Study On The Historical Geography Of Jiahe Town

Located in west of Chenzhou City of Hunan Province, Jiahe County was foundedin the twelfth year of Chongzhen(1639), which is one of the smallest county of HunanProvince. Jiahe is located in remote regions and once was very poor. After thefounding of New China, the population of Jiahe County meets a huge increasing,various aspects of society are developing rapidly, and Jiahe County gradually got ridof the poor situation. Since China’s reform and opening up, Jiahe County becomes oneof the most densely populated and the most densely town among Hunan Provincewith the accelerating of urbanization process. In2011, Jiahe County is specified asone of the four urban and rural integration demonstration counties of Hunan Province.Being the center of the urban and rural integration areas of Jiahe county, Jiahe townattracts the whole people’s attention in Hunan. Based on above mentioned, this thesisshall study on transition of Jiahe town, which on one hand to sort out the developingtrack of the town and provide a comprehensive understanding to the history and statusquo of Jiahe town; on the other hand to summarize out experiences and lessons ofhistory and offer a reference for future development of the town.Jiahe County is combined by two parts separate from Guiyang State and LinwuCounty. The place where Jiahe Town located was once belong to Linwu County,called Hecang Fort, which was a military fortress. Most of the residents were thedescendant of surname Li who came from Jianxi area in Song Dynasty. Due to theearly development and superior geographical location, soon Hecang Fort became acenter settlement among the border area of Guiyang, Linwu and Lanshan district inthe last years of Ming Dynasty. During later years of Ming Dynasty, the peasant LiuXinyu leaded a revolt at Xianghua Moutain of Linwu County by assembling minersand peasants and Hecang Fort was taken as the base area. After the revolt wassuppressed, Jiahe County was founded for the purpose of reinforcement of regionalcontrol and Hecang Fort was resigned as the location of county office. Since thenJiahe Town was under construction and development in Hecang Fort.Jiahe Town has undergone120years of slow development period after it wasfounded. In the year of1764which is the twenty-eighth year of Qianlong, the townwall was built, which marks the urban infrastructure construction of Jiahe Town wasnearly complete. During the reign of Emperor Xianfeng and Tongzhi of the QingDynasty, Jiahe Town suffered severe damage in the social unrest. After the reign of Emperor Guangxu, the social situation was steady, the town walls and buildings werefixed, and urban area was fundamentally maintained to the original pattern. In theyears of the Republic of China, although Jiahe Town was suffered damage once againowing to the occurrence of other turmoil, the town survived in the end and the planarpattern changed little. It is worth mentioning, a group new building with combinationof Chinese and Western elements appeared in Jiahe Town in this period. Thepopulation, economic development and education level were in fluctuation as thechange of the political situation, but generally in up trend. Overall, Jiahe Town iswindingly moves forward in the310years from the founding of Jiahe town till thefounding of new China.After the founding of new China, the town wall and most old building has beendemolished as a result of the need of town construction, urban area spreads in alldirections constantly. And at present, the construction of the town is still on progress,but with the development of the society, urban construction ideas of Jiahe people havechanged. People not only want the pull effect on local economic growth of urbanconstruction, but also concern about promoting cultural taste of the town. In this case,problems emerge in the process of urbanization must be solved, and the coordinationbetween the new city construction and old city protection shall be ensured, makingscientific development of tourism resources in the county with economic and culturalmutual promotion and common prosperity.