The county's northern border is formed by the Huai River and neighboring Wuhe County.[1] The county is also home to the Huayuan Lake, which totals about 30 square kilometers in size.[1]
Climate
The average annual temperature for Fengyang County is 14.9 °C, and the average annual precipitation is 904.4 mm.[1]
Climate data for Fengyang (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010)
During the Xia, Shang and early Zhou dynasties, the Dongyi peoples inhabited this area and were collectively known as the Huaiyi after the Huai River. During the late Western Zhou Period and the early Spring and Autumn period, the Dongyi became increasingly sinicized and formed their own states. During the late Spring and Autumn period, the once-powerful Dongyi state of Xu was pressured from all directions and destroyed through a series of wars with its neighbors, such as the Chu State and the Wu State. Another Dongyi State was the small Zhongli State, which was a part of the Huaiyi Confederation led by the State of Xu. Tombs belonging to the royalty of the Zhongli State were discovered in excavations between 2005 and 2008 near Fengyang. Eventually, the Huaiyi peoples were either pushed south or assimilated.
Ming Dynasty
Fengyang's best known historical site is linked with the name of the county's most famous native, Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398). Although coming from a poor family, he became an important rebel leader and, later, the founder of China's Ming Dynasty. Once entrenched as the Hongwu Emperor in the nearby Nanjing, he honored the memory of his father, Zhu Wusi (d. 1344), and his mother, Lady Chen, by posthumously raising them to imperial dignity, and building for them an imperial-style mausoleum, known as Ming Huangling (明皇陵, literally, "Ming Imperial Mausoleum").[4] The emperor even started building the new imperial capital, named Zhongdu (中都; 'The Central Capital') near his childhood hometown, but the project was eventually abandoned.[4] The stone figures of the Huangling Mausoleum have survived, and have been re-erected at the original location, some 7 km (4.3 mi)south of the county seat ((32°48′50″N117°31′10″E / 32.81389°N 117.51944°E / 32.81389; 117.51944)).[5] The mausoleum statuary and the remains of the capital-building project are protected as a national historic site known as "Zhongdu Imperial City of the Ming and the Imperial Mausoleum's Statuary" (明中都皇故城及皇陵石刻).[6] In 1370, existing counties in the area were merged into a new county, named Linhuai County.[7]
Qing Dynasty
In 1754, Linhuai County was restructured into a new county called Fengyang County, which serves as the descendant of the modern Fengyang County.[7]
Recent History
The county's borders are jurisdiction has changed numerous times since its Qing-era formation.[7] From 1959 to 1960, during the Great Leap Forward, 60,245 people of the county died, occupying 17.7 percent to its total population of 335,698. 8,404 complete households were wiped out. [8]
Key highways in the county include the G36 Expressway, Anhui Provincial Highway 101, Anhui Provincial Highway 207, Anhui Provincial Highway 307, and Anhui Provincial Highway 310.[1] The Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Rail also passes through the county.[1]
^MacFarquhar, Roderick (1997). The Origins of the Cultural Revolution- 3. The Coming of the Cataclysm 1961-1966. Oxford University Press and Columbia University Press. p. 1.
