''Shiquan county'' in
Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
province before 564 A.D.
[
]
In 1988, the
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
granted Beichuan county the status of Qiang autonomy.
The Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County was formally created on July 6, 2003.
Claim to Yu the Great
Beichuan was the first county in Sichuan to make the claim as the birthplace of
Yu the Great
Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures prominen ...
, founder of the
Xia dynasty
The Xia dynasty () is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In tradi ...
and traditionally regarded as the first hereditary sovereign in Chinese history.
Although this claim is probably more commercial than historical, Beichuan was part of ''West Qiang'' () that some ancient records accredited as Yu's birthplace, just like the other three locations in Sichuan, namely
Wenchuan
Wenchuan County is a county in Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
The county has an area of , and a population of 100,771 as of 2010.
Wolong National Nature Reserve is a protected area located in ...
,
Dujiangyan
The Dujiangyan () is an ancient irrigation system in Dujiangyan City, Sichuan, China. Originally constructed around 256 BC by the State of Qin (state), Qin as an irrigation and flood control project, it is still in use today. The system's infrast ...
, and
Shifang
Shifang is a county-level city in Sichuan, China, under administration of Deyang prefecture-level city. It is located directly about from Chengdu. It had an area of and a population of 430,000 in 2004. Shifang has a history stretching ba ...
, that raised similar claims.
[
]
Many places in other parts of China have made similar claims.
Great Sichuan Earthquake
Also like the other three counties and towns in Sichuan holding claims to be the birthplace of Yu the Great, Beichuan is among the most severely hit of all disaster regions following the
2008 Sichuan earthquake, including the
Beichuan High School
Sichuan Province Beichuan High School (S: 四川省北川中学, T: 四川省北川中學, P: ''Sìchuān Shěng Běichuān Zhōngxué'' "Beichuan Middle School", SCSBCZX) is a secondary school located in Yongchang, Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County ...
campus, where more than 1,000 students lost their lives after two main buildings collapsed.
Beichuan's
Party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...
and government building also collapsed, and Yang Zesen, Beichuan's vice mayor then was among the victims. 80% of the county's buildings are said to have collapsed.
The county town, which prior to the earthquake had a population of 20,000, is to be made into a
memorial park, as the site has been deemed too vulnerable. The survivors of the quake have been relocated.
The earthquake also caused a landslide on
Mount Tangjia which
dammed
''Dammed: The Politics of Loss and Survival in Anishinaabe Territory'' is a 2020 book by Brittany Luby, Associate Professor of History at the University of Guelph. The book charts the impacts of the damming of the Winnipeg River in the Lake of ...
the
Jian River and created the
Tangjiashan Quake Lake. The lake was once in danger of causing the Tangjiashan Dam to collapse and catastrophically flood downstream communities, totalling over a million persons. On June 10, 2008, the lake spilled through an artificially constructed sluice channel and flooded the evacuated town. No casualties were caused.
Beichuan was at the center of one of two zones where
seismic intensity were the highest at XI
liedu during this earthquake and its aftershocks.
[
] Since the earthquake, the central government has increased fortification intensity for seismic design for the old county town from VI to VIII.
[ Partially revised in 2008
]
Administrative divisions
Beichuan County has 9
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 ...
, 9
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 ...
, and 1
ethnic township
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
.
*Towns:
**
Yongchang, Sichuan
Yongchang Town () is the new county seat of Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County in Mianyang, Sichuan, China, one of the worst-hit areas in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. It is between Yong'an Town () and Anchang Town () of An County, about from the ...
**
**
**
**
**
**
**
**
Xiaoba, Beichuan County
*Ethnic Township:
**
*Townships:
**
**
**
**
**
**
**
**
**
Demographics
Beichuan County had a population of 235,304 in 2017, of which 61.5% are
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive va ...
, 36.6% of which are
Qiang people
The Qiang people ( Qiangic: ''Rrmea''; ) are an ethnic group in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approximately 310,000 in 2000. They live mainly in a ...
(a
Sino-Tibetan
Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...
people related to
Tibetans
The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans liv ...
), 1.5% are Tibetans, 0.2% are
Hui
The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...
, and the remaining 0.2% belong to various other ethnic groups.
Education
The county is home to 34 standard schools, of which, 24 are
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
s, 9
junior high schools
A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...
, and 1
compulsory school.
Beichuan also houses the Beichuan Red Army Elementary School.
Climate
References
External links
Official website of Beichuan County
{{authority control
County-level divisions of Sichuan
Qiang autonomous counties
Mianyang