Hanzhou City, the pearl on the upper reaches
of the Hanshui River, is located on the southwest of Shaanxi Province. It is a
beautiful historical city backs against on to Qinling Mountain in the north and
leans against Bashan Mountain in the south. It does not have hot summer and
chilly winter, and boasts plenty of water and fertile land. It has been a city
of military importance in the bordering area of Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan and
Hubei provinces, and a famous historical and cultural city in China since
ancient times.
The time-honored Hanzhou City was the
territory of the Shang Dynasty as early as in the mid 11th century
BC. In 325BC, the Qin State set up Hanzhong Prefacture. In 206BC, Liu Bang took
Hanzhong as his base to build the world famous Western Han Dynasty (206BC-8AD).
In the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), Zhu Geliang, prime minister of the Shu
Kingdom, dispatched troops to Qishan Mountain six times, and launched northern
expedition to the Wei Kingdom with Hanzhong as the base. From the Western Han
Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), numerous politicians, strategists,
scientists, poets and scholars left their footprints here. The Baoxie Plank
Road, the Stone Gate, the Cliffside Stone Carvings, the Ancient Han Dynasty
Terrace, and many other historic sites add glister of historical culture to the
ancient city, and make it become a tourist destination home and abroad.
As a national level historical and cultural
city, Hanzhou abounds in tourist resources. In the city there are 2 key cultural
relics sites under the national protection, 18 under the provincial protection,
and 93 under the county and district level protection; 2 national level nature
reserves, 7 provincial level tourist resorts; and 5 provincial level forest
parks. The most attractive sites include the Tomb of Zhang Qian -- the Pioneer
of the Silk Road, the Tomb of Cai Lun -- the Inventor of Paper, Ancient Han
Altar -- the Old Palace of Liu Bang, who was the King of Han Regime, the Altar
of the Inaugural Ceremony of Han Xin, the chief general of Han army, the Temple
of Zhang Liang, the first Han Dynasty Minister, the Wu Hou Temple, the Relic of
Dingjun Mountain Battlefield, the Baohe Cliff Bridge, the Stone Gate, and
Stone-carving South Lake, etc.