Jingtai County () 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 ...

in the middle of

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, bordering

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

to the north. It is under the administration of

Baiyin Baiyin () is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Gansu province, People's Republic of China. Established in the 1950s as a base for mining non-ferrous metals, its mines are becoming exhausted in recent decades, requiring the city to reinvent ...

City and located at its northwest end. Covering an area of , it governs 8

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 ...

and 3

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 ...

, which then in turn govern 15 residential communities and 135 administrative villages. Its postal code is 730400, and its population as of the

2010 Chinese Census The 2010 Chinese census, officially the Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (中華人民共和國第六次全國人口普查), was conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China wi ...

was 225,755 people, which the county government reports has grown to about 238,900 as of 2019. It is located at the junction of Gansu,

Ningxia Ningxia (,; , ; alternately romanized as Ninghsia), officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR), is an autonomous region in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in ...

, and Inner Mongolia. Historically, it was a military hub, a vital communication center on

the Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

, an important ferry, and also a major transit route to Hexi,

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia. Since 1933, the name of the county has been ''Jingtai'' (), which means "prosperity of the scene, peace of the country and the people". The county is largely hilly and mountainous, with an elevation ranging from to above sea level. The county is home to a number of prominent tourist sites, such as the

Yellow River Stone Forest Jingtai County () is a CPRC, county in the middle of Gansu Province, bordering Inner Mongolia to the north. It is under the administration of Baiyin City and located at its northwest end. Covering an area of , it governs 8 Towns of China, towns an ...

Yongtai Fortress Yongtai Fortress is a village and historical fortress town in Sitan Township, Jingtai County, Baiyin City, Gansu, China. Built in 1608 by the Ming dynasty rulers to defend against attacks from northern minorities, it stationed 2000 infantrymen an ...

, and other locations.

History

During the late

Qin Qin may refer to: Dynasties and states * Qin (state) (秦), a major state during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China * Qin dynasty (秦), founded by the Qin state in 221 BC and ended in 206 BC * Daqin (大秦), ancient Chinese name for the Roman Emp ...

and early

Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

, the early belonged to 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 ...

after they exiled the Yuezhi people. Later in the Han dynasty, Emperor Xuan established in present-day Jingtai County, which later evolved into the ancient city of Diaogou (). During the mid-8th century, the area was controlled by the

Tibetan Empire The Tibetan Empire (, ; ) was an empire centered on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of imperial expansion under the Yarlung dynasty heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. The empire further expanded under the 38 ...

. The area would later fall under the control of the

Western Xia The Western Xia or the Xi Xia (), officially the Great Xia (), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as ''Mi-nyak''Stein (1972), pp. 70–71. to the Tanguts and Tibetans, was a Tangut-led Buddhist imperial dynasty of China tha ...

. In the late 15th and early 16th century, the area was ruled by the

Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

. In 1739, an administrator was sent by 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 ...

Emperor Qianlong to the region to manage local affairs. In 1757, Qing officials constructed a fort known as Hongshuibao ().

People's Republic of China

On September 12, 1949, the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...

gained control of Jingtai County. In 1955, the county was put under the jurisdiction of . On April 4, 1958, Jingtai County was abolished and merged into

Gaolan County Gaolan County () is a county of Gansu Province, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu, one of 58 counties of Gansu. Its postal code is 730200, and its population in 2019 was 147,000 pe ...

. Shortly after, on December 20, 1958, Gaolan County was abolished and merged into the city of

. On November 15, 1961, Jingtai County was re-established under the jurisdiction of Baiyin. From October 1963 to August 1985, Jingtai County was placed under the city of Wuwei, but was subsequently restored to Baiyin, which it remains part of today.

Administrative divisions

Jingtai is divided into 8

and 3

: ;Towns ;Townships

Climate

Economy

As of 2019, Jingtai County had a

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a money, monetary Measurement in economics, 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 subjec ...

totaling ¥5.587 billion, and consumer

retail sales Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

totaling ¥2.02 billion. That year, the annual

per capita ''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...

