Zigui County () is a county of western

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

province, People's Republic of China. It is 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' ...

of Yichang and encompasses the easternmost portion of the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

Gorges, including the

Xiling Gorge Xiling Gorge () is a gorge on the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) in Hubei province, China. It is the easternmost and largest of the Three Gorges. Geography Xiling Gorge is located in Zigui County and Yiling District, in the west of Hubei province, ...

The county seat of Zigui is now 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 Maoping (), situated a few kilometers west of the Three Gorges Dam on the high southern shore of the river. The original Zigui town was upstream to the west and was abandoned and submerged under the rising waters of the reservoir in the early years of the 21st century. As it is common in China, Maoping is typically labelled as "Zigui County" () or simply "Zigui" () on most maps.

Administrative divisions

Eight towns: * Maoping (),

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 ...

(), (), Shazhenxi (), Lianghekou (), Guojiaba (), Yanglinqiao (), Jiuwanxi () Four townships: * Shuitianba Township (), Xietan Township (), Meijiahe Township (), Moping Township ()

Climate

Tourism

A good view of the Three Gorges Dam, and of an ancillary dam further south, can be had from Maoping's riverside parks.

Economy

Most of Zigui is hilly or mountainous with basic farming and tea production. There are many small coal mines in the mountains, with the coal trucked to the river then loaded onto barges for shipping downstream.

Transportation

Passenger boats and ferries travelling up and down the river can dock at the large passenger dock ("Zigui Harbor", 秭归港) at Maoping, or at

Taipingxi Taipingxi Town (, "Taiping Stream Town") is a town in Yiling District of Yichang Prefecture-level city of China's Hubei Province. It is located on the left (northern) side of the Yangtze River, near the northern end of the Three Gorges Dam. As an ...

Town on the north bank close to the Dam. Frequent bus service connects Maoping with the center city of Yichang to the east; there is also bus service to most towns in the county, as well as to the neighboring counties.

External links

References

{{authority control Counties of Hubei Geography of Yichang