Shihe District 浉河区

Setting and landscape

The ground falls from south-west to north-east, from 906 metres to 54 metres: the Tongbai (桐柏山) and Dabie ranges rise in the west and south, while the east and north are plain laid down by the Huai. The Huai runs along the northern edge and its tributary the Shi crosses the district, one of 15 perennial rivers that include the Du (杜河), Dongshuang (东双河) and Tanjia (谭家河). Yingshan (应山) and Dawu (大悟) in Hubei border it to the south and Suizhou (随州) to the west, with Luoshan (罗山) and Pingqiao (平桥) on the east and north.

What to see

The district's party secretary sums up Shihe on CCTV as "one mountain, one water, one tea garden". The mountain is Mount Jigong (鸡公山), a Dabie spur on the Henan–Hubei border 38 km south of Xinyang, whose main peak, Rooster Head (鸡公头), reaches 814 metres. It became a national key scenic area in 1982 and a national nature reserve in 1988, and between 1898 and 1936 about 500 villas were built on it by people from 23 countries, among them the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Russia.

The water is Nanwan Lake (南湾湖), a reservoir built between 1952 and 1955 by damming the Shi in the district's south-west, about 5 km from the city. Mao Zedong's words "The Huai River must be harnessed" (一定要把淮河修好) are set into the face of its 816.5-metre dam. Migratory egrets and herons have long used Bird Island, and there are also Monkey and Tea islands. Xianyin Temple (贤隐寺), founded in the Southern Dynasties, stands in a valley at the lake's east end.

Food and local products

Shihe is the main producing area of Xinyang Maojian (信阳毛尖) green tea, with more than 600,000 mu (about 40,000 hectares) of tea gardens. The hills upstream of Nanwan Lake, known as the "five clouds and two pools" (五云二潭) and including Cheyun Mountain (车云山) and Black Dragon Pool (黑龙潭), are its main growing area. The top grade is picked as one bud with one leaf just opening, and the traditional method fires the leaves in two iron woks before drying them over charcoal. At Hejiazhai (何家寨) in Shihegang town (浉河港镇), an RV campsite sits on the high tea hills beside the lake, and Victory Road pedestrian street (胜利路步行街) in the city carries reliefs of the Maojian-making process.

Getting oriented

Xinyang station (信阳站) on the Beijing–Guangzhou railway is in the district, and the district government sits in Hudong subdistrict (湖东街道).

Highlights

• Mount Jigong 鸡公山: 814-metre Dabie spur with about 500 villas built by people from 23 countries between 1898 and 1936.
• Nanwan Lake 南湾湖: Reservoir on the Shi built 1952–1955, with Mao's inscription on the dam and Bird, Monkey and Tea islands.
• Xianyin Temple 贤隐寺: Temple founded in the Southern Dynasties at the east end of Nanwan Lake.
• Xinyang Maojian 信阳毛尖: Green tea grown mainly in Shihe, especially in the hills upstream of Nanwan Lake.