Dorbod (Siziwang) Banner ( mn, , , ; ) is a

banner A banner can be a flag or another piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or another message. A flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms (but usually in a square or rectangular shape) is called a banner of arms. Als ...

(

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

equivalent) in

Ulanqab Ulanqab or Ulan Chab (; mn, ''Ulaɣančab qota''; Mongolian cyrillic.Улаанцав хот) is a region administered as a prefecture-level city in south-central Inner Mongolia, China. Its administrative centre is in Jining District, which w ...

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 ...

, China, bordering

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

's Dornogovi Province to the northwest. It is located about north of Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. The banner spans , and has a population of 129,372 as of 2020. Its seat of government is located in Wulanhua.

Toponymy

The Chinese name for the banner ''siziwang'', literally "four princes", derives from the area's historic rule by four brothers. The Mongolian name for the banner ''dorbed'' means "of four".

History

The area of Dorbod Banner was ruled by four Mongol brothers, Sengge (), Suonuobu (), Emubu () and Yi'erzhamu (), who were descendants of

Hasar Qasar (also spelled Hasar or Khasar, and also known as Jo'chi Qasar; Mongolian: Жочи Хасар) was one of Genghis Khan's three full brothers. According to the ''Jami' al-Tawarikh'', his given name was Jo'chi and he got the nickname Khasar ...

, a brother of Genghis Khan. They led their tribe in participating in the Manchu

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-spea ...

's conquest of

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...

China in the early 17th century. In recognition of their service, the Qing court made Emubu the Duoluo Commandery Prince () in 1649 and settled their tribe in the area of modern Siziwang Banner. The title was hereditary and passed through fourteen of his descendants before the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

abolished all hereditary titles in Inner Mongolia in 1949. The last prince, Sudanamuchaogeji (), died as a private citizen in 1957. There is a sculpture of the four original princes in Wulanhua, erected in 2003.

Geography

To its east lies

Sonid Right Banner Sonid Right Banner ( Mongolian: ''Söned Baraɣun qosiɣu''; ) is a banner of Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes mos ...

, Qahar Right Rear Banner, and

Qahar Right Middle Banner Chahar Right Middle Banner ( Mongolian: ; Цахар баруун гарын дундад хошуу; ''Čaqar Baraɣun Ɣarun Dumdadu qosiɣu''; ) is a banner (county equivalent) of Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China, bordered by Chah ...

. To its south lies Wuchuan County and

Zhuozi County Zhuozi ( mn, ; ) is a county of Ulanqab prefecture-level city, which in turn is part of Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border ...

. To its west lies Darhan Muminggan United Banner. Its north is formed by a border with

. Its seat of government, 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 Wulanhua, is located away from Hohhot, and away from Erlianhot. The banner is located along the northern foothills of the

Yin Mountains The Yin Mountains, also known by several other names, are a mountain range stretching across about of northern China. They form the southeastern border of the Gobi Desert and cross the Chinese provinces of Inner Mongolia and Hebei. Among othe ...

, and has an average elevation of . Most of the banner's area is grassland.

Climate

The banner experiences an average of to of precipitation annually. Its average annual temperature is .

Administrative divisions

Dorbod Banner is divided into five towns, three

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, C ...

, five sums, and one other

township-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 ...

. The banner's five towns are Wulanhua, , , , and . The banner's three townships are , , and . The banner's five sums are Honggor Sum, , , , and . The banner is also home to .

Demographics

As of 2009, the banner is home to 216,990 people, up from the 180,568 reported in the 2000 Census. The banner's ethnic minorities include 18,902

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

(8.71% of the total population), 1,086

Manchus The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

(0.50%), and 837 Hui people (0.39%).

Economy

Mineral deposits in the banner include

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 me ...

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 ...

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

fluorite Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs sca ...

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 drywal ...

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 ...

, and thenardite.

Spacecraft landing site

The banner served as the landing sites for China's

Shenzhou program The China Manned Space Program (CMS; ), also known as Project 921 () is a space program developed by the People's Republic of China and run by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), designed to develop and enhance human spaceflight capabilities f ...

. A pasture known as Amugulang, located in Honggor Sum, about north of Wulanhua, served as the landing site for the Shenzhou-6 spacecraft. A specially constructed road runs from Wulanhua to Honggor to aid the recovery of the Shenzhou spacecraft, and to boost the local economy. This road shortened the journey between the two towns from two hours to just 40 minutes. Chinese space program recovery teams (with SUV and recovery trucks) track the progress of re-entry near the landing site and arrive shortly after landing.Shenzhou 5
A small recovery trucks fitted with a crane lifts the capsule and places it on the rear of the truck for transportation back to the space centre. Since the final landing of

Shenzhou 11 Shenzhou 11 was a crewed spaceflight of the Shenzhou program of China, launched on 17 October 2016 (16 October UTC) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It was China's sixth crewed space mission, at 33 days, it was the longest until the ...

in Dorbod Banner in 2016, new facilities have been built to hasten the retrieval process for various spacecraft. In December 2020, the Chang'e 5 spacecraft landed in Dorbod Banner following a successful collection of Moon rocks.

Toponymy

History

Geography

Climate

Administrative divisions

Demographics

Economy

Spacecraft landing site

See also

Notes

References

Citations

News