Nanping 南平市

Setting and landscape

The city lies on the eastern flank of the Wuyi range, with low hills and basins in the centre and south. The Jianxi (建溪) runs south through the middle and meets the Shaxi (沙溪) and Futun (富屯溪) streams at Yanping (延平区) to form the Min River. The city government sums up the terrain as 'eight parts mountain, one part water, one part farmland'.

History

Nanping's first counties date from about 196, under the Eastern Han. In 621 the prefectural seat moved to Jian'an, today's Jian'ou (建瓯), as Jianzhou (建州), and the province's name joins the first characters of Fuzhou and Jianzhou. The philosopher Zhu Xi (朱熹) spent some fifty years in the region, which the city government calls the cradle of his school of Neo-Confucianism. The city government moved from Yanping to Jianyang District (建阳区) in 2020.

What to see

The Wuyi Mountain Scenic Area in central Wuyishan City (武夷山市), a national key scenic area since 1982, is low Danxia hill country threaded by the Nine-Bend Stream (九曲溪), which rises on Huanggang Mountain (黄岗山) and winds east through nine bends. The mountain is named after the god Wuyi Jun (武夷君), to whom Emperor Wu of Han sent envoys to sacrifice; Zhu Xi taught for decades at his Wuyi Retreat (武夷精舍) below Yinping Peak (隐屏峰) at the Fifth Bend, and the Yuan kept an imperial tea garden at the Fourth Bend.

In Shaowu (邵武), Heping (和平) is a rare walled village town that keeps its east and north gate towers, a flagstone main street more than 600 m long and nearly 200 Ming and Qing buildings.

Food and local products

Wuyi rock tea (武夷岩茶), including Da Hong Pao (大红袍), is traced back to the Han; the national intangible heritage list, which took its ten-step craft in 2006, says the method perfected by the early Qing opened the way for oolong tea. Jian ware (建盏), the black-glazed bowls of the Jian kiln (建窑) that the Song court used for tea contests and that Japanese monks called tenmoku, has been revived since the 1970s; its firing craft was listed in 2011. Jian'ou guangbing (建瓯光饼), a holed flatbread baked on the wall of a charcoal oven, is said to descend from the rations of the Ming general Qi Jiguang (戚继光).

Getting oriented

The Hefei–Fuzhou high-speed railway, opened in 2015, stops at Wuyishan North, Nanping City, Jian'ou West and Yanping stations, and Wuyishan Airport serves the area.

Highlights

• Wuyishan Nine-Bend Stream 武夷山九曲溪: Stream rising on Huanggang Mountain that winds east through the Danxia hills of the Wuyi scenic area.
• Heping Ancient Town 和平古镇: Walled village town in Shaowu with a flagstone main street and nearly 200 Ming and Qing buildings.
• Jian ware 建盏: Song black-glazed tea bowls of the Jian kiln, known in Japan as tenmoku; firing craft listed in 2011.
• Jian'ou guangbing 建瓯光饼: Oven-baked flatbread with a central hole, prized for its 'golden face and silver edge'.