Tongguan is a subdistrict of Wangcheng district, Changsha, China. It is located on the eastern bank of Xiang river, the subdistrict is bordered by Dingziwan subdistrict to the south, Qiaoyi and Chating towns to the east and north, Jinggang Town and Gaotangling subdistrict across the Xiang river to the west. Tongguan has an area of with a population of 50 thousand, its administrative centre is at Huacheng village. the subdistrict has five residential communities and nine villages under its jurisdiction. Tongguan is located on the eastern bank of Xiangjiang River in the northern part of Wangcheng District. It has one provincial-level cultural relic protection unit, one municipal-level cultural relic protection unit, four county-level cultural relic protection unit and two county-level cultural relic site. Tongguan has been known as "Town of Ceramics" and "Ancient Tongguan Town". Tongguan is a national famous tourism town with characteristic landscape published in 2015, also a small town with a particular character of Hunan; it was designated a famous historical and cultural town of Hunan province in 2007.
Early history
Tongguan is an ancient town with a history of over 2,100 years. There was a bridge named Wuchu at Shigang, According to legend, the bridge was at the boundary point of Wu and Chu states in the Warring States period. The unearthed earthenwares at Mawangdui proved that at latest Tongguan started to produce potteries in the western Han Periods . The archaeological excavation at Tongguan Kiln Site showed that, the technology of underglazed color figure was originated there in the Tang and Five Dynasties periods. The production of underglaze wares was once prosperous at the later Tang period, and declined in the Five Dynasties periods in the place. earthenware fragment with sancai glaze, excavated in Nishapur, Iran. During An Lushan Rebellion, the Land traffic from the North, Northwest China to the Middle East Arabdom and Persia was blocked, meanwhile the maritime trade was thriving in the SouthChina. As a commercial port and one of pottery industrial centres, early in the Tang Dynasty, pottery trade between Tongguan and other areas already began, the place should be also the earliest export trade port in the history of Changsha. A Tang Belitung wreck was discovered by fishermen in 1988 At Belitung island, Indonesia. Radiocarbon dating of the ship's timber produced a relatively wide range date of 710 - 890 A.D for the wreck. the cultural relics was so-called "Tang treasure" in the salvage of the wreck, the majority of that are wares from Changsha produced in kilns in Tongguan, and the text transcript on relics used the calendar era of Tang period. What above-mentioned is a strong evidence, as once a trade-exported port and centre of pottery production, the place of Tongguan played an important role in the history of China or Hunan.
Subdivision
The Tongguan subdistrict was formed by merging the former Tongguan town, Shutangshan subdistrict, Guoliang village of Chating town and a portion of Shenjiaqiao residential community of Dongcheng town on November 19, 2015; there were 10 villages and five residential communities in the subdistrict at that time. Tanzhou residential community was formed by merging Taifeng village and Hongjiazhou residential community on March 23, 2016; the subdistrict has nine villages and five residential communities in 2016.
Unearthed pottery at Tang Belitung wreck
The following are the showpieces of Tang Belitung wreck at Marina Bay Sands museum, Singapore. the showpieces are the unearthed cultural relics from the wreck, the potteries made in Tongguan in Tang period.
