Chengzhong District 城中区

What to see

Liuhou Park (柳侯公园), at 60 Wenhui Road, grew out of flower beds laid out in 1905 around Luochi pond (罗池) and took its name in 1909. It is a national AAAA tourist attraction. Inside stands Liuhou Temple (柳侯祠), first built in 822 to honour the Tang writer Liu Zongyuan (柳宗元) and first called Luochi Temple (罗池庙); the present buildings were rebuilt in 1987 to a Qianlong-era plan. Also in the park are Liu Zongyuan's cenotaph, a tomb holding his clothes and cap, and the site of the Tang-era Kaiyuan Temple (开元寺).

The temple keeps about fifty inscribed steles from the Song dynasty onward, listed together as a national key cultural relic protection unit in 2006. The best known is the Lizi Stele (荔子碑) of 1217, carrying a poem by Han Yu (韩愈) in the calligraphy of Su Shi (苏轼) and known as the "Three Excellences Stele" (三绝碑).

On Shuguang East Road, the East Gate tower (东门城楼) is part of Liuzhou's city wall, first built in 1379 under the Ming and rebuilt in the Qing; it has been an autonomous-region protected site since 1994. The walled city was oval with five gates, and a stretch of Ming wall at the old Zhennan Gate (镇南门) survives along Shuguang Road.

Food and local crafts

In 2026 the district added five traditional techniques to its own intangible heritage list, most of them food: Leicun (雷村) traditional soy sauce, Chengzhong tofu skin (腐竹), Liuzhou douhua (豆花, soft tofu pudding), handmade sausages from Qingyun Street (青云街), and Liuzhou woodenware repair. Carp silk painting (鲤鱼绢画), which combines Zhuang totem imagery with Chinese fine-brush painting on silk, entered the list in 2024.

Highlights

• Liuhou Park 柳侯公园: Park named in 1909 around Luochi pond; a national AAAA tourist attraction.
• Liuhou Temple 柳侯祠: Temple to Liu Zongyuan founded in 822; its steles are a national key cultural relic protection unit (2006).
• Lizi Stele 荔子碑: 1217 stele with Han Yu's poem in Su Shi's calligraphy, called the Three Excellences Stele.
• East Gate tower 东门城楼: Gate of the city wall first built in 1379 and rebuilt in the Qing; protected since 1994.
• Carp silk painting 鲤鱼绢画: Fine-brush carp painting on silk, on the district intangible heritage list since 2024.