Wen County or Wenxian () is a county under the administration of the

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 ...

of Longnan, in the southeast of

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

province, China, bordering

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

province to the south and west. It has a land area of 4,994 square kilometers, and a population of 241,000 (2019), notably having the largest population of Baima people. Gecko '' Gekko wenxianensis'' is named after Wen County, its type locality.

Administrative divisions

Wen County is divided to 14 towns, 5 townships and 1 ethnic township. ;Towns * Chengguan (): county seat * Bikou () * Shangde () *Zhongzhai () * Linjiang () * Qiaotou () * Liping () * Tianchi ()) * Baoziba () *Shifang () * Shijiba () * Danbao () * Zhongmiao () * Fanba () ;Townships * Liujiaping Township () * Yulei Township () * Koutouba Township () * Jianshan Township () * Sheshu Township () ;Ethnic township * Tielou Tibetan Ethnic Township ()

Former divisions

Former Townships that were merged into others in 2004:

History

Wen County has been inhabited since the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

era, as evidenced by

Majiayao culture The Majiayao culture was a group of Neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River region in eastern Gansu, eastern Qinghai and northern Sichuan, China. The culture existed from 3300 to 2000 BC. The Majiayao culture represent ...

sites. The area was later inhabited by the Di people. Throughout the centuries, the area was ruled by many different dynasties and kingdoms. As a result of the

2008 Sichuan earthquake An earthquake occurred in the province of Sichuan, China at 14:28:01 China Standard Time on May 12, 2008. Measuring at 8.0 (7.9–8.3 ), the earthquake's epicenter was located boxing the compass, west-northwest of Chengdu, the provincial ...

, 93% of households in Wen County had their homes damaged or collapsed. The main road to access the county, China National Highway 212, was also blocked in both directions.

Economy

Tea, Codonopsis pilosula,

Sichuan pepper Sichuan pepper (, also known as Sichuanese pepper, Szechuan pepper, Chinese prickly ash, Chinese pepper, Mountain pepper, and ''mala'' pepper, is a spice commonly used in Sichuan cuisine in China, Bhutan and in northeast India. It is called mej ...

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...

s and olive oil are the main agricultural produce of the region. Two reservoirs ( Bikou Reservoir and Miaojiaba Reservoir) have been constructed in the Bailong River. The reservoirs serve to provide hydroelectricity, aquaculture, flood control, irrigation and for tourism development. The county holds one fifth of total exploitable hydropower resources of Gansu. Wenxian is also rich in metal deposits, most notably the Yangshan gold mine is Asia's largest

Carlin–type gold deposit Carlin–type gold deposits are sediment-hosted disseminated gold deposits. These deposits are characterized by invisible (typically microscopic and/or dissolved) gold in pyrite, arsenic rich pyrite and arsenopyrite. This dissolved kind of g ...

Geography

Major rivers in Wen County are the Bailong River, Baishui River, Baima River and Rangshui River.

Climate

Transport

* China National Highway 212 * G8513 Pingliang–Mianyang Expressway (under construction)

Notes and references

{{authority control County-level divisions of Gansu Longnan