Clockwise from top: The view of Mianyang City from Fule Park, Yuewang Mansion at night, Night scene along Fujiang River in Mianyang City, Ziyun Pavilion in Xishan Park of Mianyang
Mianyang (simplified Chinese: 绵阳; traditional Chinese: 綿陽; pinyin: Miányáng; Wade–Giles: Mien2-yang2; Sichuanese romanization: Mien2-iang2; formerly known as Mienchow, Chinese: 綿州; pinyin: Mianzhou; Sichuanese romanization: Miencheo; lit.'Mian Prefecture') is the second largest prefecture-level city of Sichuan province in Southwestern China. It borders Nanchong City to the east, Suining City to the south, Deyang City to the southwest, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture to the west, Gansu Province to the north, and Guangyuan City to the northeast.[3] Located in north-central Sichuan covering an area of 20,281 square kilometres (7,831 sq mi) consisting of Jiangyou, a county-level city, five counties, and three urban districts.[4] Its total population was 4,868,243 people at the 2020 Chinese census, of whom 2,232,865 live in its built-up (or metro) area made of three urban districts.
History
Mianyang, which was known as Fuxian (Fu County) in ancient times,also known as Fu County and Mianzhou，[5] had advanced in agriculture during the Qin (221−206 BCE) and Han (206 BCE−220 CE) dynasties. It has a history of over 2,200 years since the Emperor Gaozu of Han established the first county in this area in 201 BCE. Due to its advantageous location, it had always been a town of great military importance and formed a natural defence for Chengdu.[6]
Mianyang is home to the CAEP and Science City, an immense Military Research Complex which was the site of the development of China's first nuclear bomb.[7]
The city proper itself was only lightly damaged by the earthquake of 12 May 2008. However, Beichuan County, which is in the prefecture, was among the most severely hit of all disaster regions following the earthquake, including the Beichuan High School campus where more than 1,000 students lost their lives after two main buildings collapsed.[8] Around 80% of the county's buildings are said to have collapsed, including its main government building.[9] The casualty toll for the quake in Mianyang Prefecture as of 7 June 2008, was 21,963 people killed, 167,742 injured, and 8,744 people missing.[10][11]
Geography and climate
Mianyang is at the northwestern end of the Sichuan Basin, on the upper to middle reaches of the Fu River. Its administrative area ranges in latitude from 30° 42' to 33° 03' N and in longitude from 103° 45' to 105° 43' E. Bordering prefectures are Guangyuan to the northeast, Nanchong to the east, Suining to the south, Deyang to the southwest, and the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture to the west. It also borders Gansu for a small section in the north.[12]
Mianyang has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (KöppenCwa) and is largely mild and humid, with four distinct seasons. Winter is short, mild, and foggy, though precipitation is low. January averages 5.3 °C (41.5 °F), and while frost may occur, snow is rare. Summers are long, hot, and humid, with highs often exceeding 30 °C (86 °F). The daily average in July, the warmest month, is 25.7 °C (78.3 °F).The average annual temperature is between 18 °C and 21 °C.[3] Rainfall is light in winter and can be heavy in summer, and more than 70% of the annual total occurs from May to September. The annual frost-free period across most of the prefecture lasts from 252 to 300 days, and there are only 1,100 hours of sunshine annually, which is not even 30% of the possible total.
Climate data for Mianyang, elevation 523 m (1,716 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1971–present)
The city has highway and railway connections to several major cities and is on the road from Xi'an to the provincial capital of Chengdu as well as the Baocheng Railway running from Baoji in Shaanxi province to Chengdu.[17]
Many large-scale enterprises, such as Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Ltd., Sichuan DND Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Jiuzhou Electronics Group, Shuangma Cement Group, and Changcheng Special Steel Company also have their home in Mianyang.[19] Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Ltd. was China's largest television manufacturer in 2004, and majority-owned by the city of Mianyang and the province of Sichuan.[20] The company provided two-thirds of the city of Mianyang's revenue, and its chairman and managing director Zhao Yong was until late 2004 the city's deputy mayor.[21]
Mianyang is an important national defence, scientific research, and production base, consisting of 18 institutes including the China Academy of Engineering Physics and the China Aerodynamics Research Institute. Moreover, it houses 50 large- and medium-size enterprises and six science colleges.[22]
The provincial government will hand over greater administrative powers of economic management at the provincial-level authority to propel the development of Mianyang. The new economy management authority will pay close attention to the construction of the scientific city. The provincial committee party and government are presently drafting the "Opinions on Propelling China Scientific City Construction" report which is expected to come out soon.[23]
There are many universities and colleges in the city, and it is well-known as a science and technology centre.
