Honghuagang District 红花岗区

History

In the Warring States period the area lay within Yelang (夜郎) as part of the state of Bie (鄨国), and the Qin set up Bie County in 220 BC. The Tang created Bozhou (播州) in 639, and in 642 one of its counties was renamed Zunyi. In 1176 Yang Zhen (杨轸), twelfth-generation ruler of the Yang house of Bozhou, moved his seat from Baijinbao (白锦堡) to Mujiachuan (穆家川), the present old town, and began building the old town there. After November 1949 a county-level Zunyi city was formed from the old county town; it became Honghuagang District in 1997.

What to see

The Zunyi Conference Site (遵义会议会址) stands at 96 Ziyin Road (子尹路) in Laocheng subdistrict. It was built in the early 1930s for the Guizhou army general Bai Huizhang (柏辉章), and its main block is a two-storey brick-and-timber house mixing Chinese and Western styles. The enlarged Politburo meeting held here from 15 to 17 January 1935 established Mao Zedong's leading position in the Party centre and the Red Army. The site opened to the public in October 1955, entered the first batch of national key protected sites in March 1961, and forms the core of the 4A Zunyi Conference Memorial Museum (遵义会议纪念馆).

In Shenxi town (深溪镇) the Yang Can Tomb (杨粲墓) holds Yang Can, Southern Song pacification commissioner of Bozhou, and his wife. Built between 1241 and 1252 from 496 white sandstone blocks in imitation of timber architecture, it has 190 carved panels; it became a national key protected site in 1982 and was grouped with the Yang Hui tomb in 2019 as the Yang chieftains' tombs (杨氏土司墓群). The district counts one 4A and six 3A scenic areas, and three national, eleven provincial and thirteen municipal protected sites.

Setting and landscape

The district covers 430.5 square kilometres at an average altitude of about 1,000 metres, with a mean annual temperature of 17.8°C and 1,074.1 mm of rain. Three hills ring the city, one river runs through it, and the old town keeps its "three streets and six lanes" and "twelve bridges". Twenty-two rivers, among them the Xiang (湘江河) and the Luo (洛江河), and sixteen reservoirs, including Hailong (海龙水库) and Hongyan (红岩水库), lie within it. Fenghuang Mountain National Forest Park (凤凰山国家森林公园) is the green backdrop of urban Zunyi.

Getting oriented

Zunyi Station, on the Chongqing–Guiyang (渝贵铁路) and Sichuan–Guizhou (川黔铁路) railways, is in the district.

Highlights

• Zunyi Conference Site 遵义会议会址: Early-1930s general's house where the January 1935 enlarged Politburo meeting sat; national key protected site since 1961.
• Yang Can Tomb 杨粲墓: Southern Song double-chamber stone tomb with 190 carvings, part of the Yang chieftains' tombs national listing.
• Fenghuang Mountain National Forest Park 凤凰山国家森林公园: Forest park that forms the green backdrop of urban Zunyi.