district：	Guizhou > Anshun
categorisation：	Administrative Distr > Province
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address：	Room 417, 4th Floor, Government Service Centre, Haihuili Square, Dingyun Subdistrict Office, Guanling Autonomous County
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video：	http://www.guanling.gov.cn/masvod/public/2023/02/09/20230209_18635474f81_r1_500k.mp4
description：	Guangling, short for Guansuo Ling. According to legend, during the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu's son Guan Suo accompanied Zhuge Liang on his southern campaign against Meng Huo and once stationed his troops here.
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 Guangling, short for Guansuo Ling. According to legend, during the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu's son Guan Suo accompanied Zhuge Liang on his southern campaign against Meng Huo and once stationed his troops here. The county is named after the ‘ling’ (ridge). Guangling is located in the central part of Guizhou Province, under the jurisdiction of Anshun City. It is a county with significant development potential and is accelerating its development. The county has a total area of 1,464 square kilometres, comprising 4 sub-districts, 9 towns, and 1 township. The county is home to 35 ethnic groups, including the Bouyei, Miao, Gelao, and Yi peoples. Its geographical location offers significant advantages: to the northeast and northwest, it borders Zhenning and Liuzhi counties; to the southwest, it is separated from Qinglong, Xingren, and Zhenfeng counties by the Beipan River.

Guangling has consistently adhered to the bottom lines of development and ecology, upholding the main tone and strategic direction. 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and is a critical year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan. The entire county has thoroughly studied and implemented the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the second and third plenary sessions of the 20th Central Committee, fully implemented the important speeches made by President Xi Jinping during his inspection of Guizhou, and closely centred on the main theme of strengthening the sense of community among all Chinese ethnic groups. Under the strong leadership of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, and the County Party Committee, and with the full support of the County People's Congress and the County Political Consultative Conference, the county has Following the Municipal Party Committee's ‘1558’ development strategy, we actively integrated into and served the construction of the ‘Two Cities and Three Bases,’ accelerated the construction of the ‘Three Counties and One Centre,’ and achieved new results. The economy showed a steady and positive trend, with quality improvements. Despite multiple pressures, we made breakthroughs, and Guanling's high-quality development and modernisation took new, solid steps forward. The county's GDP grew by 4.1% for the year. The added value of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 16.4%, the total output value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fisheries increased by 4.2%, fixed-asset investment increased by 11%, and the total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 4%, all ranking among the top in the city. Major engineering projects achieved new accomplishments, with the total investment of newly started projects exceeding 100 million yuan ranking first in the city for the year.

In 1978, farmers in Dingyun, Guanling, pioneered the ‘family-based contracted responsibility system’ in China, which involved assigning production quotas to groups and land contracts to households, creating the ‘Dingyun Experience.’ This became a banner of rural reform in China and was compared to Fengyang in Anhui Province as ‘Dingyun in the South, Fengyang in the North.’ ‘The long and arduous journey ahead is as tough as iron, but now we must press on and start anew,’ Today, the Guanling County Party Committee and County Government are guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, adhering to the ‘Five-in-One’ overall layout and the ‘Four Comprehensives’ strategic layout. They firmly establish the ‘Four Consciousnesses,’ uphold the ‘Four Confidences,’ and resolutely safeguard the ‘Two Upholds.’ They are striving to forge ahead in the new era, set sail once more, and vigorously open up a new chapter of high-quality socio-economic development in Guanling, forging new glory for ‘Ecological Guanling’ and ‘Liveable Guanling.’

I. Administrative Division

Guangling Autonomous County administers 1 township, 9 towns (including Baishui Town), and 4 sub-district offices, comprising 134 village committees, 17 communities, and 11 residents' committees. Specifically: Guansuo Sub-district Office, Dingyun Sub-district Office, Longtan Sub-district Office, Baihe Sub-district Office; Huajiang Town, Yongning Town, Gangwu Town, Shangguan Town, Pogong Town, Duanqiao Town, Baishui Town, Xipu Town, Shaying Town; Puli Township. The county government is located in Guansuo Sub-district Office.

