Historical

Origin of place names

updated on:2019-04-29

   Located on the Jinsha River, Panzhihua, formerly known as the Shangba and Xiaba Village, was formed around the eighth year of Tongzhi Reign Period of the Qing Dynasty (1869). Because of the ancient and tall kapok (panzhihua in Chinese) tree at the entrance to the village, it was named ‘Panzhihua Village’.

  It was on the ‘Digest of Profiles of All Counties (Yanbian County) of Ningshu Region’ collected in ‘Digest of Profiles of Chuankang Border Strategy’ published in April 1940 that the name of ‘Panzhihua Village’ was first seen on the map.

  On February 5, 1965, a written reply regarding the establishment of Panzhihua Special Region was issued jointly by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. On April 22, 1965, for confidentiality, the State Council issued the ‘Reply Regarding the Name Change of Panzhihua Special Region’, approving the request to change Panzhihua Special Region to Dukou Municipality. On March 4, on the ‘Report on Boosting the Development of Panzhihua Industrial Zone’ put forward by Lv Dong, minister of the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry, and Xu Chi, general director of Panzhihua Special Region, Chairman Mao Zedong wrote a comment ‘A Good Report’. Thus, the day was appointed as the ‘development and construction commemoration day of Panzhihua’, which is also the establishment commemoration day of Panzhihua Municipality’.

   On January 23, 1987, under the approval of the State Council, Dukou Municipality was renamed Panzhihua.