Enping 恩平市

Setting and landscape

Kaiping (开平) and Taishan (台山) lie to the east, Yangjiang (阳江) to the south, Yangchun (阳春) to the west and Xinxing County (新兴县) in Yunfu to the north. The whole city is south of the Tropic of Cancer, with a south-subtropical maritime monsoon climate. It is one of China's rainstorm centres, averaging 2,613 mm of rain a year, with a wet season from April to September and typhoons between June and October. The city describes the Qixingkeng Nature Reserve (七星坑自然保护区) as the only well-protected original secondary forest in the Pearl River Delta.

History

The county began in AD 220 as Siping (思平县) and took the name Enping in 757. It was folded into Yangjiang in 972; a fort was built in 1466 on ground now inside the city government compound, and the county was restored on its site in 1479. It became a city in 1994. With Xinhui, Kaiping and Taishan, Enping traditionally forms the Siyi (四邑, "four counties"), and people speak the Enping dialect (恩平话) of Cantonese. Its emigrant communities live in more than 110 countries and regions, above all Venezuela.

What to see

Guangdong Enping Geothermal National Geopark (广东恩平地热国家地质公园), approved by the Ministry of Land and Resources in August 2005, covers about 91.45 square kilometres in the northwest, mainly in Naji (那吉镇), Datian (大田镇) and Liangxi (良西镇) towns. Its features include hot springs, granite landforms, giant quartz veins and the old Jinshan gold mine. Jinjiang Hot Spring (锦江温泉) and Shanquanwan Hot Spring (山泉湾温泉) are national 4A scenic areas.

The Feng Ru Hometown Cultural Tourism Area (冯如故里文化旅游区) at Changmei village (昌梅村), Niujiang town (牛江镇), has a full-size replica of the aircraft "Feng Ru No. 1", Feng Ru's Qing-dynasty brick-and-timber former home, an aviation history hall and an exhibition on Enping's overseas Chinese in Latin America. Xiema Juren Village (歇马举人村) at Shengtang (圣堂) is listed as a Chinese Historical and Cultural Village.

Food and local products

Lecai (簕菜), a wild leaf eaten as a vegetable, appears as a local dish in the 1985 county gazetteer, and steeping its leaves as tea is a local custom. The leaves are picked around Qingming and from September to November, and rolling them is the key step in making the tea. The craft joined the Jiangmen municipal intangible heritage list in 2021.

Highlights

• Guangdong Enping Geothermal National Geopark 广东恩平地热国家地质公园: China's first national geopark named for geothermal resources, approved in August 2005.
• Feng Ru Hometown Cultural Tourism Area 冯如故里文化旅游区: Feng Ru's Qing-dynasty former home and a full-size replica of the "Feng Ru No. 1" aircraft at Changmei village.
• Xiema Juren Village 歇马举人村: Chinese Historical and Cultural Village at Shengtang.
• Qixingkeng Nature Reserve 七星坑自然保护区: Described by the city as the only well-protected original secondary forest in the Pearl River Delta.
• Lecai tea 簕菜茶: Tea made from the wild lecai leaf; the craft was listed as Jiangmen municipal intangible heritage in 2021.