Mengzi County
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mengzi County | |
| — County — | |
| Chinese transliteration(s) | |
| - Characters | 蒙自县 |
|---|---|
| - Pinyin | Měngzì Xiàn |
  Mengzi County
|
|
| Coordinates: | |
| Country | China |
| Province | Yunnan |
| Prefecture | Honghe |
Mengzi County (Chinese: 蒙自县; Pinyin: Měngzì Xiàn) is a county, in the southeast of Yunnan, China, in the Honghe prefecture about 12 miles east of Gejiu. It is situated in the center of a fertile valley basin on a plateau 1000 meters above sea level.
Like nearby Gejiu, mining, mostly of tin, is a large part of its economy.
In 1886, a French convention chose Mengzi to be the center of trade in Yunnan province for importing and exporting goods via Tongking in Vietnam. Facilities for this opened 2 years later.
Its main exports were tin and opium, and the main imports were mostly textiles (primarily cotton) and tobacco. As a trading center, the city gradually began to lose its importance beginning from the early 20th century.
When Japanese troops drove Beijing and Tianjin university professors, students, and administrators out of those cities, and then later out of Changsha as well, the academics made their own long march to Yunnan Province. They first established themselves in Mengzi, but after a year or so moved on to the provincial capital, Kunming. This was Lianda, or the Southwest Associated Universities.
Recently, the prefectural government has moved from nearby Gejiu to Mengzi. New wealthy suburbs and large government offices have sprung up as a result, but much of the poverty remains, creating a large wealth gap within the city.
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
 |
This Yunnan location article is a stub. You can help by expanding it. |
