Maotai Ancient Town and China Liquor Culture City 茅台古镇与中国酒文化城

About Maotai Ancient Town and China Liquor Culture City

The same town was the transfer point on the salt route out of Sichuan, the wharf on the Ren'an route where the trade changed between water and land carriage; businessmen kept salt houses there, three distilleries named Chengyi, Hengxing and Ronghe stood in the town, and salt was forwarded from it to Zunyi, Guiyang and north-western Guizhou. The Renhuai city government counts it as one of the four main market towns of northern Guizhou, recording more than 600 households and some 3,000 people at the time it describes. The town also sits on the line of the Red Army's third crossing of the Chishui: after the Central Revolutionary Military Commission took that decision, a reconnaissance company of the Third Army Group's 13th Regiment moved on the Maotai ferry crossing to cover the engineers.

The river was then at its low-water season and the channel narrow. Engineers under company commander Wang Yaonan put up the Zhongdu pontoon first and then two more at the upper and lower crossings, anchoring iron and bamboo cables to trees and posts on both banks, fixing requisitioned salt boats as piers in the deep water and stone-filled bamboo baskets in the shallows, and laying logs and planks over them; thirty silver dollars was paid in advance for each boat taken. Mao Zedong crossed by the Zhongdu pontoon at about ten in the morning on 16 March, having rested on the way at the Maotai primary school. The liquor-culture museum complex named in the second half of the catalogue label was built by China Kweichow Moutai Distillery (Group) Co., Ltd., which the city government says invested close to a hundred million yuan in it, and occupies more than forty mu.

What to look for

• The Maotai reach of the Chishui River, the stretch the Red Army bridged with three pontoons — Zhongdu first, then the upper and lower crossings — using requisitioned salt boats as piers.
• The museum complex itself: dozens of buildings in Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing and modern styles, set close together on a site of more than forty mu.
• Its displays of liquor rites, customs, techniques, stories, history, writings and poetry, shown through calligraphy and painting, sculpture, hall plaques and physical objects.

Location & getting there

Getting to Maotai Ancient Town and China Liquor Culture City

Identify the main visitor approach and any separately managed houses, museums or performances. Ask before entering residential spaces or photographing residents.

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