Hanzhong

Hanzhou City, the pearl on the upper reaches of the Hanshui River, is located on the southwest of Shaanxi Province. It is a beautiful historical city backs against on to Qinling Mountain in the north and leans against Bashan Mountain in the south. It does not have hot summer and chilly winter, and boasts plenty of water and fertile land. It has been a city of military importance in the bordering area of Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan and Hubei provinces, and a famous historical and cultural city in China since ancient times.

The time-honored Hanzhou City was the territory of the Shang Dynasty as early as in the mid 11th century BC. In 325BC, the Qin State set up Hanzhong Prefacture. In 206BC, Liu Bang took Hanzhong as his base to build the world famous Western Han Dynasty (206BC-8AD). In the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), Zhu Geliang, prime minister of the Shu Kingdom, dispatched troops to Qishan Mountain six times, and launched northern expedition to the Wei Kingdom with Hanzhong as the base. From the Western Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), numerous politicians, strategists, scientists, poets and scholars left their footprints here. The Baoxie Plank Road, the Stone Gate, the Cliffside Stone Carvings, the Ancient Han Dynasty Terrace, and many other historic sites add glister of historical culture to the ancient city, and make it become a tourist destination home and abroad.

As a national level historical and cultural city, Hanzhou abounds in tourist resources. In the city there are 2 key cultural relics sites under the national protection, 18 under the provincial protection, and 93 under the county and district level protection; 2 national level nature reserves, 7 provincial level tourist resorts; and 5 provincial level forest parks. The most attractive sites include the Tomb of Zhang Qian -- the Pioneer of the Silk Road, the Tomb of Cai Lun -- the Inventor of Paper, Ancient Han Altar -- the Old Palace of Liu Bang, who was the King of Han Regime, the Altar of the Inaugural Ceremony of Han Xin, the chief general of Han army, the Temple of Zhang Liang, the first Han Dynasty Minister, the Wu Hou Temple, the Relic of Dingjun Mountain Battlefield, the Baohe Cliff Bridge, the Stone Gate, and Stone-carving South Lake, etc.