In historical records, the name also sometimes appears as Tsëen-shan-chae, from the addition of zhài (寨, jzaai⁶, "fort" or "stockade").[7]
Qianshan was also formerly known as Casa Blanca,[5] Casa-blanca,[2] Casa Branca,[8] Casa-branca,[7] or Casa Braca[1] from the white residence of the Macanesesubprefect.
History
"Cazablanc" and the border wall in 1781Remains of the old fort wall at Qianshan
Qianshan was formerly a separate village, first settled under the Southern Song in AD1152 (Shaoxing22)[9] to produce salt from the Qianshan River.[10] The location once overlooked the inner harbor of Macao, whose border wall lay 3 kilometers (2 mi) to its southwest[2] and main settlement about 3 km farther.[11] With the Portuguese developing a permanent enclave there during the late Ming, Qianshan—being the Chinese settlement nearest to its peninsula's northern border—was turned into a military outpost in 1621.[4] By 1640, it comprised a 500-man garrison.[4]
Qianshan became the seat of the subprefect or "keun-min-foo" (t軍民府,s军民府,jūnmínfǔ)[12] in 1731.[13] He was charged with dealing with the foreign settlement and overseeing their trade with Guangzhou ("Canton").[2] As part of these duties, he controlled the permits needed for pilots(引水人,yǐnshuǐrén) of the ships sailing north through the Humen ("Bocca Tigris" or "Bogue")[1] to the Huangpu Anchorage ("Whampoa", now Pazhou).[13] He would ensure that foreign ships headed upriver had some cargo apart from silver dollars and bullion.[13] He was also sometimes obliged to quarantine Macao's market, prohibiting Chinese farmers and merchants from trading there and supplying its food, in order to maintain the freedom of the area's Chinese to practice Buddhist and local rituals, which the Portuguese periodically attempted to prohibit.[14] In the lead-up to the First Opium War, Lin Zexu and Deng Tingzhen visited Qianshan during their procession from Xiangshan (now Zhongshan) to visit the Portuguese authorities at Macao on 3 September 1839.[15]
From 1862 to 1874, the Qianshan River was thoroughly dredged by Chinese authorities to create a safe shipping channel for the communities on its banks, including Qianshan.[10] On 22–23 September 1874, Qianshan was hit by a devastating typhoon:[16] around 4000 were killed in Macao, Wanzai ("Lapa"), and Qianshan and hundreds of bodies that washed ashore had to be buried by local hospitals or incinerated by the government.[6] The area continued to be pummeled by typhoons—56 in the century from 1883 to 1983[17]—but none on the scale of the 1874 disaster.
Qianshan benefited from Deng Xiaoping's Opening Up Policy and was granted town status in 1987.[9] As settlements throughout the Pearl River Delta expanded, though, Qianshan no longer formed a separate settlement and was reorganized as a subdistrict of Zhuhai's Xiangzhou District in August 2001.[9] Qianshan Port, which opened onto the Qianshan River, was closed in the 2000s, with its ticket hall becoming a warehouse[10] and the waterfront being developed as a public park.[18]
Under Deng Xiaoping's Opening Up Policy, Zhuhai was established as one of China's first special economic zones in 1980. Companies based in Qianshan enjoy preferential government policies, and some have grown into some of the largest firms in the world.[25]
Mandarin is used for educational and official purposes, while the local dialect is a form of Cantonese. During the 1990s and 2000s, however, an influx of migrants meant that those holding local hukous were outnumbered 2:1 by natives of other parts of China.[9]
The Phoenix-Rooster Dance is a local form of the mix of dance and costume seen in lion and dragon dancing. Performers construct a 1.7-meter (5.6 ft) bird costume out of bamboo and other materials that can turn its head and flap its wings. Performances run through a gamut of emotions and activities, attested since 1621 during the late Ming. The art came to Xiangshan County in the early Qing and became particularly associated with Qianshan during the early Republican Period when the performer Li Fuwu opened a studio that taught both kung fu and the dance. His pupils Bao Liu and Li Shoushan continued the tradition, which is still celebrated at local cultural events.[30]
Events
Since around 2011, the Agricultural Paradise has held an annual Pumpkin Art Festival for the first six days of the Chinese New Year, awarding up to 10,000RMB in prizes for big or unusual pumpkins. Other activities include magic shows, "pumpkin art dancing", pumpkin bowling, and pumpkin noodle-making.[23]
