Shashi District 沙市区

Setting and landscape

The district sits on an old Yangtze floodplain. The ground is flat, a little higher in the southwest than the northeast, and mostly 32 to 36 metres above sea level; the highest point, at Liulinzhou (柳林洲), reaches only 40 metres. The built-up area runs in a band from west to east along the river, with Gong'an County (公安县) facing it across the water. Rivers, lakes and ponds are scattered across the district, and the Yangtze and Changhu Lake (长湖) are its main water sources. The climate is humid subtropical monsoon, with a mean annual temperature of 16.1 °C.

History

More than 3,000 years ago Shashi served as the outer port of Ying (郢), the Chu capital. In the Tang it was called Shatoushi (沙头市), shortened to Shashi, and in the Song it became a town under Jiangling County (江陵县). The district government counts mid-to-late Ming Shashi among the country's twelve great commercial cities. In 1723 the Qing moved an assistant prefect of Jingzhou here, with an office on what is now Zhongshan Road (中山路). Shashi became a treaty port in 1895; in the Republican era it was nicknamed "Little Hankou" (小汉口). A city from 1949, it was merged with Jingzhou prefecture in 1994 and became a district.

What to see

The Wanshou Pagoda (万寿宝塔) stands on the Guanyin Ji (观音矶) point of the Jingjiang Great Dike (荆江大堤) in the southwest of the district. The Prince of Liao began it in 1548 to pray for the emperor's long life; it is an eight-sided, seven-storey brick and stone tower 40.46 metres high, and since the dike was raised in 1952 its bottom storey has been below the dike surface. It became a national key cultural relics protection site in 2006.

Zhanghua Temple (章华寺), a Buddhist temple, dates from the Yuan dynasty. Zhongshan Park (中山公园) holds the tomb of Sun Shu'ao (孙叔敖), a noted figure of the Spring and Autumn period, and the Chunqiu Pavilion (春秋阁) in memory of Guan Yu (关羽).

Getting oriented

Shashi borders Qianjiang (潜江市) to the east and Shayang County (沙洋县) of Jingmen to the north, and lies 237 km from Wuhan. Jingzhou Shashi Airport opened on 30 January 2021, and the Shanghai–Wuhan–Chengdu high-speed railway, the Menghua railway (蒙华铁路), the Hanyi Expressway (汉宜高速) and National Highway 318 all run through the district.

Highlights

• Wanshou Pagoda 万寿宝塔: Ming brick and stone pagoda of 1548 on the Jingjiang Great Dike, 40.46 m high; national key site since 2006.
• Zhanghua Temple 章华寺: Buddhist temple built in the Yuan dynasty.
• Zhongshan Park 中山公园: Holds the tomb of Sun Shu'ao and the Chunqiu Pavilion for Guan Yu.