Hefeng County 鹤峰县

History

The Hefeng culture and tourism bureau describes the Rongmei chiefs as once the strongest tusi house of the Chu and Shu lands. Their rule ended in 1735, when the Qing replaced hereditary chiefs with appointed officials and created Hefeng as a subprefecture under Yichang. It became an independent subprefecture in 1904 and a county in 1912. A Tujia autonomous county was set up here in April 1980 and dissolved in August 1983, when the Exi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture was formed.

In the Second Revolutionary Civil War, He Long (贺龙) came up to Pingshan (屏山) to choose the site of a Red Army rear hospital, which the county bureau calls the largest and longest-held in the Hunan–Hubei border soviet.

What to see

Pingshan Gorge (屏山峡谷) lies 6.8 kilometres from the county town and runs for 18 kilometres; the county bureau dates its formation to the Quaternary glacial period. Visitors walk the narrow slot of the gorge floor and travel its water by boat. The Qing playwright Gu Cai (顾彩) compared the place to the Peach Blossom Spring (桃源) of legend. The first phase of gorge sightseeing now open takes in 39 featured spots; other planned zones cover the site of the tusi residence and red-heritage sites.

The Hunan–Hubei Border Soviet Martyrs' Cemetery (湘鄂边苏区烈士陵园), south of the county town, was founded in 1959 as the Manshanhong Martyrs' Cemetery (满山红烈士陵园) and is a nationally protected martyrs' memorial. It has a bronze statue of Marshal He Long and the graves of Duan Dechang (段德昌), commander of the Red Ninth Division, whom Mao Zedong signed off as the first revolutionary martyr of the People's Republic, and of He Ying (贺英), He Long's elder sister.

Crafts and traditions

Hefeng Nuo opera (鹤峰傩戏), a masked drama on the national intangible heritage list, survives in the county. Its carved wooden masks follow fixed rules: the Kaishan (开山) character has bulging eyes, the Suanjiang (算匠) a wrinkled forehead, and female masks softer lines. In Wuli township (五里乡) the carver Liu Xueqing (刘学清) takes a mask through more than 20 steps, from seasoning the wood and sketching to rough-cutting, fine carving, polishing and painting.

Highlights

• Pingshan Gorge 屏山峡谷: An 18-kilometre gorge 6.8 kilometres from the county town, explored on foot and by boat.
• Hunan–Hubei Border Soviet Martyrs' Cemetery 湘鄂边苏区烈士陵园: Founded in 1959; graves of Duan Dechang and He Ying, and a statue of He Long.
• Hefeng Nuo opera 鹤峰傩戏: National intangible heritage masked drama with hand-carved wooden masks.