Taishan 台山市

Setting and landscape

The centre of the city is higher ground: Shizitou (狮子头), the main peak of the Beifeng Mountains (北峰山脉) in the east, is the highest point at 986 metres, and a ridge running south-west divides the land into a northern part draining to the Tan River (潭江) and a southern part draining to the sea. The coast has two large bays, Guanghai Bay (广海湾) and Zhenhai Bay (镇海湾). Offshore lie Shangchuan (上川岛) and Xiachuan (下川岛), which the city government lists as Guangdong's second- and sixth-largest islands.

History

The county was carved out of Xinhui (新会) as Xinning County (新宁县), formally set up in 1499. In 1914 it was renamed Taishan, after Santai Mountain (三台山) north of the county town, because other provinces also had a Xinning. The Xinning Railway (新宁铁路), whose founder Chen Yixi (陈宜禧) is named by the city government as the creator of China's first privately run railway, opened its first section in January 1908. Taishan became a city in 1992.

What to see

Meijia Dayuan (梅家大院) in Duanfen (端芬), properly the Tingjiang market-town overseas Chinese buildings (汀江圩华侨建筑群), was built in 1931 by returned emigrants and their families; it takes its name from the Mei shareholders, who held more than half. Its two- and three-storey arcade buildings stand in a rectangle around an open market ground, and parts of the film Let the Bullets Fly were shot here. Haikoubu (海口埠), on the Duanfen and Datong rivers, is known as "the first port for Cantonese going overseas", and is now a memorial site for the remittance letters (银信) on the Memory of the World register, with a remittance-letter memorial square.

Fushi village (浮石村) in Doushan (斗山) is described as a village of descendants of Song imperial clansmen who survived the Battle of Yamen (崖山海战), and it is known in the Siyi (四邑) area for its piaose (飘色) float parade in honour of Beidi (北帝) on the third day of the third lunar month.

Food and local products

Taishan eel, oysters, mud crab and rice carry national geographical-indication status. Other local products include Beifeng Mountain Baiyun tea (北峰山白云茶), Guanghai salted fish (广海咸鱼), Chuandao shrimp paste (川岛虾酱) and rice with eel (黄鳝饭). The city is also known as a home of volleyball and of Cantonese music.

Highlights

• Meijia Dayuan 梅家大院: Arcade-house market town built in 1931 by returned emigrants in Duanfen.
• Haikoubu 海口埠: River port called the first port for Cantonese going overseas.
• Shangchuan Island 上川岛: Listed by the city as Guangdong's second-largest island.
• Xiachuan Island 下川岛: Listed by the city as Guangdong's sixth-largest island.
• Taishan eel 台山鳗鱼: A national geographical-indication farm product.