Neixiang County 内乡县

Setting and landscape

Neixiang lies between Zhenping (镇平) to the east and Xixia (西峡) and Xichuan (淅川) to the west. The Tuan (湍河), Mo (默河), Huangshui (黄水河) and Diao (刁河) rivers run through the county, which is part of the catchment of the Danjiangkou Reservoir (丹江口库区), the core source of the middle route of the South-North Water Diversion. Forest covers more than 60 percent of the land; the county lists the giant salamander and the leopard among its rare animals and counts over 800 chrysanthemum varieties.

History

In the Western Zhou the area was the fief of the state of Li (郦国); it passed to Chu and then to Qin, which set up Li County under Nanyang Commandery. The Sui renamed it Neixiang in 583, the seat moved to its present site at Zhuyang (渚阳镇) in the early Yuan, and Neixiang and Xixia became separate counties in December 1949. The county claims the merchant-statesman Fan Li (范蠡) as a native, and the Jin-dynasty poet Yuan Haowen (元好问) once served as its magistrate.

Wan opera (宛梆), which grew from eastern Shaanxi opera mixed with Nanyang folk tunes, entered the first national intangible-heritage list in 2006; the county government describes its Neixiang troupe, formed in 1951, as the genre's only professional company. The spring-ox ritual (打春牛), in which the magistrate whipped open a clay ox filled with grain, joined the national list in 2021.

What to see

The Neixiang County Yamen (内乡县衙) is presented by the county government as the most completely preserved feudal-era county office in China. Its Sansheng Hall (三省堂) carries a couplet on the duties of officials written in 1680 by magistrate Gao Yiyong (高以永). Baotianman (宝天曼), in the mountains of northern Xiaguan Town (夏馆镇) and rising to 1,840 metres, is described by the county as a UNESCO world biosphere reserve and world geopark; rafting runs through its gorge. Other sights named by the county include Yunlu Mountain (云露山), the stone-built village of Wuya (吴垭石头村), Shangsheng Garden (商圣苑) and Tianxin Cave (天心洞).

Food and local products

Funiu Mountain yellow wine (伏牛山黄酒) is brewed from red millet and red wheat with mountain spring water: the grain is soaked, fermented and aged in earthenware jars, steamed in wooden steamers and started with wheat-based ferment. Its brewing method was put on the Henan provincial heritage list in 2021, and the county calls Neixiang the birthplace of Nanyang yellow wine. The hills also yield lion's mane mushrooms (猴头) and wood ear (木耳).

Highlights

• Neixiang County Yamen 内乡县衙: Described by the county government as China's most completely preserved feudal-era county office; the Sansheng Hall holds a 1680 couplet by magistrate Gao Yiyong.
• Baotianman 宝天曼: Mountain forest in northern Xiaguan Town, 1,840 m high, described by the county as a UNESCO world biosphere reserve and world geopark.
• Wan opera 宛梆: Nanyang opera on the first national intangible-heritage list (2006); Neixiang's troupe dates from 1951.
• Funiu Mountain yellow wine 伏牛山黄酒: Jar-fermented millet and wheat wine whose brewing method joined the Henan heritage list in 2021.