Wutai County () is a county 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' ...

Xinzhou Xinzhou, ancient name Xiurong (秀荣), is a prefecture-level city occupying the north-central section of Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China, bordering Hebei to the east, Shaanxi to the west, and Inner Mongolia to the northwest ...

, in the northeast of

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

Province, China, bordering

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

province to the east. It is named after Mount Wutai, which is located within its borders. It was the birthplace of Chinese Warlord and General

Yan Xishan Yan Xishan (; 8 October 1883 – 22 July 1960, ) was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China. He effectively controlled the province of Shanxi from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution to the 1949 Communist victory in ...

. The county spans an area of 2,865 square kilometers, and has a permanent population of 307,200 as of 2018.

Geography

Wutai County is located in northeastern

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 ...

under the administration of

. The county has an average altitude of 1,200 metres, with a low point of 640 meters at the intersection of the Qingshui River and the Hutou River, and a high point of 3,058 metres at Mount Wutai.

Climate

Administrative divisions

Wutai County is divided into 5

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 ...

, 11

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 county resident's office. The county government is seated in the town of .

Towns

The county's 5 towns are Taicheng, , , , and

Dongye Dongye may refer to: *Eastern Ye, chiefdom in northeastern Korean peninsula from roughly 3rd-century BC to around early 5th-century AD Towns in China * Dongye, Wutai County, Shanxi *Dongye, Yangcheng County Dongye () is a town in Yangcheng Count ...

Townships

The county's 11 townships are , , , , , , ,

Jiangfang Township Jiangfang, may refer to: * Jiangfang Township, Wutai County, a rural township in Wutai County, Shanxi, China. * Jiangfang Township, Chengbu County, a rural township in Chengbu Miao Autonomous County, Hunan, China. {{Geodis ...

, , , and .

Wutai County Resident Office

The county is also home to the Wutai County Resident Office (), which functions as a

township-level division The administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since ancient times, due to China's large population and geographical area. The constitution of China provides for three levels of government. However in practice, there a ...

of the county.

Demographics

Of the county's 307,200 permanent residents, 126,200 (41.08%) lived in urban areas as of 2018, whereas the remaining 181,000 (58.92%) lived in rural areas. Wutai County has a per capita disposable income of 12,838 Yuan, with urban residents averaging 26,643 Yuan and rural residents averaging 6,787 Yuan. The Engel Coefficient for urban households is 27.6%, and is 32.1% for rural households.

Economy

The county reported a

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 ofte ...

of 4.953 billion Yuan in 2018, of which, 0.536 billion (10.83%) came from the county's

primary sector The primary sector of the economy includes any industry involved in the extraction and production of raw materials, such as farming, logging, fishing, forestry and mining. The primary sector tends to make up a larger portion of the economy in de ...

, 1.789 billion (36.11%) came from the county's

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...

, and 2.628 billion (53.06%) came from the county's

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

. In 2018, Wutai County recorded 676.90 million Yuan in tax revenue and 1.99 billion Yuan in retail sales. Real estate investment and sales totaled 236 million Yuan in 2018, a 36.4% increase from 2017.

Agriculture

Major agricultural products in the county include

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...

, and

bean A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...

Industry

Major industries in the county include

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

magnesium alloy Magnesium alloys are mixtures of magnesium (the lightest structural metal) with other metals (called an alloy), often aluminium, zinc, manganese, silicon, copper, rare earths and zirconium. Magnesium alloys have a hexagonal lattice structure, w ...

s, and

power generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its stor ...

Education

As of 2018, the county had 5,253

pre-school A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary scho ...

students, 14,954

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 ...

students, 9,076

junior high 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 ...

students, 4,512 standard

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

students, and 1,998 vocational secondary school students. That year, Wutai County had 21 kindergartens, 28 primary schools, 24 standard junior high schools, 3 standard secondary schools, and 1 vocational secondary school.

Culture

The county is home to a number of cultural sights, including a number of historic temples. Major sights include Mount Wutai,

Foguang Temple Foguang Temple () is a Buddhist temple located five kilometres from Doucun, Wutai County, Shanxi Province of China. The major hall of the temple is the Great East Hall, built in 857 AD, during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). According to archit ...

, Zunsheng Temple, Nanchan Temple,

Xiantong Temple The Xiantong Temple () is a Buddhist temple located in Taihuai Town of Wutai County, Shanxi, China. The temple covers a total area of about , it preserves the basic architectural pattern of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912). The tem ...

, , Yanqing Temple, Shuxiang Temple,

Jinge Temple Jinge Temple (), or "Golden Pavilion Temple", is a Buddhist temple in Shanxi province, China. The temple is located on Mount Wutai, north of the South Peak and south of the Central Peak, about 15 kilometres from Taihuai town. It is at an altit ...

Bishan Temple The Bishan Temple or Guangji Maopeng ( or ) is a Buddhist temple located in Taihuai, Taihuai Town of Wutai County, Xinzhou, Shanxi, China. History In the ''Qingliangshan Annals'', a poem described Bishan Temple as "". Baiyun Temple was first est ...

, Yuanzhao Temple, , Pusading, Tayuan Temple, the , and the .