II. Agriculture

The county has deeply implemented the strategy of ‘storing grain in the land and in technology,’ constructing 30,000 mu of high-standard farmland, achieving an agricultural product processing conversion rate of 66%, and reaching a comprehensive mechanisation rate of 61.23% for major crops. It has firmly upheld the red line for farmland protection and the bottom line for food security. Deeply implement the beef cattle industry expansion and growth project, completing the introduction of 11,000 head of cattle from outside the county. Guanling Yellow Cattle successfully made it onto the 2024 National Agricultural Brand Premium Cultivation Plan list and successfully applied for the National Modern Agricultural Industrial Park designation. The county's herbal medicine cultivation area reached 170,000 mu, with the traditional Chinese medicine industry chain continuously improving and a comprehensive output value of 1.5 billion yuan. The production of vegetables, fruits, tea, and aquatic products increased by 1%, 1.45%, 34.5%, and 13.6%, respectively.

III. Industry

The construction of a ‘million-kilowatt-level’ new comprehensive energy base is progressing rapidly. Newly approved photovoltaic power station project quotas amount to 1.74 million kilowatts. The construction plan for the Xiaoba Pumped-Storage Hydroelectric Project has passed the assessment by the National Energy Administration. A series of projects, including the Shaying New Shared Energy Storage Power Station, have been completed. The total installed capacity of newly connected power generation reached 1.923 million kilowatts for the year, bringing the total energy installed capacity to 6.2709 million kilowatts. Five new large-scale industrial enterprises were added. Industrial investment grew by 49.5%, with the industrial sector's role in driving economic growth continuing to strengthen.

IV. Natural Geography and Climate

Guangling is located on the southern slope of the eastern ridge of the Yungui Plateau, sloping towards the Guangxi Hills. The terrain is higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast. The highest point within the county is the Old House Base Hill in Yongning, with an elevation of 1,850 metres, while the lowest point is at the confluence of the Daba River and the Beipan River at the Three Rivers Mouth, with an elevation of 370 metres. Most of the county lies between 800 and 1,500 metres in elevation, with the county seat at 1,025 metres. The mountain ranges within the county belong to the Wumeng Mountain Range, characterised by undulating and continuous mountainous terrain. The topography is characterised by significant elevation variations and a complex diversity of landforms, with widespread distribution of carbonate rocks. Karst development has resulted in an intermingled distribution of karst and conventional landforms, featuring a wide variety of topographic forms such as karst spires, vertical shafts, sinkholes, depressions, valleys, blind valleys, hilltops, and peak forests, as well as numerous caves, underground rivers, and subterranean passages.

The county's climate exhibits a three-dimensional pattern, spanning the South Temperate Zone, North Subtropical Zone, and Central Subtropical Zone, with a predominant Central Subtropical Monsoon Humid Climate. The seasons are distinct, and there is ample heat. The 12.5% of the county's low-heat river valley regions are known as the ‘natural greenhouse,’ with an annual average temperature of 16.2°C, an annual average maximum temperature of 16.9°C, and an annual average minimum temperature of 15.4°C. The region receives ample rainfall, with annual precipitation ranging from 1,205.1 to 1,656.8 millimetres, making it one of the province's primary precipitation centres.

V. Major Resources

Guangling County is rich in mineral resources, with over 20 types of minerals including iron, copper, mercury, coal, magnesium, and marble, offering significant development potential.

There are over 950,000 mu of non-arable land available for development, including 400,000 mu of contiguous grasslands with high livestock-carrying capacity. The forest area is 1,263,400 mu, with a forest coverage rate of 56.36%, primarily consisting of timber forests, economic forests, and fuelwood forests.

The region is home to excellent local livestock breeds, including the ‘Guangling cattle’ and ‘Guangling pigs.’ Over 1,600 types of traditional Chinese medicinal herbs have been identified, including 425 varieties listed in the pharmacopoeia, with an annual output exceeding 25,000 tonnes. The region is home to over 400 species of subtropical trees across 54 families and 117 genera.

