Batang, Sichuan

Batang Town (Standard Tibetan: འབའ˙ཐང; Chinese: 巴搪 or 八搪; Pinyin: Bātáng), or Xiaqiong Town (Chinese: 夏邛镇; Pinyin: Xiàqióng Zhèn), is a town in Batang County, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the China on the main route between Chengdu and Lhasa, Tibet, and just east of the Jinsha ('Golden Sands') River, or Upper Yangtse River. It is at an elevation of 2,700 metres (8,900 feet).

Descriptions, geography and products

The name is a transliteration from Tibetan meaning a vast grassland where sheep can be heard everywhere (from ba - the sound made by the sheep + Tibetan tang which means a plain or steppe).

According to one source the name in Chinese is 八搪, Pinyin: Bātáng, but, according to The Contemporary Atlas of China (1988), it should be written 巴搪, which also is rendered Bātáng in Pinyin. It is alternatively known as Xiaqiong.

Mr. A. Hosie, the British Consul at Chengdu, who visited Batang in September, 1904, reported that there was a small lamasery and the industries consisted of making black leather and a barley beer (chang). He reported that the population was about 2,000 with some 400 Tibetan houses and about 500 families "only 70 to 80 of which are Chinese." Batang also played a significant role for hundreds of years in the traditional tea and horse trade between China, Tibet and India, being an important caravan stop for mule trains on the 'tea horse road' between Ya'an in Sichuan and Lhasa.

Sichuan

Sichuan (Chinese: 四川; pinyin:  Sìchuān, formerly Szechwan or Szechuan) is a province in southwest China. The capital is Chengdu, a key economic centre of Western China.

The name of the province is an abbreviation of Sì Chuānlù (四川路), or "Four circuits of rivers", which is itself abbreviated from Chuānxiá Sìlù (川峡四路), or "Four circuits of rivers and gorges", named after the division of the existing circuit into four during the Northern Song dynasty.

History

Ba-Shu Kingdoms

Throughout its prehistory and early history, the region and its vicinity in the Yangtze region was the cradle of unique local civilizations which can be dated back to at least the 15th century BC and coinciding with the later years of the Shang and Zhou dynasties in North China. Sichuan was referred to in ancient Chinese sources as Ba-Shu (巴蜀), an abbreviation of the kingdoms of Ba and Shu which existed within the Sichuan Basin. Ba included Chongqing and the land in eastern Sichuan along the Yangtze and some tributary streams, while Shu included today's Chengdu, its surrounding plain and adjacent territories in western Sichuan.

Sichuan (Sichuan University)

Sichuan (Sichuan University) Women's Volleyball Club is a professional volleyball team which play in Chinese Volleyball League.

Team member 2013-2014

Former players

Chen Jing

Zhao Jing