Liubei District 柳北区

Getting oriented

The district covers 301.2 square kilometres, split into three towns and nine subdistricts. National Highway 209 runs through all three towns towards Liuzhou's four northern counties, and the Hunan–Guangxi high-speed railway crosses the district. Liuzhou North railway station, the Baisha coach station and the Zhegujiang wharf (鹧鸪江码头) on the river are all here. The district government calls Liubei the city's major industrial district; Liuzhou Iron and Steel (柳钢) is among the large state firms based here.

What to see

Que'er Mountain Park (雀儿山公园) covers 83 hectares, 16 of them water. At its north end a single peak, 180.4 metres above sea level, rises abruptly; its outline suggests a bird lifting its head and wings, which gives the hill its name. The view of the green hill lit by rosy clouds, called "Queshan Xiawei" (雀山霞蔚, "rosy clouds over Que'er Mountain"), is one of Liuzhou's new eight views. The district government records that the area was Liuzhou's old city in the Sui dynasty and that Liu Zongyuan (柳宗元) wrote of two steep hills flanking the road north of the city. Egrets and kingfishers live and breed around its lake, and the park became a national AAAA tourist attraction in 2017.

At 129 Beique Road, the Liukong Cultural and Creative Park (东方梦工场-柳空文创园) reuses the old Liuzhou air-compressor factory, with a theatre inside a former structural workshop and its red-brick walls kept. The factory was entered in China's fifth batch of national industrial heritage, the first such site in Liuzhou.

The Guangxi Ecological Science Park (广西生态科普苑), in Liuzhou's Northern Eco New District, combines a college campus and a park: old forestry-school buildings, a group of old trees, Junwu Lake (君武湖), a timber specimen hall, a redwood culture museum and a museum of Guangxi cuisine.

Food and local products

The district government names local farm brands by town: Daxian selenium-rich rice (大仙富硒米) from Shibeiping (石碑坪镇), Shangdong rice from Shatang (沙塘镇), Shuzhuang fragrant chicken (梳庄香鸡) from Changtang (长塘镇), Xiatao lotus (下陶九品香莲) and Longtang braised pork belly (龙塘扣肉). One of its farm zones is devoted to raw materials for luosifen (螺蛳粉), Liuzhou's river-snail rice noodles.

Highlights

• Que'er Mountain Park 雀儿山公园: Lake park below a 180.4-metre bird-shaped peak; its rosy-cloud view is one of Liuzhou's new eight views.
• Liukong Cultural and Creative Park 东方梦工场-柳空文创园: Former Liuzhou air-compressor factory, on the fifth national industrial heritage list.
• Guangxi Ecological Science Park 广西生态科普苑: Campus-and-park site with old forestry-school buildings, Junwu Lake and a Guangxi cuisine museum.
• Longtang braised pork belly 龙塘扣肉: Named by the district government among Liubei's local food brands.