Changde city - China

Changde (常德) is a city in the north of Hunan Province, China, with a population of around 6,000,000.Changde was called Wuling and Dingzhou in ancient times. It is located in the northwest of Hunan Province. To the west is Zhangjiajie and to the east is the broad Dongtighu Plain. With abundant products and beautiful natural scenery, Changde is "a land of fish and rice" and an interesting place for tourists. Major scenic spots are the Taohuayuan (the Land of Peach Blossoms) and the Jiashan Temple.
Taohuayuan: It is located in Taoyuan County and is 23 km away from Chagde. The temples here were built in the 10th century. During the reign of Guangxu (1875-1908) of the Qing Dynasty, a scenic spot was formed according to "On the Land of Peach Blossoms" written by Tao Yuanming, a famous writer of the Jin Dynasty (265-420 AD). The tourism area today is composed of four parts: The Taohua Mountain, the Taohualing Hill, the Taoyuan Mountrin and the Qinren Village.
Jiashan Temple: it is about 15 km southeast of Shimen County in Changde and was firstly built in the 11th year of the Xiantong reign of the Tang Dynasty (870 AD).
Changde is known for its many Old Stone and New Stone Age sites. About 500 of them have been discovered to date.
In historical times it was also a centre from which governments controlled the mountain tribes of western Hunan. A county, named Linyuan, was established there in the 2nd century BC.
In 589 its name was changed to Wuling, and under the Tang Dynasty (618–907) it became the seat of Lang prefecture. Under the Song Dynasty (960–1279) the name of the prefecture was changed to Tingzhou, and in 1164–74 it became a superior prefecture called Changde. This status was retained until 1912, when the superior prefecture was abolished and the city became a county seat.
Qing
In the late 19th century Changde became a prosperous commercial center and the chief agricultural central market of the Yuan River basin. Many Chinese firms, and — after 1905, when it was opened to foreign trade — foreign firms as well, maintained branches there to buy rice, cotton, tung oil, and timber, so that Changde's economic influence reached out into northern Guizhou, southwestern Hubei, and parts of southeastern Sichuan province. The merchants of the Taho quarter of the city controlled much of the northwestern Hunan economy, and early in the 20th century Changde was the second city of Hunan, after Changsha.