Guichi District 贵池区

History

A county named Qiupu, after the Qiupu River, was set up here in 599. The name Guichi, "precious pool", goes back to the Liang crown prince Xiao Tong (萧统), who fished the Qiupu and was so fond of its mandarin fish that he renamed the water; in 926 the Yang Wu (杨吴) state gave the county the same name. Guichi became a county-level city in 1988 and a district in 2000.

Li Bai (李白) travelled the Qiupu five times and wrote his Qiupu Songs (秋浦歌); Du Mu (杜牧), as prefect of Chizhou, wrote poems including "Qingming" (清明); and the general Yue Fei (岳飞) left a couplet after climbing Qishan (齐山).

What to see

Xinghua Village (杏花村), which the district identifies as the Apricot Blossom Village of Du Mu's poem, lies on the western outskirts. In the Kangxi era the villager Lang Sui (郎遂) compiled a twelve-volume gazetteer of it, the only village gazetteer taken into the imperial Siku Quanshu (四库全书). In 2012 the city moved to speed up a planned 35-square-kilometre cultural tourism zone on the recorded site.

Jiuhua Tianchi (九华天池), a national 4A scenic area in Maya subdistrict, sits 20 kilometres west of Mount Jiuhua and 10 kilometres from the city centre. It is made up of Longchi (龙池) pool, Tianchi (天池) lake, a stone valley strewn with glacial boulders and Furong Peak (芙蓉峰), and lay on the old pilgrim route to Jiuhua. The district also lists Dawang Cave (大王洞), the Qishan–Qiupu scenic area (齐山—秋浦仙境) and the Xiushanmen Museum (秀山门博物馆).

Chizhou Nuo opera (池州傩戏), a masked ritual drama, entered the first national intangible heritage list in 2006. It is concentrated among dozens of large clans in Liujie (刘街), Meijie (梅街) and Maotan (茅坦), has no professional troupes and is performed by clans only at a spring rite between the seventh and fifteenth days of the first lunar month and an autumn rite on the fifteenth of the eighth.

Food and local products

Xiaokeng green tea (霄坑绿茶), Xishan jiaozao jujubes (西山焦枣), Meicun chestnuts (梅村板栗), Tangxi shiitake (棠溪香菇) and Qiupu mandarin fish (秋浦花鳜) are well-known local products, several of them former tribute goods. Guichi xiaoba (贵池小粑) and Laba tofu (腊八豆腐) are also local specialities.

Getting oriented

The Yangtze runs 76 kilometres through the district, with Chizhou port and the Chizhou Yangtze Highway Bridge, opened on 31 August 2019. The Tongling–Jiujiang railway and the Nanjing–Anqing high-speed line pass through, and the district has Chizhou Jiuhuashan Airport.

Highlights

• Xinghua Village 杏花村: Identified by the district as the village of Du Mu's poem "Qingming"; its Kangxi-era gazetteer entered the Siku Quanshu.
• Jiuhua Tianchi 九华天池: National 4A scenic area of pools, a glacial-boulder valley and Furong Peak, 20 km west of Mount Jiuhua.
• Chizhou Nuo opera 池州傩戏: Clan-performed masked ritual drama, national intangible heritage since 2006.
• Qiupu mandarin fish 秋浦花鳜: Mandarin fish from the Qiupu River, one of the district's best-known products.