Shancheng District 山城区

Setting and landscape

The district is low hill and ridge country, sloping from about 400 metres in the northwest to 150 metres in the southeast. It belongs to the Wei River (卫河) system of the Hai basin. Of its three rivers, the Tang (汤河), the Si (泗河) and the You (羑河), the Tang runs 18 kilometres through the district and through the town itself. Downstream, the former Tang River Reservoir, now Heming Lake (鹤鸣湖) in Shilin (石林), is a wetland of 568 hectares and a stopover on the central bird-migration route. Coal, cement limestone and dolomite are among some 30 minerals found here.

History

The district government places Zhongmou (中牟), capital of the Warring States kingdom of Zhao (赵) from 425 to 386 BC, around Guxian (故县) in Lulou (鹿楼). It also lists a Shang royal deer-park site, a Han iron-smelting site at Guxian, the Han tombs of Houying (后营) and a Song–Yuan kiln site at Siwan (寺湾). On 10 June 1947 Liu Bocheng (刘伯承) and Deng Xiaoping (邓小平), commander and political commissar of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army (晋冀鲁豫野战军), met their column commanders at Falong Temple (法隆寺) in Shilin and planned the army's thousand-li advance to the Dabie Mountains (大别山). The district was set up on 8 December 1961 from the Shancheng People's Commune. The city party and government offices moved here from Zhongshan (中山) in January 1959 and left for the new Qibin (淇滨) district in 1999.

What to see

The Shilin Conference Site (石林会议旧址), a 4A scenic area in Shilin, a provincial historic and cultural town, takes in Falong Temple, a memorial hall, a courtyard complex of the gentry Zhang Zhongren (张仲仁) begun in 1855, and an old cypress that Pingyuan Province named the first cypress of North China.

Shangshu Fu (尚书府) at Dahu village (大胡村) was begun in the Jiajing reign of the Ming and was the home of Li Sui (李燧), Minister of Works under the Hongzhi emperor, and of the Qing magistrate Li Shu (李塾). Water surrounds it on three sides, with the Tang River to the south. Five main courtyards stand side by side, with more than 1,500 rooms, carved brick screens and pottery roof beasts; locals call it the little Forbidden City, and it is a provincial protected site.

Highlights

• Shilin Conference Site 石林会议旧址: Falong Temple, where Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping planned the 1947 advance to the Dabie Mountains.
• Shangshu Fu 尚书府: Ming–Qing Li family mansion at Dahu village with five parallel courtyards and over 1,500 rooms.
• Heming Lake 鹤鸣湖: Former Tang River Reservoir; a 568-hectare wetland on the central bird-migration route.