Ganquan 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 north of

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...

province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. 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' ...

Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an ...

. The county has an area of , and a population of 77,800 as of 2012.

Administrative divisions

The county is divided into 1

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, In ...

, 3

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 2

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 ...

. The county's administrative offices are located in its sole subdistrict, . The county's three towns are , , and . The county's two townships are and .

Geography

The county is located in the hilly

Loess Plateau The Chinese Loess Plateau, or simply the Loess Plateau, is a plateau in north-central China formed of loess, a clastic silt-like sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. It is located southeast of the Gobi Desert and is surroun ...

Northern Shaanxi Shaanbei () or Northern Shaanxi is the portion of China's Shaanxi province north of the Huanglong Mountain and the Meridian Ridge (the so-called " Guanzhong north mountains"), and is both a geographic as well as a cultural area. It makes up the ...

Climate

The county has an average annual temperature of , and an average annual precipitation of .

Economy

In 2013, Ganquan 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 often ...

of 2.13 billion

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. ...

, which had fallen 2.058 billion by 2016 due to decreased oil production. Despite this, the county's residents experienced an increase in 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 ...

during this time, with urban residents' income rising from 25,835 Renminbi to 29,419, and agrarian residents' income rising from 8,642 Renminbi to 10,462.

Agriculture

The county has a sizable agriculture sector, producing 40,000 tons of grain and 122,000 tons of vegetables as of 2013. The county government reported 125,000 lives pigs and 2.25 million live heads of poultry in the county the same year. Some of the county's food products have gained recognition throughout China, namely Ganquan dried tofu (), Meishui wine (), Fangxin cabbage (), and Laoshan eggs ().

Natural Resources

Ganquan County is home to a number of natural resources, such as

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 ...

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

, and

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

. The county has an oil production plant located in , which employs over 2,500 workers. In 2013, the county produced 365,000 tons of oil, adding 779 million Renminbi to the economy, which accounted for 36.58% of Ganquan's GDP. The county's petroleum reserves total 110.678 billion tons, and the county's natural gas reserves total 20 billion cubic meters.

Transportation

Roadways

China National Highway 210 China National Highway 210 (G210) runs from Mandula in Baotou, Inner Mongolia to Fangchenggang, Guangxi. It is 3,097 kilometres in length and runs south from Baotou and passes through the province-level divisions of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing, Gu ...

* G65 Baomao Expressway

Railways

* Xi'an–Yan'an Railway * Baotou–Xi'an railway

References

External links

County-level divisions of Shaanxi Yan'an {{Shaanxi-geo-stub