Jinghu District 镜湖区

Setting and landscape

Jiujiang District (鸠江区) lies to the east, and Yijiang District (弋江区) faces it across the Qingyi River. The ground is a low plain, slightly higher in the north, at an average of about 9 metres above sea level, broken by hills such as Zheshan (赭山) and Shenshan (神山). Its lakes and ponds include Jinghu, the Mirror Lake (镜湖), Jiuliantang (九莲塘) and Xiyang Lake (西洋湖). The district has long been described as "half the city hills, half the city water" (半城山半城水). Plum rains are a marked feature of the climate.

History

Several historic quarters sit close together here: the thousand-year-old town of Wuhu, a group of century-old Western-style buildings, the Huizhou-style houses of Tangzi Lane (堂子巷) and the old shipyard. The district traces its open, mixed culture to the late Qing, when it became a treaty port. Local stories told by the district include the poet Huang Tingjian (黄庭坚) studying on Zheshan, Zhang Xiaoxiang (张孝祥) giving fields that became the lake, and Tang Tianchi (汤天池) forging iron into pictures. The iron-picture craft and the "three knives" (三刀) earned the district its national title as a home of folk culture and art.

What to see

More than 100 old buildings, among them Guangji Temple and St James (圣雅各), stand among the streets, alongside ten parks including Jinghu Park and Binjiang Park. The district has four national 4A and five 3A scenic areas.

Guangji Temple (广济寺) stands halfway up the southwest slope of Zheshan. It was founded in the Tang, took its present name in the Northern Song, and is known as "Little Jiuhua" because pilgrims heading to Mount Jiuhua (九华山) came here first to offer incense. The temple has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, but the Zheta pagoda (赭塔) of 1065 survives: a five-storey, six-sided pavilion-style tower 28 metres high housing a seated Ksitigarbha, whose view in clear haze was one of the old Eight Views of Wuhu. The Dicui Pavilion (滴翠轩) of 1919 marks the place where Huang Tingjian read.

Highlights

• Guangji Temple 广济寺: Tang-founded temple on Zheshan, called Little Jiuhua because Jiuhua pilgrims stopped here first.
• Zheta pagoda 赭塔: Five-storey, six-sided tower of 1065, 28 metres high; one of the old Eight Views of Wuhu.
• Wuhu old town 芜湖古城: One of the historic quarters the district lists alongside century-old Western-style buildings and the old shipyard.
• Tangzi Lane 堂子巷: A group of Huizhou-style buildings.
• Iron pictures 铁画: Forged-iron pictures tied by local story to Tang Tianchi; part of the district's folk-art title.