Xinxing County 新兴县

Setting and landscape

The county government likens the land to a winnowing basket: hills on four sides and a basin in the middle. The main peak of the Tianlu Mountains (天露山), Tielu Peak (铁炉峰) at 1,251 metres, rises in the south, with spurs of the Yunwu (云雾山) and Laoxiang (老香山) ranges to the north-west and north-east. The Xinxing River rises in the Tianlu range and flows north; three streams and two rivers merge in turn at Dongkou (洞口), and the river joins the Xi River (西江) at Duanzhou (端州) in Zhaoqing, upstream of Lingyang Gorge (羚羊峡). The climate is subtropical monsoon, and the high southern ground shields the basin from typhoons. The county government also points to a sulphide hot spring (硫氢化物温泉) that it describes as unique in Guangdong.

History

County government here began in 111 BC, when the Han set up Linyun County (临允县) with its seat at today's Xincheng (新城镇). Xinning County, split from it under the Western Jin, was renamed Xinxing ("new and flourishing") in 351 to avoid sharing a name with the new Xinning commandery. From 523, under the Liang, the area was Xinzhou (新州), a prefecture whose seat, also called Juncheng (筠城), was here; officials were banished there under successive dynasties, and before the Ming its river was a water route to western Guangdong, Hainan and the Beibu Gulf. Xinzhou was abolished and Xinxing County restored in 1369. The county joined Yunfu when that city was created in 1994.

What to see

Guo'en Temple (国恩寺) stands at the foot of Longshan (龙山) beside Tajiao village (塔脚村) in Liuzu town (六祖镇). Huineng founded it in 683 to repay his parents' kindness, and later preached and died here; a pagoda followed in 712. The temple faces west, with the Heavenly Kings Hall, the Mahavira Hall and the Sixth Patriarch Hall on one axis. A Wanli-era archway carries a late-Ming Shiwan (石湾) ceramic panel of dragon and tiger, and the Mahavira Hall keeps eight Tang lotus-carved column bases; only the base, bricks and underground chamber remain of the Bao'en Pagoda (报恩塔).

The Legends of the Chan Patriarchs (禅宗祖师传说), folk tales of Huineng's birth, study, teaching and death passed on orally in the county, joined the fifth national intangible cultural heritage list in 2021, the county's first national entry.

Getting oriented

The county town is 140 km from Guangzhou. The Shenzhen–Cenxi, Shantou–Zhanjiang and Gaoming–Enping expressways cross the county, as do the Sanshui–Maoming railway and the Guangzhou–Zhanjiang high-speed railway.

Highlights

• Guo'en Temple 国恩寺: Temple Huineng founded in 683 in Liuzu town, with Tang column bases and a Ming ceramic panel.
• Legends of the Chan Patriarchs 禅宗祖师传说: National intangible heritage since 2021.
• Tielu Peak 铁炉峰: 1,251 m main peak of the Tianlu Mountains in the south.
• Xinxing River 新兴江: Flows north from the Tianlu range to join the Xi River near Zhaoqing.