Yingshan County 英山县

Setting and landscape

Three ridges running northeast to southwest divide the county, with two large rivers between them, and the ground falls from the high northeast to about 90 metres in the southwest. More than twenty peaks top 1,000 metres. East of Tiantangzhai the Longtan (龙潭) river valley runs for 12 kilometres and drops 800 metres, and it is called the 'first gorge of central China'. Four hot springs lie around the county town, with water averaging 63°C; in the 1980s a hot-spring swimming and diving hall was built there, where world champions including Fu Mingxia (伏明霞) and Zhou Jihong (周继红) trained.

History

The county government describes Yingshan as the fief of Ying Bu (英布) under the Han and the home of Bi Sheng (毕升) in the Song. The county itself dates from 1270, when Emperor Duzong approved a petition from Duan Chaoli (段朝立) to create it from Dongzhihe township of Luotian (罗田), and made him its first magistrate. It remained under Lu'an (六安) in Anhui until November 1932, when it moved to Hubei's Huanggang district.

What to see

Yingshan has two national 4A scenic areas: the Dabie Main Peak scenic area and Taohuachong (桃花冲). Taohuachong is a forest on the east side of Datongjian (大同尖), the range's second peak at 1,698 metres, where a stream called the Ten-Li Peach Blossom Creek runs over rocks. Wuyunshan Tea Park (乌云山茶叶公园), northwest of the county town and completed in 1998, is described by the culture and tourism bureau as the first park in China named after tea. Nearly a hundred tea pavilions once lined the old roads along the east, west and south rivers; the one at Tingziling (亭子岭) on the south river was built by Duan Chaoli.

Food and local products

Tea goes back at least to the Tang, when Yingshan's 'Tuanhuang' (团黄) tea went to Chang'an as tribute. Today Yingshan Yunwu (英山云雾) tea is listed among Hubei's ten famous teas. Songs of tea-pickers moving between Yingshan and three neighbouring counties grew into Yingshan tea-picking opera, whose tunes local performers carried to southern Anhui in the late 19th century, where they fed into Huangmei opera (黄梅戏). The county also calls itself a home of silk and medicinal herbs such as poria (茯苓).

Highlights

• Taohuachong 桃花冲: National 4A scenic area in the forest east of Datongjian, the Dabie range's second peak.
• Longtan Valley 龙潭河谷: 12 km gorge east of Tiantangzhai with an 800 m drop.
• Wuyunshan Tea Park 乌云山茶叶公园: Opened in 1998, described as the first park in China named after tea.
• Yingshan Yunwu tea 英山云雾: Listed among Hubei's ten famous teas.