Shangqiu 商丘市

Setting and landscape

Plains cover about 99 per cent of the prefecture, mostly laid down by the Yellow River (黄河), with a smaller Huai River (淮河) plain and a few eroded hills. The whole area drains to the Huai; its rivers, among them the Guo (涡河), the Tuo (沱河) and the old course of the Yellow River (黄河故道), mostly run from northwest to southeast and rise fast after heavy rain.

History

In the city government's account, Xie (契), ancestor of the Shang people, was enfeoffed here, and around the 16th century BC his descendant Tang (成汤) overthrew the Xia and first ruled from Nanbo (南亳), south of today's city. The Zhou made the area the state of Song (宋国) for a Shang descendant. The Northern Song raised it to Yingtian Prefecture (应天府) in 1006 and to the Southern Capital (南京) in 1014, and in 1127 Emperor Gaozong (宋高宗) founded the Southern Song here.

What to see

Shangqiu Ancient City (商丘古城) in Suiyang District (睢阳区), a national key cultural relics protection unit, was laid out by feng shui rules, round outside and square inside like an old coin, with a wide moat around its walls; cities of several earlier dynasties lie stacked beneath it. Ebo Terrace (阏伯台), 1.5 kilometres southwest of the old town, is a rammed-earth mound that the city government, citing historians, calls China's earliest observatory. Its temple fair for the fire god Ebo, largest on the seventh day of the first lunar month, joined the national intangible heritage list in 2021. Yingtian Academy (应天书院), where Fan Zhongyan (范仲淹) studied and later taught, is counted among the four great academies of the Northern Song.

In Yongcheng (永城), Mangdang Mountain (芒砀山) is a national 5A tourism area. The Yongcheng government names it as the root of the revolt Liu Bang (刘邦) launched after slaying a snake, and says eight generations of Western Han kings of Liang (梁国) built underground tomb palaces there.

Food and local products

Wenhui Bao (文汇报) singles out duozi mutton (垛子羊肉), cured, sliced as thin as a cicada's wing and eaten with shaobing flatbread, and shuiji mo (水激馍), made by soaking, frying and then dousing. A 2022 city list of ten famous snacks adds Chen family zaoyu (陈家糟鱼), fish cooked at length until soft, which the city government calls a former Song court dish with edible bones and scales, and tribute mahua dough twists from Minquan (民权).

Getting oriented

The Beijing–Kowloon (京九) and Longhai (陇海) railways cross at Shangqiu, and the Zhengzhou–Xuzhou (郑徐) and Shangqiu–Hefei–Hangzhou (商合杭) high-speed lines are open.

Highlights

• Shangqiu Ancient City 商丘古城: Walled old town in Suiyang District, round outside and square inside, ringed by a moat; a national key cultural relics protection unit.
• Ebo Terrace 阏伯台: Rammed-earth mound 1.5 km southwest of the old town, linked to the fire god Ebo; its temple fair is a national intangible heritage item (2021).
• Yingtian Academy 应天书院: Song academy where Fan Zhongyan studied and taught; counted among the four great academies of the Northern Song.
• Mangdang Mountain 芒砀山: National 5A tourism area in Yongcheng, with the tombs of the Western Han kings of Liang.