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 ...

of the county's urban residents totaled ¥28,264, and reached ¥11,719 for the county's rural residents. 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 ...

comprises about 29% of Jingtai's gross domestic product, the

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 construction. ...

comprises about 25%, and the

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 ...

comprises about 46%. Jingtai has 385 million tons in

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...

reserves, the second-largest amount in China. The county also has over 800 million tons of limestone, 380 million tons of coal, over 20 million tons of quartz, over 2 million tons of copper, and in addition some reserves of gold, silver, manganese, Moyu (black)

jade Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...

, clay, and serpentine.

Agriculture

Geographical location and special

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

system provide Jingtai County with unique conditions for agricultural development. The

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...

flows through Jingtai County for . The county is home to the Jingtaichuan Electric Power Lifting Irrigation Project (), which is the largest in all of China, and in Asia. There are two large-scale, nationwide noted, irrigation projects with a total capacity of 245,600 kW and a water lifting capacity of 28.6 m³ per second. The whole county has

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the ...

of over 680 square kilometers and irrigated lands of nearly 400 square kilometers. Located at 37 degrees north latitude, Jingtai County experiences long hours of light and a large temperature difference between day and night. Crops grown in Jingtai include wheat, corn, pears, melons and apricot. The special agricultural products mainly include desert

wolfberry Goji, goji berry, or wolfberry () is the fruit of either ''Lycium barbarum'' or ''Lycium chinense'', two closely related species of Lycium, boxthorn in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. ''L. barbarum'' and ''L. chinense'' fruits ar ...

, pear, red date, Dajie apricot, apple, small grains, desert melon, Gobi fish, shrimp, crab, licorice, sheep. Among these products, "Jingtai wolfberry", "Tiaoshan pear", "Longwan apple", and "Cuiliu mutton" have obtained the certification for national

agricultural product geographical indication Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

. A total of 62 products meets the "san pin yi biao" (; three types of products and the agricultural product geographical indication) and 47 products are considered as ‘green’, pollution-free, non-toxic, safe, and high-quality food.

Industry

Jingtai County's main industrial products include main industrial products,

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

calcium carbide Calcium carbide, also known as calcium acetylide, is a chemical compound with the chemical formula of Ca C2. Its main use industrially is in the production of acetylene and calcium cyanamide. The pure material is colorless, while pieces of tec ...

, and

ferroalloy Ferroalloy refers to various alloys of iron with a high proportion of one or more other elements such as manganese (Mn), aluminium (Al), or silicon (Si). They are used in the production of steels and alloys. The alloys impart distinctive qualitie ...

s. Other significant industrial products include

ferro-silicon Ferrosilicon is an alloy of iron and silicon with a typical silicon content by weight of 15–90%. It contains a high proportion of iron silicides. Production and reactions Ferrosilicon is produced by reduction of silica or sand with coke in th ...

malt Malt is germinated cereal grain that has been dried in a process known as " malting". The grain is made to germinate by soaking in water and is then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air. Malted grain is used to make beer, wh ...

, livestock feed, powdered

, and

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 ...

Tourism

Jingtai county is home to the following touristic sites:

Yellow River Stone Forest

Yellow River Stone Forest is located in the southeast of Jingtai County, from the county's urban center. It gained international prominence after the

Gansu ultramarathon disaster On 22 May 2021, twenty-one professional runners died from hypothermia out of the 172 competing in a government-run 100 kilometer (62 mi) trail running race held in the Yellow River Stone Forest in Jingtai County, Gansu, China. When the col ...

, in which 21 runners died from hypothermia, happened there in May 2021. Its landform is termed an "

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

''fenglin''" (砂砾岩峰林). ''Fenglin'', short for fenglin karst, is "a

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 ...

with isolated hills rising from a plain". Stone forest (石林) in Chinese refers to

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

-shaped karst, such as the ones in the Yellow River Stone Forest. The park has a total area of , and the ancient stone forest group covers , which is formed in the

lower Pleistocene The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, being the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently estimated to span the time ...

Wuquanshan proluvial gravel layer 2.1 million years ago. The action of neotectonic movements, rain and flood erosions and

gravitational collapse Gravitational collapse is the contraction of an astronomical object due to the influence of its own gravity, which tends to draw matter inward toward the center of gravity. Gravitational collapse is a fundamental mechanism for structure formatio ...

forms this peak cluster landscape with vertical and sharply contoured rock

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

. It is a popular tourist attraction.

