Luoding 罗定市

History

Longzhou was set up as a prefecture under the Liang and Chen dynasties (502–589), and from 973 the area was governed only as Longshui County (泷水县). In 1577, after the Yao uprising in the Luopang (罗旁) area was put down, Longshui was raised to the Luoding directly administered prefecture; the name means "Luopang pacified", and its two new counties, Dong'an (东安县) and Xining (西宁县), completed the phrase "east secure, west at peace". Luoding became a county in 1912 and a county-level city in 1993, and has been administered by Yunfu since 1994. According to Chinese Wikipedia, two of the only three large bronze tombs found in Lingnan (岭南) with more than 100 grave goods are in Luoding, both pre-Qin, at Nanmendong in Taiping (太平镇南门垌) and at Beifushan in Luoping (罗平镇背夫山). Luoding is the hometown of General Cai Tingkai (蔡廷锴).

What to see

The Luoding School-Temple (罗定学宫), locally called the Confucian temple, was begun in 1647 as the school of the Qing prefecture and completed in 1877 with the Kuixing Pavilion (奎星阁). Its axis runs from a screen wall through the Lingxing Gate (棂星门), a six-pillar archway, past the pool to the Dacheng Hall (大成殿) with its double-eaved roof. The city government calls it the only surviving Qing school-temple complex in the Xi and Nan river basins and it has been provincially protected since 2002.

On the north bank of the Long River (泷江) in the city stands the Wenta pagoda (罗定文塔), built in 1611: an octagonal brick tower of seven outer and 13 inner storeys, 47 metres high, with 64 bronze bells at its eaves and seven tonnes of cast iron in its top and finial. The Huang ancestral hall (国宝黄公祠) at Songlang village (松朗村) in Sulong subdistrict (素龙街道), also beside the Long River and a provincial protected site, is a two-hall Guangfu-style building with coloured plaster relief on its ridges and large ceramic lattice windows.

Food and local products

Luoding fermented beans (罗定豆豉) have been made for more than 300 years from black or yellow soybeans that are steamed, fermented, rinsed, sun-dried and seasoned; they are soft and strongly aromatic. Luoding crinkled fish puffs (罗定绉纱鱼腐) are a national geographical-indication product: mud carp flesh is minced into a paste and dropped by the spoonful into hot oil, frying to a golden, thin, wrinkled skin compared to crepe gauze. Luoding rice, cassia bark and the bamboo steamers of Silun (泗纶竹制蒸笼) also carry geographical-indication status.

Getting oriented

Luoding has a railway station, and the Yunfu–Maoming, Luoding–Yangchun and Shenzhen–Cenxi expressways pass through.

Highlights

• Luoding School-Temple 罗定学宫: Qing Confucian school-temple begun in 1647, provincial protected site.
• Wenta pagoda 罗定文塔: 47 m octagonal brick pagoda of 1611 on the Long River.
• Huang ancestral hall 国宝黄公祠: Guangfu-style hall with plaster relief and ceramic lattice windows.
• Luoding fermented beans 罗定豆豉: Soybeans steamed, fermented and sun-dried, made for over 300 years.
• Luoding crinkled fish puffs 罗定绉纱鱼腐: Fried mud-carp puffs with a wrinkled skin; geographical-indication product.