Qianjiang District

Qianjiang 黔江区
District
Qianjiang District in Chongqing
Coordinates: 29°23′N 108°37′E / 29.383°N 108.617°E / 29.383; 108.617
Country	China
Municipality	Chongqing
Seat	Chengxi Sub-district
Area
• Total	2,397 km2 (925 sq mi)
Population (2009)	545,000
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)

Qianjiang District (formerly Qianjiang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, simplified Chinese: 黔江区; traditional Chinese: 黔江區; pinyin: Qiánjiāng Qū) is a district (formerly autonomous county) in the southeastern part of Chongqing Municipality in China. While it is governed as a district, in practice Qianjiang is its own city proper far removed from the urban centre of Chongqing. The Miao and Tujia ethnic groups constitute 50.03% of the Qianjiang population, the other half being mostly Han (49.94%). Qianjiang is nicknamed "The Throat of Sichuan and Hubei" (川鄂咽喉) because it sits on the intersection of Sichuan-Hubei and Sichuan-Hunan Roads.

There used to be a large region called Qianjiang Prefecture containing the contemporary jurisdiction area of Qianjiang District (see history below).

Qianjiang District used to be a county under a now-abolished prefecture (later development area) by the same name.

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Qianjiang was administratively part of the Fuling District. In 585 (during the Sui Dynasty), Shicheng District (石城县) was established as part of Yong Prefecture (庸州), with the district seat at today's Ba Village of Baxiang County (坝乡县坝村). In 607, Yong Prefecture was replaced by Badong Commandery (巴东郡). In 618 (the Tang Dynasty), Shicheng became part of Qina Prefecture (黔州), with district seat at Wuci Town (无慈城) and, in 630, Lienche Town.

In 742, Shicheng was renamed Qianjiang and was part of An Commandry (安郡). From 960 to 1368 (Song and Yuan), Qianjiang at this time was "half-barbarian" (半没于夷) and dominated by the local rich bourgeois of the Gongs, Hus, Qins, and Xiangs (龚、胡、秦、向) according Qianjiang County Records (黔江县志) of the Qing Dynasty.

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