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Guanting, Minhe County

Guanting
官亭镇
Town
Guanting is located in Qinghai
Guanting
Guanting
Coordinates: 35°52′23″N 102°48′44″E / 35.87306°N 102.81222°E / 35.87306; 102.81222Coordinates: 35°52′23″N 102°48′44″E / 35.87306°N 102.81222°E / 35.87306; 102.81222
Country China
Province Qinghai
Prefecture Haidong
Counties of the People's Republic of China Minhe
Elevation 1,822 m (5,978 ft)
Time zone China Standard (UTC+8)

Guanting (Chinese: 官亭; pinyin: Guāntíng) is a town in eastern Qinghai province, People's Republic of China. It is located in the southeast of Minhe County and, together with Guanting, Zhongchuan, Xiakou, Gangou and Xin'er townships, is referred to as the Guanting Area (官亭地区).

It is the home to the most densely populated Tu Zu settlement in China, who refer to the area as "Sanchuan" (三川).

The official Chinese name for the area is Guanting (官亭). Local legends accounted that the name came from the famous general, Guan Yu (关羽), who stopped by in the area on his way to look for his sworn brother, Liu Bei, the founder of the Shu Han Kingdom (221-263) in the southwest, after having left Cao Cao of the Cao Wei Kingdom (220-265) in China proper. The Chinese name "Guan" in Guanting came from the last name of Guan Yu, whereas "Ting" came from the Chinese character for "stop" (停) or "pavilion" (亭).

The informal reference by the local residents of the Tu Zu is "Sanchuan" (三川), which literally means “Three Plains” and applies to the Upper, Middle, and Lower plains according to the geographic features marked by two seasonable rivers that flow from the north to the south into the Yellow River and divides the area. The Upper Plain, or Shangchuan, refers to the Zhaomuchuan Village of Guanting Township. The Middle Plain, or Zhongchuan, encloses Zhongchuan Township, which is separated from the Upper Plain by the Zhaomuchuan River. The Lower Plain refers to the Xiakou Township on the exit of the Yellow River that flows out of Qinghai into Gansu.

The area is the homeland of the most densely populated Tu Zu settlement, who are known as “Monguor” in the West and as “Tu Zu” in China. About three hundred of their villages are densely distributed on the north bank of the Yellow River, which have been administered into about one hundred executive political villages by the Chinese Government.


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