Xiangtang, Jiangxi

Geography

It is 25 kilometres (16 mi) from the city proper of Nanchang. The elevation of Xiangtang is 27m above the sea. Gan River, the main river in the province and a tributary of Yangtze River, is just 10 km (6.2 mi) away. The area of the town is 146 km² (56 sq mi).

History

The earliest remnants of human habitation in Xiangtang are found in the Majin Remnants near the village of Shatan. Stone tools from the remnants date to 50,000 to 20,000 years ago. Xiangtang area as a part of Nanchang was founded in 201 BC during the early Han dynasty. The village which the town was named after was settled in Qing Dynasty. In 1935, a rail station was built near Xiangtang village and since then the present town was formed.

Demographics

Xiangtang has an approximate population of 150,000 people and the central area consists of 80,000 people. Majority of residents belong to the Han Chinese. Other people from ethnic minorities such as Uyghur are also living and doing business there. Xiangtang also consists of a large population of students and military forces from other places. Though most of them are expected to leave after 3 or 4 years, they are still considered as residents and play an important role in the social and economic aspects. Moreover, they are a significant part of the young people in the town and some of them even stay when they graduate or are demobilized.

Administration

Xiangtang is divided into 10 resident committees and 19 villages. The 10 resident committees are: Zhenjie, Dongfeng rd, Tongzhan rd, Jiefang rd, W.Minzhu rd, E.Minzhu rd, Tuanjie rd, Tielu Xincun, Xinjie, and Shucai. The 19 villages are Tangsu, Huangshan, Hetou, Huangtang, Liangxi, Huangxi, Xiluo, Jiaxi, Xincun, Gufang, Gaotian, Jianxia, Hehuoqi, Dingfang, Xiangtang, Nandian, Jingshan, Shatan, and Shanbei.

Culture

Many communities have their own festivals to thank the guard and bless of their ancestors or pray for good fortune such as Qiqiao festival in Gong's and Fu's communities in Gaotian village, summer festival in Gong's community in Linan, and September 1 festival in Fu's community in Shuxi. The most renowned one is the Denggun festival(竖灯棍哩) in Deng's community in Huangtang village. They celebrate the day of the settlement on Jan 12th of Chinese lunar calendar each year. The festival has more than 220 years history and can be dated to Qianlong era in Qing Dynasty. On that day, all people from Deng's family will go back to their ancestors' houses and erect a 36m long wooden rod using fish forks in the center of the village. On the top of the rod, a lantern will be hang up. The big image of family tree will be displayed and the celebration will last for three days. It becomes a town-wide festival and there are a lot of people from Nanchang attending to it.

Pottery is a local artwork in Nandian village. People make fine pottery by hand and the skills are inherited through generations. Another local product is tea can in Jingshan village.

Every two years a peasants' sport games is held and a town-wide sport games is held every four years. Military forces and civilians have joint parties on the Army's day and spring festival. The traditional entertainments such as lunar comedy, dragon lantern, stilts, myth cosplay are performed in public.

Local special food

Historical sites

Accent

Nanchang dialect is the general name of the regional speech in Nanchang and its nearby area. It is also an example of Gan, which is spoken in most part of Jiangxi and some parts of surrounding provinces. Though it is located near the city of Nanchang, the Xiangtang area has a slightly different speech pattern called the Xiangtang Tuhua(向塘土话). The different pattern was formed because in the old days people usually didn't move out their own villages unless women married to other people in neighbor villages.

The traditional Xiangtang Tuhua has five phonemic tones like Nanchang dialect, however, it emphasizes more often and heavier on the words. Because of this, Xiangtang Tuhua sounds louder and harder. There are also a number of words and expressions only found in Xiangtang Tuhua.

Transportation

Xiangtang is served by Nanchang Railways, which uses Xiangtang Station as the passenger station and Xiangtang West station as the freight station. The railways provide connection to almost all major cities in the country. Beijing-Kowloon Railway, Shanghai-Kunming Railway and Xiangtang-Putian Railway run across the town.

Xiangtang's public bus lines 236 and 239 to Nanchang are the main bus routes. It takes about 2 hours on regular route or less than 40 minutes using fast route to travel between Xiangtang and Nanchang.

Three national routes: G316, G320, G105 and Wen-hou highway pass by Xiangtang.

Xiangtang Airport is now only a military-airport. All public passenger services have been moved to Nanchang Changbei International Airport.

Economy

Xiangtang Provincial level development zone

In 1999, Xiangtang became a provincial level development zone. Agricultural production in Xiangtang is traditional part of its economy. The yield of grain was 57,776 tons in 2004. The yield of vegetable in 2004 is 87,570 tons. The Huiren Medical Company has its headquarters and one of the factories in Xiangtang with more than 1000 local employees. Nike has a clothing factory near the Jiangxi Clothing Institute. Town government has introduced 32 projects and 2.63 billion RMB fund to improve the industrial structure. Many of its industry revolves around clothing, manufacturing, metallurgy, textile, chemical engineering, traditional Chinese medicine, pharmaceuticals and others. In 2007, Xiangtang together with other towns in Nanchang County was awarded "National top 100 Counties".The GDP of Xiangtang in 2008 was 7.2 billion RMB (1.06 billion USD). The total financial revenue was 100 million RMB. Now Xiangtang is growing as one of the main freight hubs in Jiangxi province while taking advantage of the convenience of transportation.

Education