Changting

Changting, also known as Tingzhou, is situated in the west of Fujian Province, and is a stronghold on the border of Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, and a famous old revolutionary base. The whole county has 11 towns and 8 villages, with a total population of 480,000 and a total area of 3,099 square kilometers, and is the fifth largest county in Fujian Province.

Changting has a hilly upland terrain and is of a subtropical maritime monsoon climate. It has an average temperature of 18.3 °C with the lowest temperature of 7.4°C and highest 39.4°C, and an average annual precipitation of 1,731.9mm, suitable for growing several kinds of grains and cash crops.

Changting is a famous national level historic cultural city, the capital of the Hakkas, and one of the birthplaces of ancient civilization in Fujian. Established as a county in the 24th year of the Kaiyuan reign in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Changting was the locus of the canton and the government office and is the political, economic and cultural center of western Fujian. The Tingjiang River, originated within Changting, is the mother river of the Hakkas; Tingzhou County was a representative place inhabited by the Hakkas in history and quite a lot of Hakkas from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as Southeast Asian countries came here to trace their roots.

Changting boasts a historic cultural heritage of a long history and well-preserved relics inside the county include the ancient city gate, the Sanyuan Pavilion and the Baozhu Gate of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Chaotian Gate of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the ancient city walls from the Tang to the Ming Dynasty, the Temple of Literature of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and the Tingzhou Examination Hall of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the twin cypresses of the Tang Dynasty, the Shuangyin Tower of the Song Dynasty and the Zhuzi Ancestral Temple of the Qing Dynasty, etc. In the county, there are altogether seven key cultural relics sites under the national protection, six cultural relics sites under the provincial protection, and twenty-seven cultural relics sites under the county-level protection.