The best known of these is Southwest University of Science and Technology, with a campus of 4000 mu (about 260 hectares (640 acres)). There is a wide-band multimedia campus network, which is connected to the Internet. The student dorm has access to telephone, Internet, and TV. There are over 900,000 copies of books and over 10,000 electronic books in the library. The studying and living facilities are all on the campus.[24]
Mianyang Normal University As of September 2023, the school has three campuses: Gaoxin Campus, Youxian Campus and Fenggu Campus. The campus covers an area of nearly 2,000 acres and has a construction area of nearly 500,000 square meters.[26]
Mianyang Vocational and Technical College， As of June 2023, the school covers an area of 860.08 acres, with a school building area of 341,000 square meters and a total fixed asset value of 630 million yuan, including 15,700 sets of teaching experimental training equipment,983,800 paper books in the library and 612,000 electronic books; it has 8 secondary teaching units, 2 undergraduate majors and 40 junior college majors; there are 802 in-service faculty and staff, 239 senior professional titles, and 335 master's degrees and above; higher vocational, secondary vocational, applied undergraduate,[27]
Tianfu College of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics，According to the school's official website in June 2024, the school has four campuses in Chengdu, Deyang and Mianyang, covering an area of 1,909 acres; it has 9 secondary colleges, offering 43 undergraduate majors and 30 junior college majors; there are 1,413 faculty and staff and 32,880 students; the library has 1.54 million paper books and more than 1.21 million electronic books.,[28]
Sichuan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine,According to the information on the school's official website in June 2024, the school covers an area of nearly 1,000 acres; it has 12 colleges and departments, offering 30 higher vocational majors; it has 534 full-time teachers and nearly 10,000 students.[29]
City College of Southwest University of Science and Technology,As of March 2024, the school has two campuses, Anzhou and Youxian, with a planned area of 1,200 acres, a completed and planned building area of nearly 630,000 square meters, teaching and scientific research equipment worth about 106 million yuan,and a total of more than 3.7 million books and resources of various types; there are 7 secondary colleges, a total of 70 undergraduate and junior college majors; there are 23,000 students.[30]
Sichuan College of Culture and Art,The predecessor is the Mianyang Art College of Sichuan Conservatory of Music, a secondary college of Sichuan Conservatory of Music. As of September 2024, the school has two campuses in Mianyang and Zitong;it has 17 secondary colleges, 46 undergraduate majors (including 1 Sino-foreign cooperative major), 34 junior college majors, 3 provincial first-class undergraduate major construction sites; and more than 20,000 full-time students.[31]
China Academy of Engineering Physics Staff College,Founded in 1978, it is an adult higher education institution established by the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP), the only strategic weapons research and development unit in my country, with the approval of the Ministry of Education.Before 2004, it was mainly engaged in adult higher education. Mr. Yu Daguang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, served as the second president of the college and is now the honorary president .[32]
Mianyang Branch of Civil Aviation Flight Academy. The Mianyang Branch of the Civil Aviation Flight University of China is located in Mianyang, the second largest city in Sichuan Province, which is famous as "the birthplace of Li Bai and China's Science and Technology City".It is 5 kilometers away from the city center at a true position of 167 degrees. It is a training branch engaged in civil aviation transport aircraft pilot training that integrates flight teaching training and air transport flight. The branch has the training capabilities of "commercial pilot license", additional instrument rating and "private pilot license".[33]