Mineral resources include magnesite, marble, iron, mercury, copper, fluorite, quartz, calcite, gypsum, silica, and clay. Among these, the reserves of magnesite dolomite exceed 10 billion tonnes, with proven C+D reserves of 15.69 million tonnes, and a magnesium oxide content exceeding 22.27%, making it one of the largest magnesite deposits in the country, suitable for open-pit mining; marble reserves exceed 20 million cubic metres.

The theoretical hydropower potential is 2.5 million kilowatts (including the Beipan River), coal reserves amount to 720 million tonnes, and high-quality electrolytic limestone reserves total 13.55 million tonnes.

Tourism  Guanling County is rich in tourism resources and has been selected as one of the ‘66 Most Recommended Cultural Tourism Counties in the World.’ Within its borders lies the national-level agricultural tourism demonstration site, the Muchen River Rural Tourism Zone, as well as the Huajiang Grand Canyon, dubbed the ‘Earth's Crack,’ the layered Dui Shui Tan Waterfall, the enigmatic Hongya Heavenly Book, and the ancient Yelang Ma Ma Cliff Paintings. Notably, the Guanling Paleontological Group, dating back approximately 220 million years, is renowned as the ‘Kingdom of Paleontological Fossils.’ Other notable attractions include the provincial-level cultural relic protection units Huajiang Iron Chain Bridge, Shanguan Linggui Temple, the Three Kingdoms-era ancient battlefield site, and World War II-era sites. Currently, Guanzhong's tourism infrastructure and urbanisation development are advancing rapidly, with reform and opening-up deepening continuously. The county has established a long-term friendly cooperative relationship with Hornleuch County in Germany, further enhancing Guanzhong's international profile and expanding its development prospects.

1. Guanling Autonomous County Damling River Bridge. The Guanling Autonomous County Damling River Bridge was put into use on 23 December 2009. It connects the magnificent Huangguoshu Waterfall to the east, the Three Kingdoms-era Guansuo Ridge Ancient Post Road to the west, the mysterious Hongyan Heavenly Book to the south, and the Dishi Tan Waterfall Cluster to the north. The bridge is 2,237 metres long, with the bridge deck 370 metres above the Damling River bed. The entire bridge uses approximately 65,000 tonnes of various types of steel, making it the ‘first in China and sixth in the world’ in terms of span length for a steel truss-reinforced suspension bridge.

2. Waterfall clusters. The county features high mountains and deep valleys, with a relative elevation difference of 1,480 metres. The karst topography is well-developed, with rivers crisscrossing the landscape, long river basins, and significant elevation drops, resulting in numerous waterfalls. The upper reaches of the Daban River are home to the world-renowned Huangguoshu Waterfall Cluster and the Nanda Guan Waterfall; the tributaries of the Daban River—the Duanqiao River, Daming River, Bumudang River feature the Dishi Tan Waterfall, Tashan Waterfall, Luola Waterfall, Xinduqiao River Waterfall, Fengdong Underground Waterfall, Huoshaodong Underground Waterfall, and Xiaqiao River Underground Waterfall; the Beipan River and its tributaries feature the Mamyang Waterfall and Gaotan Waterfall.

3. River Gorges. The county is divided by the watershed between Gangwu and Yunzhuang Liangzi, with high mountains and deep valleys forming numerous river gorges. Among these, the most scenic are the Huajiang Grand Canyon (a provincial-level scenic area), the Daming River Gorge, the Bumudang River Gorge, and the Daban River Gorge.

4. Hot springs. Le'an Hot Spring is located in the middle of the fields in Le'an Village, Shanguan Town, on the right bank of the Daban River. It has three hot springs and one cold spring, with water temperatures ranging from 37°C to 40°C and a flow rate of 1.76 litres per second. The spring water contains a large amount of minerals and trace elements that are beneficial to the human body. The area is surrounded by vast forests of maple trees, banana trees, and yellow fruit trees, as well as natural rock formations. It is adjacent to the Nanda Waterfall scenic spot, making it an ideal destination for tourism, leisure, holidays, and health retreats.

