Chishui City 赤水市

Setting and landscape

The city sits in the transition from the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the Sichuan Basin. The city government describes its more than 1,300 square kilometres of Danxia landform as the largest in China. Ground rises from 221 m in the hilly northwest to 1,730 m among the gorges of the southeast. The Chishui River, a first-order tributary of the Yangtze, is the largest of 352 rivers here. The average annual temperature is 18.1°C.

Chishui is dense with spiny tree ferns (桫椤, Alsophila), a nationally protected Jurassic relic; the Chishui Alsophila National Nature Reserve (赤水桫椤国家级自然保护区) alone holds 47,000 of them.

History

Chishui was first set up as an administrative unit in 1109 under the Northern Song, with its seat at today's Fuxing town (复兴镇). The Qing created Chishui sub-prefecture in 1908, which became Chishui County in 1914 and a city in December 1990. In 1929 communists led by Liang Yeguang (梁业广) founded the earliest Communist Party organisation in Guizhou here, and in January 1935 the Red Army's arrival opened the Four Crossings of the Chishui River (四渡赤水) campaign.

What to see

Chishui Danxia became a World Natural Heritage site in 2010 as part of China Danxia (中国丹霞). The State Council listed the Chishui scenic area as a national scenic area in 1994; its landscape is one of waterfalls, bamboo, lakes, tree ferns and Danxia landforms, with Long March sites.

Named scenic areas include the Chishui Great Waterfall (赤水大瀑布), a national 4A scenic area, Sidonggou (四洞沟) and the Bamboo Sea National Forest Park (竹海国家森林公园), along with the old towns of Datong (大同古镇) and Bing'an (丙安古镇).

Food and local products

Douhua (豆花), soft bean curd, is everywhere in Chishui and is one of the main dishes served to guests. Most of what is sold is black douhua made from black soybeans rather than yellow ones; it is eaten with chilli, with rice as douhua fan (豆花饭) or with noodles as douhua mian (豆花面).

Chishui sun-dried vinegar (赤水晒醋) received national geographical-indication protection in July 2015. The Qianlaoweng (黔老翁) process, as the city government describes it, uses rice and glutinous rice with wheat bran and a starter made from more than 100 herbs, ferments the mash indoors, then packs it into jars that are set out in the sun; the whole cycle takes more than two years.

Getting oriented

The city government gives distances from the urban area of 70 km to Luzhou (泸州), 240 km to Chongqing and 300 km to Zunyi. The Chengdu–Zunyi Expressway (蓉遵高速) passes through the city.

Highlights

• Chishui Danxia 赤水丹霞: Part of the China Danxia World Natural Heritage site since 2010.
• Chishui Great Waterfall 赤水大瀑布: A national 4A scenic area.
• Chishui Alsophila National Nature Reserve 赤水桫椤国家级自然保护区: Holds 47,000 spiny tree ferns, a Jurassic relic.
• Bing'an Ancient Town 丙安古镇: Old town listed among Chishui's cultural scenic areas.
• Chishui sun-dried vinegar 赤水晒醋: Geographical-indication product since July 2015, sun-fermented for over two years.