Yongtai Fortress

is located in the north foot of Tiger Mountain (), in , west of the county's urban center. It is also called Yongtai tortoise city because of its tortoise-like castle. It a representative and well preserved military castle of

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 ...

along the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

. Historically, the castle is an important part of the

Ming Great Wall The Ming Great Wall ( zh, c=明長城, p=Ming changcheng), built by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), forms the most visible parts of the Great Wall of China today. A comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded ...

, which is built as a border defense system. Yongtai Fortress now serves as a national cultural

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

, a historical village representing the culture of Gansu Province, and site for the shooting of various movies and television shows.

Shoulushan National Forest Park

Shoulushan National Forest Park is located at the junction of

and

. It is away from the urban center Jingtai County, and covers an area of . With an average altitude of , the park's monthly temperature from May to October averages between and .

Great Dunhuang Film and Television City

The Great Dunhuang Film and Television City () is a large filmmaking complex located along Gansu Provincial Road 201, located in Dashuizha Village (), in the

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 . The complex includes many ancient buildings, caves, archways, city gate towers, a street imitating Ming Dynasty and

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 ...

, artificial lakes, and other natural scenes. Within the film-making studio murals, sculptures, and giant

Buddhas In Buddhism, Buddha (; Pali, Sanskrit: 𑀩𑀼𑀤𑁆𑀥, बुद्ध), "awakened one", is a title for those who are awake, and have attained nirvana and Buddhahood through their own efforts and insight, without a teacher to point out ...

are created in the style of

Mogao Grottoes The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gans ...

Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...

. * Over 20 kilometers away from the Jingtai County, the Great Dunhuang Film-making Base is on the road that connects Yellow River Stone Forest, Yongtai Fortress and Shoulushan National Forest Park. Convenient transportation and location advantages of natural scenes provide this place with unique conditions for creating films and art work represent

Western China Western China (, or rarely ) is the west of China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers one municipality (Chongqing), six provinces (Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively r ...

. * In 2004, Chen Jialin, a famous Chinese director, happened to find this red stone mountain on the way to Jingtai County. The strange trend of this mountain with uneven pits and densely distributed caves is similar to Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. He decided to copy the Mogao Grottoes here as the location for his TV series ''

The Great Dunhuang ''The Great Dunhuang'' is a Chinese television series based on the history of the oasis city of Dunhuang, which lies on the ancient Silk Road. With a Buddhist sutra printed in gold lettering as the plot device, the series retells the rise, fall and ...

''. * In 2005, Jingtai County invested 6 million yuan to build this film-making base. * In 2006, the Great Dunhuang Film-making Base was listed as a provincial film-making base. More than 60 movies and TV series have been filmed here by 2019.

Culture

Film and TV series

* ''

Welcome to Shama Town ''Welcome to Shama Town'' is a 2010 Chinese adventure film directed and written by Li Weiran, starring Sun Honglei, Lin Chi-ling, Li Liqun, and Gan Wei. It was distributed by Shanghai Media Group and LeTV Investment Co. Ltd and released by Ch ...

'' (set in Yongtai Fortress) * ''The Myth'' (set in Yellow River Stone Forest) * ''

Oh My General ''Oh My General'' (Chinese: ) is a 2017 Chinese streaming television series starring Ma Sichun and Sheng Yilun. It is adapted from the novel ''General Above I Am Below'' (Chinese: ) by Ju Hua San Li. Set against the backdrop of the Song dynasty, ...

'' (set in Yellow River Stone Forest) * ''

'' (set in the Great Dunhuang Film-making Base) *'

Activities

Jingtai County has held the Yellow River Stone Forest international hiking race with over tens of thousands of people, the Yellow River Stone Forest culture and tourism festival, Wufo red date festival, and other major events representing unique scenes and agricultural products of Jingtai.

Transport

* China National Highway 338 *

G2012 Dingbian–Wuwei Expressway The Dingbian–Wuwei Expressway (), commonly referred to as the Dingwu Expressway () is an expressway that connects Dingbian County, Yulin, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China and Wuwei, Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a ...

* G1816 Wuhai–Maqên Expressway (under construction) * Baotou–Lanzhou railway

References

{{authority control County-level divisions of Gansu Baiyin