Fengquan District 凤泉区

Setting and landscape

The district is roughly square and slopes from north to south: low hills reach down from the north in a tongue-shaped strip, while the south is flat and tilts gently to the south-east. Heights range from 68.9 to 292.7 metres. Weihui lies to the north-east, Huixian to the north-west and Xinxiang County to the west. The name joins "feng" from Fenghuang Mountain and "quan" from Yugong Spring (愚公泉).

History

In 1969 Luwangfen (潞王坟) station, whose name means "Prince Lu's grave", was renamed Xinxiang North, and the local commune took the station's name. A Beizhan ("North Station") District was created in 1982 and renamed Fengquan on 1 January 2004, when Dakuai town (大块镇) was also transferred in from Xinxiang County. Remains of the Longshan culture at Lubao (鲁堡) and the Yangshao culture at Hetun (何屯) lie within its boundaries, as does a site linked to the Battle of Muye (牧野大战).

What to see

The Tomb of Prince Jian of Lu (潞简王墓), also known as Lu Wang Ling (潞王陵), sits on the southern slope of Fenghuang Mountain at Fenshang village (坟上村). It holds Zhu Yiliu (朱翊镠), Prince Jian of Lu, and, in a separate western precinct, his secondary consort Zhao. Built in the Wanli period in imitation of the Wanli Emperor's Dingling tomb in Beijing, it has a spirit way, groups of stone figures, a three-arched bridge, gate towers, a sacrificial hall, a stele tower and a mound enclosure, inside an outer wall of bluestone 324 metres long. Chinese Wikipedia describes it as the best-preserved and largest Ming prince's tomb in China. In 1656 a monk named Zhenxi (真息) bought the site for 480 taels of silver and turned the prince's tomb into a Buddhist hall and the consort's into a nunnery; from 1953 to 2005 the consort's tomb served as a prison. It became a Henan provincial protected site in 1986 and a national key protected site in 1996, and it is a national 4A scenic area.

Highlights

• Tomb of Prince Jian of Lu 潞简王墓: Wanli-period tomb modelled on the Dingling; national key protected site since 1996.
• Fenghuang Mountain 凤凰山: Taihang spur that gives the district the "feng" in its name; the Lu tomb is on its southern slope.
• Yugong Spring 愚公泉: Spring that supplies the second half of the district's name.