Shenze County 深泽县

Getting oriented

The county seat is Shenze town (深泽镇). Shenze borders Wuji County (无极县), Xinji (辛集市) and Jinzhou (晋州市) within Shijiazhuang, Dingzhou (定州市) and Anguo (安国市) in Baoding (保定市), and Anping County (安平县) in Hengshui (衡水市).

History

The Western Han set up Nan Shenze County (南深泽县) with its seat southeast of today's Shenze town, on the south side of the Hutuo. The Northern Wei dropped the "Nan" (south) from the name, and when the Sui re-established the county its seat moved to the present site. Liu Jianhang (刘建航, 1929–2016), known as the "father of the Shanghai Metro", came from Shenze.

What to see

Two buildings in the county town are Hebei provincial protected sites. In the north stands the Ming-dynasty Zhenwu Temple (真武庙), also known as Beiji Tai (北极台, "Pole Star Terrace"). In the centre, the red-walled Shenze Confucian Temple (深泽文庙) keeps only its Hall of Great Achievement (大成殿), a Ming hall five bays wide under a single-eave hip-and-gable roof of alternating yellow and green glazed tiles, with dragons and phoenixes on the two faces of the ridge.

The temple's founding date is unknown; a new temple was built in 1088 in the northeast corner of the old town and moved sixty paces southwest to its present site in 1482. In the 1960s and 1970s the temple was turned into the county hospital, with the hall used as the operating theatre, and the hall is now its only surviving building. It was listed as a provincial protected site in 1993. A stele of the Jiajing-era imperial admonition (敬一箴碑) still stands there.

Highlights

• Shenze Confucian Temple 深泽文庙: Ming Hall of Great Achievement with yellow and green glazed tiles; provincial protected site since 1993.
• Zhenwu Temple 真武庙: Ming temple in the north of the county town, also called Beiji Tai; provincial protected site.