5. Cave clusters. The caves within the county are referred to as ‘underground wonders,’ featuring well-developed limestone formations, clustered caves, and numerous ancient rock carvings inside, holding significant research and exploration value. In 1984, the County Science and Technology Commission and professors and students from Nanjing University conducted field surveys of caves within the county during three consecutive summer vacations, discovering over 100 new caves. The main caves within the county include: Guanling Cave, Miaoming Cave, Guansuo Cave, Guanyin Cave, Gaqing Cave, Xiaoyan Cave, Xianren Cave, and Taoyuan Cave in Guansuo Subdistrict; Pinzhi Cave and Sansheng Cave in Shanguan Town; Taohua Cave and Hu Jia Cave in Dingyun Subdistrict; Han Yuan Cave and Daxiao Cave in Puli Township; Tianhua Cave and Gao Jia Cave in Xincheng Town, and others. Most of these caves are recorded in the ‘Guizhou Province Gazetteer and Scenic Spots Gazetteer,’ with Guanling Cave being particularly notable. This cave is a massive karst cave hidden within Guansuo Ridge, with an unknown depth and featuring underground rivers and waterfalls. It contains caves within caves, offering endless wonders.

6. Biota Fossil Geopark. The core area of Guanzhong ancient biota fossils—Wolonggang—was approved by the Ministry of Land and Resources of the State Council on 19 January 2004 to be established as the Guanzhong Fossil Group National Geopark. The Guiling ancient biological fossils were first discovered in 1929. They are characterised by a wide distribution, diverse species, exquisite forms, and excellent preservation, making them exceptionally rare. They are often referred to as ‘the world's unique fossil repository of the Late Triassic period.’

In the Triassic marine strata exposed over an area of more than 100 square kilometres along the northern bank of the Beipanjiang Grand Canyon in Xincheng Town, fossils of ancient marine organisms such as crinoids, ammonites, bivalves, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and Mosasaurus from before the mass extinction 230 million years ago are buried. The ‘marine dragon’ fossils unearthed include two new families, six new genera, and nine new species. These fossils are well-preserved, with exquisite forms, ranging from over 10 metres in length to just a few dozen centimetres. Some resemble the mythical dragons, others resemble turtles, and others resemble snakes. The coexisting echinoderm molluscs, crinoids, have distinct stems and arms, delicate and slender, with diverse and lifelike patterns resembling underwater forests, lotus pods emerging from water, withered lotus leaves swaying in the wind, swaying coconut trees, graceful bamboo and orchids, and dew-covered lotus flowers, all vibrant and colourful. Vertebrate fish vary in size and swimming patterns, with large round eyes and lips, and scales and tails that seem to move. Invertebrates such as ammonites, conodonts, and bivalves are extremely abundant. Manganese nodules, which are typically found in depths of 3 kilometres or more, are widespread. Together, they form an extremely rich and beautiful ancient deep-sea system, possessing significant scientific research, educational, and aesthetic value.

The marine reptiles of the Late Triassic Early Period in the Guanling region, exhibit transitional characteristics between Triassic and Jurassic-Cretaceous faunas; they demonstrate diversity in species composition; they exhibit distinct regional distribution patterns; and the fossils unearthed are numerous and diverse in species. Following expert research, these fossils were named using local place names for the first time, such as ‘Chinese Dragon,’ ‘Guangling Ichthyosaur,’ ‘Wayao Dragon,’ ‘Xinpu Ichthyosaur,’ and ‘Guizhou Ichthyosaur.’

