Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County

Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, or Shizhu County for short(石柱土家族自治县 Pinyin: Shízhù Tǔjiāzú Zìzhìxiàn) is located in southeastern Chongqing, China. It is south to Yangtze River, and neighboured to Pengshui County southernly, Fengdu County southwesternly, Zhong County northwesternly and Wanzhou District northernly, which are County-level divisions of Chongqing Municipality, and also to Lichuan CLC of Hubei Province easternly. It's in the center zone of Three Gorges Reservoir Region, and the only autonomous county for ethnic minorities in this region.

Geographic condition

Area: 3012.51 km²

Population: 510,000

County seat: Nanbin Town(南宾镇)

Geographic coordinates: 29°39′-30°32′ North, 107°59′-108°34′, East

Shizhu County covers 3010 km² with 856,200 mu park and farm land. By the end of 1992, the population of Shizhu County had increased up to 462,100, of whom 424,900 are the rural residents of Shizhu County. The existing capital of the County is Nanbin Town which will not be involved in the submersion of the water storage of the reservoir region of the Three Gorges Project. Shizhu County is located in the subtropical monsoon zone with the clear seasons. It is warm and wet with enough rain.

Resources

The forests cover 10.97% of the total area of Shizhu County. There are many precious varieties of trees in the forests, such as metasequoias, tricuspid trees, ormosia firs and ginkgos. There are also more than 50 varieties of trees in the territories of the county for production purposes, such as tung trees and mulberries. In addition, there are more than 170 varieties of wild animals in the forests of the county such as tigers, leopards, otters and wild boars. One can also see more than 10 varieties of food mushrooms, such as xianggu mushrooms, edible fungus and zhusun mushrooms. In addition, there are various Chinese medical herbs such as "Coptis chinensis" and "Gastrodia elata". Shizhu County is particularly famous for "Coptis chinensis" and the Chinese people usually call it the home town of "Coptis chinensis". More than 20 varieties of ores have been found in Shizhu County, such as coal, natural gas, copper, iron, silver, cadmium, lead, gold and barite.

Three Gorges Reservoir Region

4 townships, 26 villages and 16 fabrication/ ore-mining enterprises have been/ will have been involved in the submersion of the reservoir water storage of the Three Gorges Project. Shizhu County is involved in the submersion of the reservoir water storage of the Three Gorges Project as follows.· The emigrants living below the water level of the reservoir storage of the Three Gorges Project are 8,400 in Shizhu County;· The houses/ buildings with the total construction area of 329,700 m² have been/ will have been submerged; · 6900 mu citrus and farm land has been/ will have been submerged, representing 4.59% of the total area of citrus and farm land in Shizhu County;· 10 km highways have been/ will have been submerged;· The relocation compensation investment is 272 million RMB yuan.

External links

* [http://www.zgsz.gov.cn The official website of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County] (in Chinese)