Sichuan Preschool Teachers College.According to the school's official website in June 2024, the school has three campuses in Mianyang and Jiangyou, covering an area of more than 970 acres and a construction area of 262,700 square meters; it has 7 teaching units and 24 majors; there are more than 11,000 students and 747 faculty and staff.[34]
Sichuan Automotive Vocational and Technical College, According to the school's official website in May 2024, the school covers an area of 998 acres (500 acres planned), with a building area of 163,112 square meters; the library has a collection of 565,000 books and teaching equipment worth 60.4166 million yuan; it has 5 secondary colleges and offers 33 higher vocational majors.[35]
Sichuan Electronic Machinery Vocational and Technical College, As of December 2023, the school covers an area of 270,013.5 square meters, with a total building area of 278,485.37 square meters, 172,030.24 square meters of teaching, scientific research and auxiliary rooms, a total value of scientific research equipment assets of 51.6959 million yuan, and 956,700 paper books; it has 6 secondary colleges, 34 majors (40 professional directions); there are 361 full-time teachers and 10,077 full-time junior college students.[36]
Mianyang Youth Mechanical and Electrical Engineering School, Mianyang Mechanical and Electrical Engineering School was founded in 1993. It is a private secondary vocational school approved by the Mianyang Municipal Education Administrative Department.[37]
Mianyang High-tech Zone Experimental High School[55]
People
It is the hometown of the famous poet Li Bai, and boasts many historical relics of the Three Kingdoms period.[56]
Li Shunxian was a poet of Persian descent flourished during the Former Shu period (907–925). She had two brothers, Li Xun [zh], a poet and pharmacologist, author of Overseas Pharmacopoeia (海藥本草; Hǎiyào Běncǎo), and Li Xuan, also a pharmacologist and alchemist.[57] Their religious background has been suggested as Zoroastrian or Nestorian Christian by Li Guotao and Lo Hsiang-lin, respectively. In his "The Transmission of Foreign Medicine via the Silk Roads in Medieval China: A Case Study of Haiyao Bencao", Chen Ming states that he is "inclined to agree with Lo Hsiang-lin, and to conclude that Li Xun was probably a Nestorian who was influenced by Taoism". However, both suppositions lack solid evidence and remain to be proven.[58]
Li Bifeng is a democracy advocate and a house churchChristian, founder of an organization of conscience-based care for conducting written reports on the living conditions of laid-off workers, women, and children. He was imprisoned several times by Chinese authorities.[59]
Chinese food blogger and internet celebrity Li Ziqi is from Pingwu County on Mianyang and shoots most of her video content in the surrounding countryside.
According to Asia Harvest, estimates from 2020 suggest that of the entire population (4,057,601) about 5.43% is Christian (220,501), including Christians within the "unofficial churches", i.e., the Catholic underground church and the Protestant house churches.[63]
The first congregation was established in the 1820s in a small town named Bailin, now under the administration of Youxian District. A neo-Gothic church was subsequently built there and was expanded in 1913 by Alexandre Perrodin, which is known today as Bailin Catholic Church [zh].[66] In 1883, after ministering in the District of Long-ngan-fou (modern-day Pingwu) for three years, Joseph-Marie-Félix Hatinguais took charge of the District of Lio-pin. He directed the mission work there until died of typhoid fever on 16 October 1886. He was buried at the Annunciation Seminary in Ho-pa-tchang (modern-day Bailu).[67] A purgatorial society existed in Beichuan before 1951.[68]
Mianyang region was historically part of the MEP's Western Szechwan Mission, and is now under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Chengdu.[69] According to Asia Harvest, estimates from 2020 suggest that of the entire population (4,057,601) about 1.57% is Catholic (63,896), including underground church Catholics.[63]
Fourteen church buildings are included in a list in Annals of Religion in Mianyang,[70] namely:
List of CMS missionaries stationed in Mianyang by 1917.
