Mengzi (; Hani: ) is a city in the southeast of Yunnan Province, China. Administratively, it is a county-level city and the prefectural capital of the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, located about southeast from Kunming, and 400 kilometres northwest from Hanoi, Vietnam. It is situated in the centre of a fertile valley basin on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau above the sea level and was home to about 590,300 inhabitants as of 2021 census. Mengzi was formerly Mengzi County () until October 2010, when it was upgraded to a county-level city. Mengzi is the core region of the central city agglomeration of Southern Yunnan, which is officially regarded as the political, economic, cultural, and military centre of Southern Yunnan.
Name
The origin of the name
A widely accepted statement is that the name "Mengzi" (蒙自) was originated from Muze Mountain (now named as Lianhua Mountain) located in the west of Mengzi and now belongs to Gejiu. In Yi language, Muze Mountain means a towering mountain.
The romanized spelling
As with many other places in China, a variety of Romanized spellings were used for the name of Mengzi city in the past. The traditional French spelling was Mongtseu; the postal, Mengtsz, Mengtzu or Mongtze. Some works in English used the spelling Mêng-tse or Mengtsze.
Government
The municipal seat is in Guanlan Subdistrict.
Administrative divisions
At present, Mengzi City has 5 subdistricts, 4 towns, 2 townships and 2 ethnic townships. 5 subdistricts Wenlan Subdistrict () Yuguopu Subdistrict () Guanlan Subdistrict (观澜街道) Wencui Subdistrict (文萃街道) Xin'ansuo Subdistrict (新安所街道)
4 towns
Caoba () Zhicun () Mingjiu () Lengquan () 2 townships Shuitian Township () Xibeilei Township ()
2 ethnic townships
Qilu Bai and Miao Ethnic Township () Laozhai Miao Ethnic Township ()
Geography and climate
Located within 30 arc minutes south of the Tropic of Cancer, Mengzi, as with much of southern Yunnan, has a warm humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa), with muddled distinction between the seasons and daytime temperatures remaining warm year-round. Highs peak in May before the core of the rainy season and reach a minimum in December; however, the warmest and coolest months are June and December, respectively at and ; the annual mean is . June thru September accounts for over 60% of the annual rainfall of and during this time, some rainfall occurs on a majority of days, resulting in a marked reduction in sunshine. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 34% in June and July to 64% in February, the city receives 2,161 hours of bright sunshine annually.
Food
The Mengzi region is well known for a dish called guoqiao mixian ("Over the Bridge Rice Noodle"), made with long rice-flour noodles.
History
The history of Mengzi can be traced back to Western Han dynasty when Bengu County (贲古县) was founded (109 B.C.), which was currently the area of Xin'ansuo, Mengzi.
Not until in 1276 (Yuan dynasty), Mengzi county was formerly founded, which can be regarded as the prototype of the modern Mengzi City.
In the 19th century, Mengzi was a major trading center for commerce between the interior of Yunnan and the Northern area of Vietnam.
In 1886, a French convention chose Mengzi to be the center of trade in Yunnan province for importing and exporting goods via Tongking in Vietnam. Facilities for this opened two years later.
Communications were inconvenient: goods from Hanoi or Haiphong were shipped to Hekou on the Vietnamese border by junk, transferred by small craft to Manhao, and then taken by pack animal to Mengzi. Despite these difficulties, Mengzi was an important port of entry into both Yunnan and western Guizhou provinces, and in 1889 it was opened to foreign trade as a treaty port. Most of this foreign trade was in tin and opium. Its main exports were tin and opium, and the main imports were mostly textiles (primarily cotton) and tobacco.
As a trading center, the city gradually began to lose its importance beginning from the early 20th century. The importance of Mengzi was ended by the construction of the French railway from Haiphong to Kunming (the Yunnan provincial capital) in 1906–10. This railway bypassed Mengzi, but in 1915 a branch line was built via the town to the Gejiu tin mines. Apart from a brief respite during the early days of World War II, the town of Mengzi has, nevertheless, steadily declined in importance ever since.