Tingzhou, Longyan

The town of Tingzhou (汀州) is the seat of the Changting County government, Party and police.

History

For information on Tingzhou Town's colorful past, see the wiki pages on the county it seats and on the former prefecture it seated.

Reference of Place-name

The county town bears the name of the large pre-Republican prefecture which it long administered; Tingzhou fu encompassed Ninghua and Qingliu counties in Sanming municipality as well as the entirety of Longyan.

Religion

The town is the seat of a modest cathedral built by Roman Catholic bishop Johann Lesinski. To this day the territory of the Imperial-era prefecture Tingzhou fu remains, in the eyes of the Holy See, a diocese under the Metropolitan at Fuzhou. The cathedral has no such status though under the Patriotic Catholic administration, and in fact is little used even as a church.

Notes and references

Coordinates: 25°50′05″N 116°20′52″E / 25.8346°N 116.3479°E / 25.8346; 116.3479

Longyan

Longyan (simplified Chinese: 龙岩; traditional Chinese: 龍岩; pinyin:  Lóngyán; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lêng-nâ or Liong-nâ; literally: "dragon rock"; Hakka: Liùng-ngàm) is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Fujian province, People's Republic of China, bordering Guangdong to the south and Jiangxi to the west.

History

In 736 AD, (the Tang Dynasty), the prefecture of Tingzhou was established in western Fujian, or Minxi (闽西), administering Changting, Huanglian and Xinluo counties. Six years later Xinluo was named Longyan for the nearby cavern, a famous scenic site.

Due to the ancient conflicts in central China and aggression from northern tribes, many Han people moved from central China to Longyan.

in 1734, the area was designated Longyan Prefecture by the imperial court. In 1913, it reverted to its former name Longyan County and in 1981, Longyan City was established.

Minxi was a strategic base during the Chinese Civil War.

It's said that tens of thousands of people from Longyan joined the PLA during the Chinese Civil War, and nearly every family had someone sacrificed lives on behalf of CCP side. There are more than 26,000 locals that took part in the Long March which in total is carried out by 86,000. Moreover, during 1955 and 1968, 68 people from Longyan were awarded Brigadier General or above, which accounts for 82% of all generals from Fujian province at the time, therefore, Longyan is also named after "The Home of Generals".