It is historically the territory of Yanghu Township (洋湖乡), Wangcheng County in 1951.

The subdistrict covers an area of 23.88 square kilometres (9.22 sq mi) with a registered population of 24,896 (as of 2015).

Its ancient name was "Waguankou" (or "Waguan Estuary"; Chinese: 瓦官口).

On June 15, 2008, Pingtang Town was assigned to the jurisdiction of Yuelu District from Wangcheng County.

[citation needed] When Yanghu Subdistrict was founded in 2013, it had four villages and three communities.