Longde County

Longde County (simplified Chinese: 隆德县; traditional Chinese: 隆德縣; pinyin: Lóngdé Xiàn) is a county under the administration of Guyuan city in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

Longde County is located in the southern part of Ningxia. It gets its name from the town of Long and the Deshun army. Historically, the county was under the control of Pingliang city in Gansu province. It borders the rest of Ningxia, as well as Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. It also connects the important northwestern cities of Xi'an and Lanzhou. To the north of the county is Guyuan, to the east is Pingliang, to the south is Jingyuan County, and to the west is Jingning County.

Although Longde County is in the southern part of Ningxia, air temperature is usually lower than the surrounding areas, because Longde is, on average, 2000 meters above sea level. In addition, because the county is located in the northern foothills of the Liupan mountain range, there is relatively little water. The water that is added is commonly lost to earth flows, so agriculture in the county is poorly developed. These factors, coupled with the gangs of bandits who historically roamed the region, made Longde a county famous for its impoverishment.

There are many mountains in Longde County. The highest peak in the Liupan range rises 2900 meters above sea level. The range became famous when Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong wrote a poem with the phrase, "On the summit of Liupan, the red flag waves freely in the western wind". This mountain has some stretches of verdant forest, unlike the treeless hills of the surrounding Loess Plateau. During the 1960s, the mountain was still the haunt of panthers, wolves, and other predators. On the hilltop, there is a memorial pavilion for the Long March of the Red Army, a television relay tower, a meteorology station, and other things. The Liupan Public Highway stretches for more than 5000 meters, tunneling through the hillside. Before the tunnel was open to traffic, the Liupan range was a natural moat dividing the highway between Xi'an and Lanzhou. The road twists and winds, an exceptional and imposing sight. During the heavy snow of winter, cars often flip over because of the road's difficult conditions.

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Wikipedia