Pingwu 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 ...

located in the north of

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

province, China, bordering

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 to the north. It is the northernmost

county-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

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' ...

Mianyang Mianyang (; formerly known as Mienchow) is the second largest prefecture-level city of Sichuan province in Southwest China. Located in north-central Sichuan covering an area of consisting of Jiangyou, a county-level city, five counties, and thre ...

. It has an area of and a population of 180,000 in 2018, making it one of the smallest counties by population in Sichuan.

History

The history of Pingwu goes back over 1,700 years. In 108 CE, the

Eastern Han 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 ...

established Guanghan County, which was ruled from present day Wen County. Beginning in the 3rd century CE, a number of kingdoms belonging to the Di tribe were set up in and around Pingwu County. In 280 Pingwu County was first established. The name Pingwu originates from the name of the previous Yinping () and Guangwu () counties. In 347, Pingwu became part of the

Eastern Jin Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air L ...

. By the 6th century, the Di kingdoms saw their power wane, and much of the area surrounding present-day Pingwu County was integrated into the Yarlung dynasty. Despite this, the area of contemporary Pingwu County was not occupied by the Yarlung dynasty during the 7th century, resulting in a linguistic identity more akin to that of the Di tribe.

Geography and Climate

Pingwu is a mountainous county located along the upper reaches of the Fujiang river, in the far northwest of the

Sichuan Basin The Sichuan Basin (), formerly transliterated as the Szechwan Basin, sometimes called the Red Basin, is a lowland region in southwestern China. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides and is drained by the upper Yangtze River and its tributa ...

. 94% of the county's area is above 1,000 m elevation. The average yearly temperature is .

Economy

Pingwu is a large production base of

Shiitake The shiitake (alternate form shitake) (; ''Lentinula edodes'') is an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is now cultivated and consumed around the globe. It is considered a Medicinal fungi, medicinal mushroom in some forms of tradition ...

and

wood ear Wood-ear or tree ear (, Korean: 목이 버섯), also translated wood jellyfish or , can refer to a few similar-looking edible fungi used primarily in Chinese cuisine; these are commonly sold in Asian markets shredded and dried. * ''Auricularia he ...

mushroom, with an output of 1.1 million kg in 2009.

Administrative divisions

Pingwu County has six

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 ...

, two

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 twelve

ethnic townships An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

Towns

Pingwu County's six towns are , , , Daqiao, , and .

Townships

Pingwu County's two townships are and .

Ethnic townships

Pingwu County has twelve ethnic townships, of which, four have been designated as Qiang ethnic townships, and eight have been designated as

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

ethnic townships. The county's ethnic townships are , , , , , , ,

Baima Tibetan Ethnic Township Baima Tibetan Ethnic Township () is an ethnic township for Tibetan people under the administration of Pingwu County in northern Sichuan province, China. The Baima language, a threatened language with approximately 10,000 speakers, is spoken in t ...

, , , , and .

Demographics

Languages

Pingwu County is one of three counties in

where the

Baima language Baima (autonym: ') is a language spoken by 10,000 Baima people, of Tibetan ethnicity, in north-central Sichuan Province and Gansu Province, China. Baima is passed on from parents to children in Baima villages. It is spoken within the home domain ...

is spoken.

Attractions

Pingwu county is the center of the biggest remaining

giant panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes us ...

habitat in China, i.e. the

Minshan Min Mountains or Minshan () are a mountain range in central China. It runs in the general north-south direction through northern Sichuan (the eastern part of the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture and adjacent areas of Mianyang Prefec ...

Mountains. Close to the Baima

Ethnic Township The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

, for example, the national panda reserve "Wanglang" is located. The WWF has conducted an Integrated Community Development Project in the Baima township to reduce direct and indirect poaching threats to the panda population. A temple named "Baoensi" is also located there.

Fauna

There are two species of

Megophryidae Megophryidae, commonly known as goose frogs, is a large family of frogs native to the warm southeast of Asia, from the Himalayan foothills eastwards, south to Indonesia and the Greater Sunda Islands in Maritime Southeast Asia, and extending to th ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Pingwu County, namely '' Scutiger pingwuensis'' and '' Oreolalax chuanbeiensis''.

Notable residents

* Li Ziqi (vlogger)

References

External links

Official website of Pingwu County Governmentlocal WWF panda info
{{authority control County-level divisions of Sichuan Mianyang