Yingjiang County: A major access on the southern silk road

Yingjiang is located at southwest frontier of China and western end of the Hengduan Mountain Range. It is a county subordinated to Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. There is neither severe cold in winter nor intense heat in summer, but agreeable sunshine, mild wind, moderate humidity, beautiful flowers, and fragrant fruits. Embraced by the green mountains, lots of alluvial river basins lie in the district and the largest and prettiest of them is the Yingjiang Basin, one of the eight biggest basins in Yunnan. The county is traversed by the Great Yingjiang River, the beautiful and majestic scenic attraction at the national level, hence its name.

Long before, Yingjiang had served as the important passageway on the ancient Southern Silk Road, which connected China with South Asia and India-Pakistan Subcontinent. It was Ailao County under Yongchang Prefecture in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220AD) (having jurisdiction over Dehong District). In the Ming Dynasty, the central government assigned Magistrate Ganya and Deputy Magistrate Zhanda to govern the two banks of the Great Yingjiang River. In 1958, the State Council approved the combination of the original Yingjiang and Lianshan counties into the present Yingjiang County. The county adjoins Myanmar to the west and people of the same nationality live in both countries, who have dealt with each other in a friendly term for centuries and carried out trade frequently. In early 1990s, Yingjiang was approved to be a provincial-level port (grade two at the national level) by the People’s Government of Yunnan Province.

For centuries, people of Han, Dai, Jingpo, Lisu, De'ang and Achang have lived in this piece of rich land prosperously. They nourished a special and colorful national culture of them. Here, visitors can witness the thousand-year-old but still unfailing Dai Opera, the breathtaking "Guangbang" Drum Dance, the lyrical "Wenbeng" Greeting Melody, and the boisterous Three-string Dance. In addition, there are several national festivals such as the Water-splashing Festival, Munao Zongge Festival and Kuoshi Festival that are like many bunches of blooming flowers and cups of intoxicating wine.

Good products from the earth are nature's treasures and a remarkable place produces outstanding people. The great nature gives Yingjiang beautiful mountains and rivers and also cultivates its admirable history of people. On this piece of fertile land, there is the rough and untamed Binglang River, the precipitous Tiger Leaping Rock, the charming Kaibangya, the first mother rubber tree of China, the biggest King of Banyan in China, the vast expanse of the Zhina Cloud Sea, the elegant Yunyan Buddhist Tower, the four strategic passes of the Ming Dynasty, the Tongbiguan Nature Reserve, and the deep valleys and swift waterfalls of Kachang Gonglao. In history, it was once the "City of Ten Thousand Elephants" of the Chengxiang State and the very place on which the world-shocking Ma Jiali Event took place. It is the homeland of Dao Anren, a Dai forerunner of democratic revolution and member of the China Democratic League. Among the elites of this land are members and alternate members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and chief executives of Dehong Autonomous Prefecture.

Yingjiang is subject to the subtropical monsoon climate with fertile land, sufficient sunshine, and plentiful rainfall. It teems with high quality rice, sugarcane, fruits, southern medicines and spices. Its excellent natural conditions make it a national-level base of commodity grain and sugarcane base. The county is covered with luxuriating vegetation and the forest coverage reaches 62%. Moreover, the county possesses many rare species, including white-eyebrow gibbon, Asia elephant, Yunnan buffalo, presbytis phayrei, Nycticedus coucang, green peacock, and several rare plants such as Yunnan gumhar, kapur, mayten, and Pelvetia silquosa. Several dozens of rivers in all sizes that stem mainly from the Great Yingjiang Water System run constantly among forests and valleys, reserving extremely rich hydroenergy resources and making the county the largest one in power resources Dehong Prefecture. The rich power resources lay a foundation for the county's industrial development in fields of electrolytic aluminum, silicon smelting, and cement. With the nonstop development of the economy, there will be more and more new industries replacing the traditional ones to become new economic backbone of the county.

Rich Resources

Yingjiang has a vast expanse of land. Its territory is 4,429 square kilometers in area and the arable land takes up an area of 32,000 hectares, ranking first in the whole prefecture in the per capita land occupation. There are still 110,666.67 hectares of land waiting for exploitation. The county teems with paddy, sugarcane, rape, corn, potato, southern medicine, nut, spice and tropical fruits. There are some 43 rivers in all sizes that stem mainly from the Great Yingjiang Water System, reserving about 2.148 million kilowatt of total hydroenergy. The county is the main power site in the prefecture.

Port Yingjiang adjoins Myanmar to the west with a boundary line of 214.6 kilometers. Possessing some 33 frontier passageways, it is one of the important inland ports in Southwest China.

The city of ten thousand elephants was the seat of the tenth Magistrate Ganya and was of remarkable scale. According to the legend, there were over ten thousand elephants serving for war or as labors in the city. The city was latter destroyed during the war. (Source: the Publicity Department of Yingjiang County Committee)

Yingjiang History

Four Strategic Passes of the Ming Dynasty

In 22nd year during the reign of Wangli in the Ming Dynasty (1594), Chen Yongbin, governor of Yunnan applied with the central government to set up eight defending passes in the frontier areas of Yunnan, and four of them were within the territory of Yingjiang.

Ma Jiali Event

In 1875 during the reign of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, Ma Jiali, a grade-two interpreter with the English Consulate led English army to invade into Mangyun of Yingjiang and aroused so intense anger among local people that they killed him later. This was the world-shocking "Ma Jiali Event". Later, the government of the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign with the British Government the Sino-Britain Yantai Treaty, which humiliated the Chinese Nation and forfeited its sovereignty.

The Ancient Zhina Blockhouse was one of the six stone blockhouses built along the important lines for frontier defense sake by Hu Qirong(in 1823 during the reign of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty), an official of Tengyue District after his application with the central government.

The Mother Rubber Tree of China grows on the hillside of the Phoenix Mountain of Xincheng City. It was introduced from Malaysia in 1904 by Dao Anren, a Dai forerunner of democratic revolution. It was the earliest rubber tree to be implanted in China.

Dao Anren (1872-1913), 23rd Magistrate Ganya of the 21st generation, once studied in Japan and joined the China Democratic League as a follower of Mr. Sun Yat-sen. He was one of the major leaders of the Tengyue Uprising.

The Bill of the Xincheng Bank was printed by Dao Anren in 33rd year during the reign of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1907) when he studied in Japan in preparation for the establishment of agricultural and industrial entity in China.

Being one of the major cultural relics at the provincial level, the Yunyan Pagoda was firstly built in 1947, and it is composed of 40 small pagodas with a height of 20.6m based on a square shape. Suspended on top of the pagoda are 286 bronze bells and metal chips.

Pattra Leaves Scripture, written in Bali characters and being sutra of Mahayana.

The Water-splashing Festival is the traditional festival of Dai and De'ang nationalities, held on the New Year's Day in Dai Calendar in middle of April. “Munao Zongge”is the traditional festival of Jingpo Nationality. It used to be held during sacrifice offering and ceremony on 15th of the first month of each year.

The Kuoshi Festival is also called the New Year Celebrating Festival. It is a grand event of Lisu people, who, during the festival, male and female, old and young, dance and singing hand in hand for the whole night around a bonfire.