Yongding () is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

under the jurisdiction of

Longyan Longyan ( zh, s=龙岩 , t=龍巖, p=, poj=Lêng-nâ or Liong-nâ, l=dragon rock; Hakka: ''Liùng-ngàm''; Longyan dialect: ''Liông-nâ iɔŋ˩nã˩') is a prefecture-level city in south-western Fujian Province, China, bordering Guangdong t ...

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province of China, province and above a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in China's ...

in the southwest of

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

Province, People's Republic of China. The district is a center for

Hakka culture Hakka culture ( zh, t=客家文化) refers to the culture created by Hakka people, a Han Chinese subgroup, across Asia and the Americas. It encompasses the shared language, various art forms, food culture, folklore, and traditional customs. Hakka ...

, including the traditional Hakka '' tulou'', and a local dialect of the

Hakka Chinese Hakka ( zh, c=, p=Kèjiāhuà; '' Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: '', zh, c=, p=Kèjiāyǔ; '' Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: '') forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people in parts of Southern China, Taiwan, some diaspora areas ...

called the . As of 2015, Yongding has a permanent population of about 361,000, of which more than 99% are Hakka, the rest being

She people The She people (; She Chinese: ; Cantonese: , Fuzhou: ) are an ethnic group in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. According to th2021 China Statistical Yearbook the total popul ...

. In December 2014, the Fujian government signed legislation converting Yongding from a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

to a

. Yongding is the hometown of many overseas Chinese immigrants that came to south-east Asia and Burma during the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

History

Yongding County was established in the 14th year of Chenghua (AD 1478) in the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. It was originally part of

Shanghang County Shanghang (; ) is a county in southwest Fujian Province, China, bordering Guangdong Province to the southwest. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Longyan. Transportation Part of Shanghang County is accessed by China ...

. The governor of

province proposed to separate this south-eastern part of the Shanghang County to form a new county and name it Yongding, literally meaning peaceful forever, after suppressing a riot in that particular region. On December 13, 2014, the Fujian government passed a law converting Yongding from a

to a

. The law came into effect on February 9, 2015. In March 2015, was upgraded from a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

to a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

, and was upgraded from a town to a

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, Ind ...

Geography

Located in the southwest of

province, Yongding District is situated on the Fujian-

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

border. Yongding District is bordered by

Nanjing County Nanjing County () is a county under the administration of Zhangzhou City, in the south of Fujian province, People's Republic of China. Administrative division Nanjing County is administratively divided into several towns A town is a type of ...

Zhangzhou Zhangzhou (, ) is a prefecture-level city in Fujian Province, China. The prefecture around the city proper comprises the southeast corner of the province, facing the Taiwan Strait and (with Quanzhou) surrounding the prefecture of Xiamen. Nam ...

to the east,

Pinghe County Pinghe County () is a county of the prefecture-level city of Zhangzhou, in southern Fujian province, PRC, bordering Guangdong province to the west. Administrative Division The administrative centre or seat of Pinghe County is Xiaoxi (). Towns ...

in Zhangzhou to the southeast,

Dabu County Dabu County () is a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in Meizhou City, in the east of Guangdong Province, China. A center of Hakka people, Hakka culture, it has a population of 375,000. Dabu County has a long history of human s ...

and

Meixian District Meixian District () is a district of Meizhou City, in northeastern Guangdong Province, China. The district is an important Hakka settlement and is the ancestral home of many Hakka descendants living in Taiwan and other countries worldwide. ...

Meizhou Meizhou ( zh, t=梅州, Hakka Chinese: Mòichû) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, China. It has an area of , and a population of 3,873,239 as of the 2020 census. It comprises Meijiang District, Meixian District, Xing ...

, Guangdong to the southwest,

to the northwest, and

Xinluo District Xinluo District (; Hakka: Sîn-lò-khî) is a district of Longyan, Fujian Province, China, with a population of approximately 842,000. It was formerly named Longyan County (). As Xinluo is a part of the Minnan Hokkien territory, the Longya ...

to the northeast. Both Dabu and Shanghang are

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

-speaking counties; Longyan city centre (aka Xinluo District), Nanjing and Pinghe are predominantly Minnan-speaking. Yongding District is in area. Like other counties of Fujian province, Yongding is 80% hills and mountains, 10% water or rivers, and 10% fields. Two major rivers run through the district:

Yongding River The Yongding River () is a river in northern China. It is one of the main tributaries in the Hai River system and is the largest river to flow through Beijing. In recent years, the Beijing segment of the river has dried up due to environmental ...

() and Xiayang Creek (). Both are tributaries of the

Ting River The Ting River () flows from Ninghua County in western Fujian south to the port and Special Economic Zone of Shantou, Guangdong. It is a main tributary of the Han River and is also referred to Hakka Mother River (). The former prefecture of ...

(, the name by which it is known in Fujian territory) or Han River (, the name by which it is known in Guangdong province).

Climate

Located in a sub-tropical area and subject to

typhoons A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

, Yongding has high annual precipitation of about per year.

Administrative divisions

Yongding District current administers 1

, 14

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

, and 9

townships A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

. divided into twenty-four township-level divisions: one

, twelve

and eleven

Subdistrict

The district executive, legislature and

judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

are in (), formerly the town of Fengcheng (), together with the CPC and PSB branches. Fengcheng Subdistrict is the district's sole subdistrict, and had a population of 48,048 as of 2015.

