Heshui County () is a county of Gansu province, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Qingyang, and is the easternmost county-level division of the province.

Its postal code is 745400, and its population in 2023 was 133,200 people.

History Heshui was known as Lepan () in the Sui dynasty (617 AD), and later as Pan County, Panjiao County after 623 AD, and Hechuan County. In 742 it was named Heshui.

Yellow River elephant In January 1973, remains of an elephant were discovered by several farmers on the bank of the Malian River in Banqiao township, Heshui County. The elephant remains measured 4 meters tall, 8 meters long, with tusks of over 2 meters long, resembling two long swords, hence it was also called a saber-toothed elephant. The fossilized skeleton of the Yellow River elephant, is the most complete saber-toothed skeleton ever found in the world. Because this fossil was found in the Yellow River area, it was named "Yellow River Elephant". However, after further analysis of the fossil of the Yellow River elephant and comparison it with other ancient elephants, paleontologists discovered that it was actually a Stegodon zdanskyi. It is believed that more than 3000 years ago, "large populations of Asian elephants still roamed the forests along the Yellow River."Liu, P.; Wen, H.; Lin, L.; Liu, J.; Zhang, L. Habitat evaluation for Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in Lincang: Conservation planning for an extremely small population of elephants in China. Biol. Conserv. 2016, 198, 113–121.

Qin highway Remains of the Qin dynasty highway passing through Heshui County have been found.

Economy Heshui has large coal and oil reserves. Agricultural output includes grains, corn, potatoes, soybeans, oilseeds, melons, vegetables, apples, white melon seeds, wood ear mushroom, morels, and deer antler velvet.

Administrative divisions Heshui County is divided to 8 towns and 4 townships. Since 1952 the county government is seated in Xihuachi town. Towns

Xihuachi () Laocheng () Taibai () Banqiao () Hejiapan () Jixian () Xiaozui () Gucheng ()

Townships

Duanjiaji Township () Tai'e Township () Dianzi Township () Haozuipu Township ()

Climate

Transportation China National Highway 211 China National Highway 309

See also List of administrative divisions of Gansu

References

Official website (Chinese)