7. Cultural relics and historical sites. Guanling has a long history and a rich cultural heritage, leaving behind numerous cultural relics and historical sites over the centuries. There are four provincial-level cultural relic protection units: the mysterious and enigmatic ‘Hongyan Heavenly Book,’ the ‘Huajiang Wall Inscriptions,’ the ‘Huajiang Iron Chain Bridge and Stone Carvings,’ and the World War II steel bridge ruins within the jurisdiction of Xinpu Town; there are also the Top Cloud City Walls, Shuangquan Temple, Guansuo Ancient Post Road, Imperial Library, Peifeng Pavilion, Damling Bridge, Linggui Temple Hall Without Beams, Zhou Xicheng's Tomb with His Robes, Miaoming Cave, Dafo Cave, Guanyin Cave, and Guansuo Cave Inscriptions, among 12 county-level cultural relic protection units.

8. Newly Developed Tourist Attractions

① Huangguoshu Qiyuling Scenic Area (formerly Guanling Qiyuan Valley Snow Town). Located in Yongning Town, Guanling Autonomous County, with a planned area of approximately 10 square kilometres, the entire scenic area is composed of five ‘encounter’ themes: ‘Street Encounter,’ ‘Ecological Encounter,’ ‘Snow Encounter,’ ‘White Horse Encounter,’ and ‘Night Sky Encounter.’ The scenic area features vibrant colours and European-style architecture, including the largest indoor four-season ski resort in Southwest China, as well as professional equestrian facilities and a variety of professional-level recreational sports activities.

② Guizhou Jiuxian Tourism Scenic Area. The scenic area is only a 2-hour drive from Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province, a 30-minute drive from the Huangguoshu Waterfall, and just a 10-minute drive from the Guanling Station of the Shanghai-Kunming High-Speed Railway. It takes only 40 minutes by high-speed rail to reach Guiyang, 4 hours to Chengdu, 3 hours to Chongqing, and 3 hours to Kunming, making transportation extremely convenient. The scenic area will integrate mass tourism, leisure, entertainment, and health and wellness, becoming a comprehensive tourist resort and leisure destination that combines cave sightseeing, cave rafting, cave tidal waves, the Nine Heavens Fairy Pool, a family-friendly playground, and cave therapy. It is renowned for its mystery, interactivity, leisure, and excitement, and is often referred to as the ‘World's Premier Cave Museum.’

③ Muchen Lishui Scenic Area. The scenic area is located in the southeastern part of Guanling, 146 kilometres from Guiyang, 60 kilometres from Anshun, and 177 kilometres from Xingyi. It is connected to the Huangguoshu Scenic Area to the north, 16 kilometres away. The scenic area combines mountains, water, rural landscapes, ancient banyan trees, waterfalls, hot springs, Three Kingdoms historical sites, Bouyei ethnic customs, gorges, cliffs, and lakes into a leisure tourism destination. The scenic area offers activities such as kayaking, leisurely bamboo raft rides, themed walking trails, and cycling paths along the river valley. The banks of the Muchen River within the scenic area are a concentrated area of the Bouyei ethnic group, where the ancient and simple folk customs are authentically preserved. The scenic area is currently developing projects that integrate health, leisure, entertainment, culture, and sports, including water-based entertainment projects, agricultural culture experience zones, and the Muchen Night Valley.

6. Infrastructure

The Guanling Autonomous County Sports Arena was put into use on 5 September 2010. It is currently one of the most well-equipped and high-standard sports arenas at the county level in our city, with a total construction area of 5,588 square metres and a total investment of 15 million yuan. The arena has 2,203 spectator seats, including 1,290 fixed seats, 684 retractable seats, 144 movable seats, and 85 VIP seats. The gymnasium is now equipped with electric hydraulic basketball hoops designated for international competitions, competition refereeing equipment, and a 7.62-metre LED electronic display screen for sports venues. The gymnasium can host various sports activities such as basketball, tennis, badminton, table tennis, billiards, and taekwondo. To date, the venue has hosted numerous major events, including: the 2010 International Youth Men's Basketball Four Continents Challenge; the 2011 Provincial Department of Geology and Mineral Resources and Department of Land and Resources ‘Geology Cup’ Basketball Tournament; the 2012 Provincial Senior Citizens' Games Table Tennis Competition; and the 2014