Towns

The district is home to the following 14 towns:

Townships

The district is home to the following 9 townships: Chengqi-Lou-DSCF3211-DSCF3214

Demographics

As of 2015, Yongding District has a

hukou ''Hukou'' ( zh, c=户口, l=household individual) is a system of household registration used in the People's Republic of China. The system itself is more properly called ''huji'' ( zh, c=户籍, l=household origin), and has origins in Histo ...

population of 504,520, but has approximately just 361,000 permanent residents. 44.3% of the district's permanent residents live in

urban areas An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

. The district's urban residents have a

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

disposable income Disposable income is total personal income minus current taxes on income. In national accounting, personal income minus personal current taxes equals disposable personal income or household disposable income. Subtracting personal outlays ( ...

of 29,952

renminbi The renminbi ( ; currency symbol, symbol: Yen and yuan sign, ¥; ISO 4217, ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB), also known as the Chinese yuan, is the official currency of the China, People's Republic of China. The renminbi is issued by the Peop ...

(RMB) as of 2015, a 7.1% increase from 2014. In 2015, this figure stood at 14,136 RMB for the district's rural residents, a 9.8% increase from 2014. The , a part of the

Tingzhou dialect The Tingzhou dialect () is a group of Hakka dialects spoken in Longyan and Sanming (historically Tingzhou), southwestern Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang t ...

, is spoken in the district.

Culture

Yongding District is famous for its '' tulou'', large multi-family adobe buildings. Out of the 10 tulous or tulous clusters inscribed on the

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

(as Fujian Tulou), 5 are within Yongding District: * Chuxi Tulou cluster, in Chuxi Village (), * Chengqi Lou and adjacent buildings (the ), in Gaobei Village (), Gaotou Township * Hongkeng Tulou cluster including Zhencheng Lou, in Hongkeng Village (), Hukeng * Zhenfu Lou, near Xipian Village (), Hukeng *Yanxiang Lou, in Xinnan Village (), Hukeng

Economy

Yongding District recorded a

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performanc ...

of 19.12 billion

(RMB) in 2015, an 8.2% increase from 2014.

Industry

Yongding District has a sizable

automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, selling, Maintenance, repairing, and Custom car, modification of motor ve ...

, which achieved an output of 3.151 billion RMB in 2015, a 0.8% increase from 2014. Fujian Motors Group has sizable operations in the

, where it produces engines for its New Longma () brand, and multi-purpose vehicles for its Keyton () brand. As a result of abundant precipitation and mountainous terrain,

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

is abundant. There are numerous hydro plants in the district, one notable one being the provincial Mianhuatan Hydroelectric Power Station. The plant has a water storage capacity of 2.035 billion cubic meters and is able to generate 1.52 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year. The Mianhuatan hydrodam contributes greatly to the rapidly growing economy of Fujian and neighboring Guangdong province.

Agriculture

In agriculture,

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

is the main crop for the district. Most low-lying fields can yield two rice crops per year, while in high land fields, because of the earlier frost, only one harvest can be assured.

Persimmons The persimmon () is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus ''Diospyros''. The most widely cultivated of these is the Chinese and Japanese kaki persimmon, ''Diospyros kaki''. In 2022, China produced 77% of the world's pe ...

plums A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are often called prunes, though in the United States they may be labeled as 'dried plums', especially during the 21st century. Plums are likely to have been ...

, and

tea leaves ''Camellia sinensis'' is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves, leaf buds, and stems can be used to produce tea. Common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree (unrelated to '' M ...

are grown in the district.

Cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

are raised in Yongding District, and various

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...

products are produced in the district. Yongding is an important

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

producer. The cultivation of tobacco started in

Wan Li Wan Li (December 1916 – 15 July 2015) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician who served as First Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1983 to 1988 and the 5th Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peo ...

era of the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. Yongding was honored as the "home of tobacco" in the early 20th century. Although its significance has declined in recent years, Yongding is still one of the most important tobacco producing areas in the region. Many top brand Chinese cigarettes contain Yongding leaf. During the 2010s, the local government began partnering local farmers with

Taobao Taobao is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it was the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba Cl ...

, a large Chinese

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

website, to create a wider market for local agricultural goods. As of 2015, the district is home to 200 million RMB in e-commerce sales.

Mining

Yongding is rich in mineral deposits, most notably

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 Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

. Most of the district's coal is shipped to Guangdong, where economic growth has created huge demand for energy. This in turn has created demand for heavy trucks. As a result, Yongding is one of the top districts for the number of trucks.

Tourism

In 2015 alone, 5.252 million tourists visited Yongding District, generating 4.029 billion RMB in income. Common tourist destinations include the district's many '' tulou'' clusters, such as Chuxi Tulou cluster, and

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

Transportation

The Zhangping–Longchuan railway runs through Yongding District, stopping at . , , and the are among the many

expressways Expressway may refer to: *Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic *Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road * ''Expressway'' (film), a 2016 Fi ...

in Yongding District.

Notable people

There have been many famous

overseas Chinese Overseas Chinese people are Chinese people, people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. As of 2023, there were 10.5 milli ...

with their roots in Yongding.

Aw Boon-Haw Aw Boon-Haw (; 1882–1954), OBE, was a Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as founder of Tiger Balm. He was a son of Hakka herbalist Aw Chu-Kin, with his ancestral home in Yongding County, Fujian, China. Career Aw was ...

() was one of the most famous overseas Chinese in the 1930s and 40s.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control County-level divisions of Fujian Longyan