Mianning County () is a county of

Sichuan Province 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 ...

, China. It is under the administration of the

Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture Liangshan (; Yi: ''Niep Sha'', pronounced ), officially the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, is an autonomous prefecture occupying much of the southern extremity of Sichuan province, People's Republic of China; its seat is Xichang. Liangshan ...

History

Mianning County has a long history of being a multi-ethnic region. The Annals of Mianning County (), published during the reign of the

Xianfeng Emperor The Xianfeng Emperor (17 July 1831 – 22 August 1861), or by temple name Emperor Wenzong of Qing (), given name Yizhu (), was the eighth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the seventh Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigned from 1850 t ...

(1850-1861), listed a number of major ethnic groups in the region, including the Tosu, Lizu, Yi, and the Namuzi () peoples.

Climate

Administrative divisions

Mianning County administers 1 subdistrict, 15

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 ...

, 2

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, C ...

, 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 ...

Subdistrict

The county's sole subdistrict is .

Towns

The county administers the following 15 towns:

Townships

The county's two townships are and .

Ethnic township

The county's sole ethnic township is .

Demographics

Ethnic groups

A large number of the Tosu ethnic group, which comprises about 2,000 people, live throughout Mianning County. Sizable clusters of Tosu people are located within , the former

town 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 ...

of (now part of ), , , the former

township 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, C ...

of (now part of Gaoyang Subdistrict and ), the former township of (now part of Fuxing), and the former town of (now part of ).

Languages

Two of the three

Ersuic languages The Ersuic languages (, ''Ersu''; also called Duoxu or Erhsu) are a Qiangic language cluster of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Ersu languages are spoken by about 20,000 people in China as reported by . Muya (alternatively Menia or Menya) i ...

, the critically endangered

Tosu language Tosu (; autonym: ') is a moribund Qiangic language of China which shows strong affiliations to both the Loloish languages and to Tangut, the language of the Western Xia The Western Xia or the Xi Xia (), officially the Great Xia (), a ...

, and the

Lizu language Lizu (; Western Ersu) is a Qiangic language spoken in Western 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 ...

, are spoken within Mianning County. A 2013 survey found nine partial speakers of the Tosu language, all of whom lived in Mianning County, and were proficient in Southwestern Mandarin, which they used for daily life.

References

Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture Amdo County-level divisions of Sichuan {{Sichuan-geo-stub