Yongding District, Longyan


Yongding is a district under the jurisdiction of Longyan prefecture-level city in the southwest of Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. It is the home of many Hakka-speaking families. Yongding has a population of about 400,000, of which more than 99% are Hakka, the rest being Southern Min-speaking people. It was reported at the end of 2014 that Yongding had become a district, having previously been a county.

History

Yongding County was established in the 14th year of Chenghua in Ming dynasty. It was originally part of Shanghang County. The governor of Fujian province proposed to separate this south-eastern part of the Shanghang County county to form a new county and name it Yongding, literally meaning peaceful forever, after suppressing a riot in that particular region.

Geography

Yongding county is situated on the Fujian-Guangdong border. Shanghang County to the northwest and Longyan centre to the northeast are in Longyan; Nanjing County to the east and Pinghe County to the southeast are in Zhangzhou. To the southwest lies Dabu County of Meizhou, GD. Both Dabu and Shanghang are Hakka-speaking counties; Longyan Centre, Nanjing and Pinghe are predominantly Minnan-speaking.
Yongding is about in area. Like other counties of Fujian province, Yongding is 80% hills and mountains, 10% water or rivers, and 10% fields. Two major rivers run through the district: Yongding River and Xiayang Creek. Both are tributaries of the Ting River or Han River. Located in a sub-tropical area and subject to typhoons, Yongding has high annual precipitation of about per year.

Demographics

Culture

Transportation

Tourism

Climate

Administrative districts

As of March 2015, Yongding District was divided into twenty-four township-level divisions: one subdistrict, twelve towns and eleven townships.

Subdistrict

The county executive, legislature and judiciary are in Fengcheng Subdistrict, formerly the town of Fengcheng, together with the CPC and PSB branches.

Towns

There are twelve towns:
There are eleven townships :
Yongding County is famous for its tulou, large multi-family adobe buildings. Out of the 10 tulous or tulous clusters inscribed on the World Heritage List, 5 are within Yongding County:
As a result of abundant precipitation and mountainous terrain, hydroelectric power is abundant. There are numerous hydro plants in the county, one notable one being the provincial Mianhuatan Hydroelectric Power Station. The plant has a water storage capacity of 2.035 billion cubic meters and is able to generate 1.52 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year. The Mianhuatan hydrodam contributes greatly to the rapidly growing economy of Fujian and neighboring Guangdong province.
In agriculture, rice is the main crop for the county. Most low-lying fields can yield two rice crops per year, while in high land fields, because of the earlier frost, only one harvest can be assured.
Yongding is an important tobacco producer. The cultivation of tobacco started in Wan Li era of the Ming Dynasty. Yongding was honored as the "home of tobacco" in the early 20th century. Although its significance has declined in recent years, Yongding is still one of the most important tobacco producing areas in the region. Many top brand Chinese cigarettes contain Yongding leaf.
Yongding is rich in mineral deposits, most notably coal. Most of the county's coal is shipped to Guangdong, where economic growth has created huge demand for energy. This in turn has created demand for heavy trucks. As a result, Yongding is one of the top counties for the number of trucks.

Notable people from Yongding

There have been many famous overseas Chinese with their roots in Yongding. Aw Boon-Haw was one of the most famous overseas Chinese in the 1930s and 40s.