Maoming 茂名市

Setting and landscape

The land is high in the north, where the Yunkai (云开大山) and Yunwu (云雾山) mountains enter the prefecture, and falls towards the sea in the southwest. Most rivers, among them the Meihua (袂花江) and Luo (罗江), belong to the Jian River (鉴江) system. China’s No. 1 Beach (中国第一滩) on Nanhai Island (南海岛), 20 km from the city, has 12 km of fine white sand backed by a shelterbelt planted in the 1960s, which the city calls China’s first successful man-made coastal forest belt.

History

The name is generally traced to Pan Maoming (潘茂名), a Taoist healer whom the county annals record as born in 290 at Genzi (根子镇) in Gaozhou. Maoming County was created in 598, and from 1467 it, today’s Gaozhou city, was the seat of Gaozhou Prefecture. The modern city began with an oil-shale refinery approved in 1956, and Maoming was set up as a city in 1959 on the base of the new industrial and mining district.

What to see

Madam Xian’s home village, Shandou (山兜村) in Diancheng (电城镇), keeps the site of her family house, her tomb and a temple. Revered as the Holy Mother of Lingnan since the Sui, she is the focus of belief customs on the national intangible heritage list since 2014; especially grand rites are held in Gaozhou, which has a Temple of Madam Xian (冼太庙). Douzhou old town (窦州古城) in Xinyi (信宜市), founded in 621, keeps 13 old academies and ancestral halls.

Food and local products

Maoming has grown lychees for more than 2,000 years; the city cites a record that the Nanyue king Zhao Tuo (赵佗) sent them to the Han court as tribute. Old “tribute orchards” (贡园) survive at Genzi and elsewhere, and a tree in Maonan was tested at 1,933 years old. Heiye (黑叶) and Baitangying (白糖罂) are, in the city’s words, the most representative old varieties. Huazhou (化州市) is known for Huajuhong (化橘红), the dried outer peel of the local pomelo, steeped in hot water or with tea and valued as a cough remedy.

Getting oriented

The city government sits in Maonan District (茂南区); the prefecture also has Dianbai District (电白区) and the county-level cities of Gaozhou (高州市), Huazhou and Xinyi. Yangjiang lies to the east, Zhanjiang to the west and Yunfu and Guangxi to the north.

Highlights

• China's No. 1 Beach 中国第一滩: 12 km of fine sand on Nanhai Island, 20 km from the city, backed by a 1960s shelterbelt.
• Madam Xian's hometown 冼太夫人故里: Shandou village in Diancheng with the site of her family house, her tomb and a temple.
• Douzhou old town 窦州古城: Old town in Xinyi founded in 621, with 13 old academies and ancestral halls.
• Maoming lychee tribute orchards 贡园: Old lychee groves at Genzi and elsewhere, including a tree tested at 1,933 years old.