Langxi County 郎溪县

Setting and landscape

The county sums up its land as "three parts hills, two parts water, four parts fields, and one part roads and farmsteads", with about 270,000 mu (亩) of water and 100,000 mu of tea gardens. Its scenery is grouped as "two mountains and three lakes": Shifo Mountain (石佛山) and Wuyuan Mountain (伍员山), and Nanyi Lake, Tianzi Lake (天子湖) and Longxu Lake (龙须湖). The county government calls Nanyi Lake the largest natural freshwater lake in southern Anhui.

History

The Mopanshan site (磨盘山遗址), more than 6,000 years old, holds traces of farming from the Neolithic to the Shang and Zhou. The area belonged to Gouwu (勾吴) under the Shang and to Yue (越) in the Warring States period. The Xu River (胥河), dug in 506 BC, is presented by the county as the oldest man-made canal in the world.

In 988 the Song carved Jianping County (建平县) out of the northwest of Guangde (广德). It was renamed Langxi in 1914 because it shared its name with a Jianping County in Zhili; the new name came from the Langxi stream south of the county seat. Migrations in the Southern Song and the late Qing brought together Wu, Chu, Huizhou and Central Plains cultures. Listed heritage includes the Yashan ancient road (鸦山古道), the Houcun ancestral hall (侯村祠堂), the Tiao Wuchang (跳五猖) tradition and the brewing of Gunanfeng yellow wine (古南丰黄酒).

What to see

Shifo Mountain, a 4A scenic area, is an outlier of the Huangshan range covered in oddly shaped rocks. Its name, "stone Buddha mountain", comes from the legend that the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha (地藏王菩萨) attained enlightenment here, and a temple fair is held on the 30th day of the seventh lunar month. Most of its temples are built on rock. The "Eight Views of Jianping" (建平八景), recorded since the Jiajing (嘉靖) reign of the Ming, include Taofeng Yuanwang (涛峰远望) and Shijian Chunhe (石涧春和).

Food and local products

Ruicao Kui (瑞草魁) tea was sent to court as tribute from the Tang onwards and received the China Tea Gold Award in 1996; Langxi Huangkui (郎溪黄魁) is a yellow tea. The "sixteen fresh dishes of Jianping" (建平十六鲜) are century-old recipes built mainly on freshwater produce.

Getting oriented

The Xuancheng–Hangzhou railway (宣杭铁路) stops at Shizipu (十字铺站) and the Shangqiu–Hangzhou high-speed line at Langxi South (郎溪南站). Dingbu Port (定埠港) on the Wuhu–Shanghai Canal (芜申运河) opened Anhui's first county-level container route, linking the Yangtze with Lake Tai (太湖).

Highlights

• Shifo Mountain 石佛山: 4A scenic area of odd rocks and rock-built temples, tied to the Ksitigarbha legend.
• Nanyi Lake 南漪湖: Called the largest natural freshwater lake in southern Anhui by the county.
• Xu River 胥河: Canal dug in 506 BC.
• Ruicao Kui tea 瑞草魁: Tribute tea since the Tang; China Tea Gold Award in 1996.
• Sixteen fresh dishes of Jianping 建平十六鲜: Century-old dishes based mainly on freshwater produce.