Bao'an County, formerly named Xin'an County, was a historical county in

South China South China ( zh, s=, p=Huá'nán, j=jyut6 naam4) is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is ...

. It roughly follows the administrative boundaries of modern-day

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and the city of

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

. For most of its history, the administrative center of the county was in Nantou.

History

During the

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu dominated China from AD 220 to 280 following the end of the Han dynasty. This period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and followed by the Jin dynasty (266–420), Western Jin dyna ...

, the later Bao'an County, along with

Dongguan Dongguan,; pinyin: alternately romanized via Cantonese as Tungkun, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. An important industrial city in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou t ...

and Boluo counties, formed a single large district with the name Boluo ().Krone 1859. In 331, the Eastern Jin dynasty established Bao'an County, one of six counties under Dōngguān () Prefecture. This prefecture's area included modern

and

.Brief History of Shenzhen
, Shenzhen Government official website. In the second year of the Zhide of Suzong under the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

(757 AD), Dōngguān was renamed to Dōngguǎn (). In the 27th year of

Hongwu Emperor The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328– 24 June 1398), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Ming, personal name Zhu Yuanzhang, courtesy name Guorui, was the List of emperors of the Ming dynasty, founding emperor of the Ming dyna ...

's (1368–1399, founder of the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

) reign, Hongwu appointed an officer with the title ''Shou-yu-suo'' () to protect the local population from robbers and vagabonds which increasingly infested the district. In 1573, the first year of the reign of Wanli of the Ming dynasty, Xin'an County (sometimes referred to as ''district'') was established as a separate administrative division of Guangzhou Prefecture. The area was then separated from the old Dongguan County due to military reasons. Under the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

, Xin'an County was one of the fourteen districts under the department of

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

. During the

Great Clearance The Great Clearance (), also translated as the Great Evacuation or Great Frontier Shift, was caused by edicts issued in 1661, 1664, and 1679, which required the evacuation of the coastal areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangnan, and Shando ...

(1661–1669), most of Xin'an County was affected by the coastal evacuation. However Xin'an ceased to be a separate administrative county by the 5th year of Kangxi (1666), and the areas not affected by the evacuation were temporarily absorbed into the adjoining Dongguan County until the lift of the ban in 1669. From 1842 to 1898, 1055.61 km² out of 3076 km² of Xin'an County was ceded to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

to form Hong Kong.

Population

According to the 1819 edition of the '' Gazetteer of Xin'an County'', the population of Xin'an County was about 18,000 people in 1642, just prior to the collapse of the

, and the total population was about 4,000 by 1672, three years after the reoccupation of the area at the end of the

Cession of Hong Kong

The area commonly referred to as Hong Kong was successively ceded or leased from the county to Britain in 1842, 1860 and 1898 under the

Treaty of Nanking The Treaty of Nanking was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–1842) between United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese ...

(

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island () is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. The island, known originally and on road signs simply as "Hong Kong", had a population of 1,289,500 and a population density of , . It is the second largest island in Hong Kon ...

), Convention of Peking (

Kowloon Kowloon () is one of the areas of Hong Kong, three areas of Hong Kong, along with Hong Kong Island and the New Territories. It is an urban area comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. It has a population of 2,019,533 and a populat ...

), and Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory (

New Territories The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...

Republic of China era

In 1914, after a nationwide survey of the names of provinces and cities,

Yuan Shikai Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 18596 June 1916) was a Chinese general and statesman who served as the second provisional president and the first official president of the Republic of China, head of the Beiyang government from 1912 to 1916 and ...

, the President of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, restored the ancient name Bao'an County to avoid having the same name as Xin'an County in

Henan Province Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Luo ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the county was occupied by Japan and the county seat was moved to Shima Town, Dongguan County. The area from the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway to the west to the Pearl River, as well as the Shenzhen River and Dapeng Bay were the activity areas of the Dongjiang Column led by the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(CCP). On June 30, 1946, after the main force of the Dongjiang Column boarded ships at Shayu Creek () and retreated northward to

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

, where they left behind scattered and hidden personnel to continue their activities under the leadership of Lan Zao, secretary of the Ludong County Committee of the CCP. In the spring of 1947, the Jiangnan Working Committee of the CCP was established, and the Huiyang-Dongguan-Baoan People's Hometown Defense Corps was founded. Lan Zao was the head and political commissar, and the Pingshan and Dapeng Bay coasts were used as guerrilla bases. In April 1948, the Huiyang-Dongguan-Baoan People's Hometown Guarding Corps was changed into the Jiangnan Detachment of the Guangdong People's Liberation Army's Guangdong-Jiangxi-Hunan Border Column. In January 1949, it was renamed the Dongjiang First Detachment of the Guangdong-Jiangxi-Hunan Border Column of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. On October 19, 1949, the Dongjiang First Detachment entered Nantou, and the PLA officially took over Bao'an County.

People's Republic of China era

In 1953,

replaced Nantou as the administrative centre, due to the increasing prominence of the town as the southern terminus of the Chinese section of the

Kowloon–Canton Railway The Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR; ) was a railway network in Hong Kong.Legislative Council information paper CB(1)357/07-08(0 THB(T) CR 8/986/00, CB(1)1749/07-08(0/ref> It was owned and operated by the Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation (KC ...

. In 1979, Bao'an County was renamed Shenzhen City after the name of its county town since 1953, and the southern part of Shenzhen became a

Special Economic Zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

a year later. A diminished Bao'an County remained in the new city of Shenzhen outside the SEZ until 1992, when it was replaced by the Bao'an and the Longgang districts.

References

Citations

Sources

* Mr. Krone (1859)
A Notice of the Sanon District
''Transactions'', Vol. 6, pp. 71–105,

(1859).