Protestantism was brought to Mianyang in 1894 by Anglicanmissionaries of the Church Missionary Society (CMS),[77] who subsequently made the city their mission headquarters.[78] Alice Entwistle was largely responsible for the opening of this region for missionary work.[79] Or according to Annals of Religion in Mianyang, in 1885, a small mission church known as Gospel Church was already founded in Mianyang by Alfred Arthur Phillips and Gertrude Emma Wells of the Church Missionary Society.[80] However, Gospel Church, Jiangyou is traditionally regarded as the first CMS church in the Mianyang region.[81] In the late 1880s, two women representing the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society were working in this city.[82]
In 1908, William Munn established Hua Ying Primary School in Nanshan subdistrict (present-day Nanshan High School [zh]) and served as the first principal until 1916, when Frederick J. Watt assumed the position.[83] In 1918, Alfred Arthur Phillips established the first school for the dumb and the blind in Sichuan at Huang Family's Alley, Fucheng District.[84]Frederick Boreham, future Archdeacon of Cornwall, served as a missionary in Mianyang (Mien Yong) under the CMS from 1917 to 1924, and again from 1928 to 1934.[85]
After the split of the Diocese of Western China into Diocese of East Szechwan and Diocese of West Szechwan in 1936, Mianyang came under the authority of the latter which was supported by the CMS.[86]
Santai County (formerly known as Tungchwan, pinyin: Tongchuan) was a centre of Quakerism, which was introduced in 1887,[87] and again in 1894 by Friends' Foreign Mission Association (FFMA).[88] Santai Mission became the largest mission branch of FFMA's Northern District. It was organized as Santai Monthly Meeting by Isaac Mason in 1900, under the administration of Szechwan Yearly Meeting.[89]
According to Asia Harvest, estimates from 2020 suggest that of the entire population (4,057,601) about 3.86% is Protestant (156,605; termed "Evangelicals"), including house church Protestants.[63]
Six church buildings are included in a list in Annals of Religion in Mianyang,[92] namely:
·Mianyang Rice Noodles (绵阳米粉): One of the famous traditional dishes of the Han nationality in the Mianyang area with a history of more than 1,800 years. There are three flavours: red soup, clear soup, and clear red soup.[96] Mianyang rice noodles are one of the famous traditional foods of the Han people in Mianyang, Sichuan, with a history of more than 1,800 years. The production process requires multiple kneading, pressing and other processes to make the rice noodles softer and chewier. After the rice noodles are cooked, various seasonings and ingredients can be added according to personal taste.[97]
·Lengzhanzhan (冷沾沾): Lengzhanzhan originated in Mianyang Jiangyou. It is a snack that uses toothpicks to weave different dishes of meat and vegetables together and then dip different oil dishes.[98]
· Mianyang rusty pancake/Guokui (绵阳脆皮锅盔):Crispy Guokui is one of the specialty snacks in Mianyang, Sichuan. It is golden in color, salty and delicious, and has clear crispy texture. Known for its fragrance, it comes in a variety of flavors.[99] In the middle of the rusty pancake there is a dragon's eye like head of the pot kui, just pull out the eye and you can lift out the whole pot kui and it won't break at all.[100]
·Zitong shortcake (梓潼酥饼): Zitong shortcake is a traditional famous food of Han nationality. It is made of wheat flour, lard, white sugar, sesame and other raw materials by traditional handicraft.[100]
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^21,963 deaths in Mianyang as of June 7, 18:00 CST,绵阳市抗震救灾情况通报 (in Chinese). Official website of Mianyang Government. 2008-06-08. Archived from the original on 2008-06-13. Retrieved 2008-06-08.
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^Zhang, Ping (16 September 2018). "'残酷的童话'：狱中作家李必丰小说在柏林获赞" ["A Cruel Fairy Tale": Li Bifeng's Novel Well Received in Berlin]. dw.com (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 3 December 2023.
^Zhang, Dengjun (2 June 2013). "古人的智慧是我创作的养分：绵阳画家王久江的收藏故事" [The wisdom of the ancients is the nourishment for my creation: the story of Wang Jiujiang's antique collection, a painter from Mianyang]. Mianyang Evening (in Simplified Chinese). Mianyang. Archived from the original on 15 May 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
^China Continuation Committee, ed. (1915). 中華基督教會年鑑 [The China Church Year Book] (PDF) (in Traditional Chinese). Shanghai: The Commercial Press. p. 114.
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^Wang, Yi (25 September 2007). "基督教在四川的历史要略" [Outline of the History of Protestant Christianity in Sichuan]. pacilution.com (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 1 December 2023.
^Gray, G. F. S. (1996). Anglicans in China: A History of the Zhonghua Shenggong Hui (Chung Hua Sheng Kung Huei). New Haven, CT: The Episcopal China Mission History Project. p. 35. CiteSeerX10.1.1.695.4591.
^"绵阳特色小吃--米粉居然有1800多年历史历史，制作如此简单" [Mianyang specialty snacks - rice noodles actually have a history of more than 1800 years, the production is so simple!]. passport.weibo.com. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
Mianyang Bureau of Religious Affairs, ed. (1998). 绵阳市民族宗教志 [Annals of Religion in Mianyang] (in Simplified Chinese). Chengdu: Sichuan People's Publishing House. ISBN722003993X.
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