Chaonan District 潮南区

Setting and landscape

The district government sums up the terrain as 'one mountain, one river, one plain'. In the southwest rises Dananshan (大南山), a branch of the Lianhua Mountains (莲花山脉), mostly 300 to 400 metres high and topped by Leiling Dashan (雷岭大山) at 521.2 metres. Along the northern edge the Lian River has built a flat delta plain around Chendian (陈店), Simapu (司马浦) and Xiashan (峡山); its largest tributary, the Liangying River (两英河), rises in Dananshan. The 14.7-kilometre coast is a sand bar from Longtian (陇田) to Jingdu (井都), fixed by casuarina windbreaks planted from the 1950s. The hills are the district's main rainstorm centre, and Hongchang (红场) and Leiling (雷岭) see five to ten days of frost a year while the coast has almost none.

History

Until 2003 Chaonan was part of Chaoyang, which became a county-level city in 1993. In January 2003 Chaoyang city was abolished and twelve of its towns became Chaonan District of Shantou, with the government at Xiashan.

At Jingdu, Xilin Nunnery (西林庵) was expanded in 1389 as the Jinshi Lan Temple by Zheng Youwu (郑有武), destroyed by Japanese pirates, rebuilt in 1692 by the military graduate Zheng Xuan (郑宣) and renamed. It later housed the Jingdu Peasant Association and is a district-level protected site. In early 1931 Red Army units set up a field hospital in a natural cave under granite boulders near Daxiba village (大溪坝村) in Hongchang, locally called Tiger Cave, where surgeons could perform amputations; the site was added to the tenth provincial list of protected sites in 2022.

What to see

The district government promotes Chaonan Yingge (潮南英歌), Huayao Chaozhou music (华瑶潮州音乐), Daliao inlaid porcelain (大寮嵌瓷) and Luxi murals (胪溪壁画) as intangible heritage, and names the Ke family temple at Xiashan (峡山柯氏家庙) and the Dongli old fort (东里古寨) among protected monuments. Chengtian ruled-line painting (成田界画) goes back to the late-Qing artist Ma Zhou (马骤) and has passed down his family for over a century. Painters draw ink lines over lacquer on halls, temples and houses, then colour and varnish them, using a flat, multi-point perspective. Hongchang is the main tea area, growing 16 varieties including Baiye Dancong (白叶单丛).

Getting oriented

Xiashan, the urban centre, is 33 kilometres from urban Shantou. The Shenzhen–Shantou Expressway crosses the coastal towns of Jingdu, Longtian and Leiling, and National Highway 324 runs through Xiashan, Simapu and Chendian towards Puning (普宁). Most people speak the Chaoyang variety of Teochew, while Leiling is Hakka-speaking.

Highlights

• Red Army Hospital site 红场镇红军医院遗址: 1931 cave hospital in Hongchang, a provincial protected site since 2022.
• Xilin Nunnery 西林庵: Jingdu temple expanded in 1389 and rebuilt in 1692; later home of the Jingdu Peasant Association.
• Chengtian ruled-line painting 成田界画: Family tradition of architectural painting dating from the late Qing.
• Dananshan 大南山: Hill range in the southwest topped by Leiling Dashan, 521.2 m.