Sandu Shui Autonomous County (; Bouyei: ) is an

autonomous county Autonomous counties () and autonomous banners () are county-level autonomous administrative divisions of China. The two are essentially identical except in name. There are 117 autonomous counties and three autonomous banners. The latter are fo ...

in the southeast of

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

province, China. It is under the administration of the

Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (; Buyei: ''Qianfnanf Buxqyaix Buxyeeuz ziqziqzouy''; Hmu: ''Qeef Naif Dol Yat Dol Hmub Zid Zid Zeb'') is an autonomous prefecture of Guizhou province, People's Republic of China, bordering Guangxi ...

, and the only Shui Autonomous County in China; 63% of Shui in China live in this county, which is the heartland of the Shui people. Per a 2022 county government publication, Sandu has a population of 381,000, 97% of whom belong to

ethnic minorities The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

, and 67% of the total population are Shui. It is one of the poorest counties of Guizhou. Most of the county is forested and it is noted for its clean air.

Administrative divisions

Sandu administers the following 2

subdistricts 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, Indon ...

and 6

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 ...

: * Sanhe Subdistrict () * () * () * () * () * () * () * ()

Geography

Sandu County's urban center is located from Duyun, the administrative center of the

, and from the provincial capital of

Guiyang Guiyang (; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), historically rendered as Kweiyang, is the capital of Guizhou province of the People's Republic of China. It is located in the center of the province, situated on the east of the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, ...

. All of Sandu belongs to the watershed of the

Liu River The Liu River (, pinyin: Liǔ Jiāng, literally: ''Willow River'') is a tributary within the Pearl River system in Guangxi, China. It is formed by the confluence of the Rong and Long rivers in Fengshan. It flows south through Liuzhou and then t ...

which flows into the

Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-a ...

. The Duliu River has its source in Sandu and flows into the Liu River. The county is rather mountainous with

Karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

landscape resulting in large locale temperature and climate differences.

Antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient time ...

is mined commercially in Sandu.

Climate

Demographics

As of 2021, Sandu Shui Autonomous County has a registered

hukou ''Hukou'' () is a system of household registration used in mainland China. The system itself is more properly called "''huji''" (), and has origins in ancient China; ''hukou'' is the registration of an individual in the system (''kou'' lit ...

population of 380,871, of which, 96,869 belong to

urban areas An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...

, and the remaining 284,002 belong to

rural areas In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

, giving the autonomous county an

urbanization rate Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly the ...

of 25.43%. Per a 2022 county government publication, 67% of the autonomous county's population is ethnically Shui, another 30% belong to other recognized

, and just 3% of the population is ethnically

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 ...

. The average annual

disposable income Disposable income is total personal income minus current income taxes. In national accounts definitions, personal income minus personal current taxes equals disposable personal income. Subtracting personal outlays (which includes the major c ...

for urban residents as of 2021 totaled 35,874

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. ...

(RMB), a 9% increase from the previous year, and the second highest among county-level divisions in the

Transport

Sandu is served by the Guiyang–Guangzhou high-speed railway, with a travel time of 50 minutes to

. It is also connected by

G76 Xiamen–Chengdu Expressway The Xiamen–Chengdu Expressway (), designated as G76 and commonly referred to as the Xiarong Expressway () is an expressway in China that connects the cities of Xiamen, Fujian, and Chengdu, Sichuan. When complete, it will be in length. Route Fu ...

and several provincial expressways.

References

County-level divisions of Guizhou Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Shui autonomous counties {{Guizhou-geo-stub