Description : Qingyang (simplified Chinese: 庆阳; traditional Chinese: 慶陽; pinyin: Qìngyáng) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Gansu province, China. Qingyang was part of the area where the earliest cultures along the Yellow River developed and was part of the heartland of the Qin state that would eventually unite China. It was also an important place in the communist revolution. Meteor shower Main article: 1490 Ch'ing-yang event The Ch'ing-yang event of 1490 (also called the Ch'ing-yang or Chíing-yang meteor shower) is a presumed meteor shower that occurred in the Qingyang district in March or April or 1490 CE. If a meteor shower did occur, it may have been the result of the breakup of an asteroid. At least three surviving Chinese historical records describe a shower during which "stones fell like rain", killing more than 10,000 people. At least one report of the event is found in the Official History of the Ming Dynasty, and other journal records which describe the event are also generally considered reliable. But the official Ming Dynasty history omits the number of casualties, which has been frequently either doubted or discounted by present-day researchers. Due to the paucity of detailed information and the lack of surviving meteorites or other physical evidence, researchers have also been unable to definitively state the exact nature of the dramatic event, even examining the possible occurrence of severe hail. However Kevin Yau et al. of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory did note several similarities of the Ch'ing-yang meteor fall to the Tunguska event, which would have destroyed a highly populous district. One surviving account records: "Stones fell like rain in the Ch’ing-yang district. The larger ones were 4 to 5 catties (斤, about 1.5 kg), and the smaller ones were 2 to 3 catties (about 1 kg). Numerous stones rained in Ch'ing-yang. Their sizes were all different. The larger ones were like goose's eggs and the smaller ones were like water-chestnuts. More than 10,000 people were struck dead. All of the people in the city fled to other places."
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