Feixi County 肥西县

Setting and landscape

The county is wide in the west and narrow in the east, with Lu'an (六安) to the west, Chaohu city across the lake, and the Fengle River (丰乐河) along its southern edge facing Shucheng (舒城县) and Lujiang (庐江县). It straddles the Yangtze and Huai basins; a county tourism official says that on the Jianghuai watershed (江淮分水岭) rain runs half to the Huai and half to the Yangtze. A watershed monument stands in the centre of Guanting (官亭). Once barren upland, Guanting is now planted with nursery forest, the Guanting Forest (官亭林海), which became a national ecological park and 4A scenic area in 2017.

What to see

Sanhe, in the southeast of the county, sits on the Chaohu plain where Feixi, Shucheng and Lujiang meet; the Fengle and Xiaonan (小南河) rivers join the Hangbu River (杭埠河) here on their way to the lake, and the town is named for these three rivers. Under its old name, Que'an (鹊岸), it appears in the Zuo Zhuan (左传) as the site of a battle between Wu and Chu, and in the Taiping war the Taiping army routed the Xiang Army (湘军) here. It became a national historic and cultural town in 2007. On West Street, the Liu Tongxing shop (刘同兴隆庄) runs through five courtyards and thirty-two rooms; on South Street is the house where Chen-Ning Yang (杨振宁) lived after his family fled Beiping in 1937 to his mother's home town.

Liu Mingchuan (刘铭传), Huai Army general and the first governor of Taiwan, built his moated manor in 1868 about 2 kilometres north of Daqian Mountain (大潜山), in today's Mingchuan township (铭传乡). The compound covers about 70,000 square metres inside two moats, with five watchtowers, and has been a national key cultural relic site since 2006. Huai Army commanders built more than a hundred such manors around Zipeng (紫蓬山), Zhougong (周公山) and Daqian mountains.

Xiaojingzhuang (小井庄), a village in Shannan town (山南镇), has a memorial hall recalling 1978, when drought drove seven households to take on 50 mu of paddy themselves, an early step towards household farming contracts.

Food and local products

Sanhe rice dumplings (三河米饺) are sold in the old town with a shrimp in the filling, and Sanhe stir-fry (三河小炒) is made of shredded pork, celery, pressed tofu, wood-ear, onion and yellow garlic chives. Sanhe rice wine (三河米酒) is a national geographical-indication product.

Highlights

• Sanhe Ancient Town 三河古镇: Three-river water town; national historic and cultural town (2007) and 5A scenic area (2015).
• Liu Mingchuan's Former Residence 刘铭传旧居: Moated 1868 manor of Taiwan's first governor, a national key cultural relic site since 2006.
• Guanting Forest 官亭林海: Nursery forest on the Jianghuai watershed; national ecological park and 4A scenic area since 2017.
• Sanhe rice wine 三河米酒: National geographical-indication product.