Huangling County () is a county in the north of

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, China, bordering

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

province to the west. It is 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' ...

Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an ...

. The county spans an area of , and has a permanent population of 130,100 people as of 2012.

Etymology

The county is named after the

Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor () is the alleged burial site of the legendary Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) of China. It is located in Huangling County, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province, China. According to legend, the Yellow Emperor attained immort ...

().

Administrative divisions

Huangling County is divided into one

subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, In ...

and five

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 ...

. The county's sole subdistrict is , and its five towns are , , , , and . The county government is located in Qiaoshan Subdistrict.

Geography

Huangling County is located in the

Loess Plateau The Chinese Loess Plateau, or simply the Loess Plateau, is a plateau in north-central China formed of loess, a clastic silt-like sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. It is located southeast of the Gobi Desert and is surroun ...

approximately north of

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...

's urban core, and south of

's. Over 70% of the county is

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

ed.

History

Archeoligcal evidence from the ancient

Yangshao culture The Yangshao culture (仰韶文化, pinyin: Yǎngsháo wénhuà) was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after the Yangsh ...

indicates that the area of present-day Huangling County has been inhabited since the

Neolithic age The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

. In 221 BCE, the

Qin Dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin (state), ...

unified a number of small counties in the area under the

Shang Commandery Shang Commandery ( zh, c=上郡, l=Upper Commandery) was a historical commandery of China. It was located in modern-day Northern Shaanxi. The commandery was established during the reign of Marquess Wen of Wei. In 328 BC, it was annexed by the Q ...

. The area was reorganized a number of times before being occupied by the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...

in 189 CE. The Jin Dynasty then conquered the area and briefly reorganized it as the . The area of present-day Huangling County would be re-organized a number of times under the

Northern Zhou Dynasty 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 an ...

, 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 ...

, the

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

, the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

, and, ultimately, the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. During the time of 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 ...

, the area was a part of , one of the three circuits in

. The area would fall under control of the

People's Republic of 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 ...

by May 1948. Named Huangling County since 1944, the jurisdiction has since underwent a number of restructurings, with its most recent being in 2015.

Economy

In 2011, the county's

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is often ...

was 8.356 billion

Renminbi The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...

, which the county government forecasted to increase to 11.86 billion by 2015. The county has an apple-growing area of 210,000 mu, producing an annual output of 270,000 tons of apples. Huangling County has proven

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 ...

reserves of 2.7 billion tons, with an annual output of 29 million tons of raw coal. The county also has

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

reserves.

Historical sites

The

, built to honor the legendary

Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Soverei ...

, is located within Huangling County. The complex's structures were built throughout various times in history, with the oldest portions of the mausoleum exceeding 2,000 years in age.

Transportation

China National Highway 210 China National Highway 210 (G210) runs from Mandula in Baotou, Inner Mongolia to Fangchenggang, Guangxi. It is 3,097 kilometres in length and runs south from Baotou and passes through the province-level divisions of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing, Gu ...

G65 Baotou–Maoming Expressway The Baotou–Maoming Expressway (), designated as G65 and commonly referred to as the Baomao Expressway () is an expressway that connects the cities of Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China, and Maoming, Guangdong. When fully complete, it will be in leng ...

* Xi'an–Yan'an Railway

References

{{authority control County-level divisions of Shaanxi Yan'an