Qianjiang 潜江市

History

Qianjiang became a county in 965, under the Song. Much older sites lie in its soil: the Linniaotai site (林鸟台遗址) holds Neolithic remains about 8,500 years old, and the site of the Zhanghua Terrace (章华台), an Eastern Zhou detached palace of King Ling of Chu (楚灵王), was named one of China's ten major archaeological discoveries of 2000. The city government counts the brothers Li Shucheng (李书城), the first agriculture minister of the People's Republic, and Li Hanjun (李汉俊), a delegate to the first Communist Party congress, among its natives; Li Shucheng's residence hosted that congress.

What to see

Longwan National Archaeological Site Park (龙湾国家考古遗址公园), in Longwan town, shows the rammed-earth palace platforms, the Longwan Site Museum and an exhibition hall over the Zhanghua Terrace base, opened in 2013, where a 1:1 model of the excavated base is displayed above preserved remains such as a shell-paved path and drainage pipes. The Qianjiang government describes the site as the largest Chu royal garden-palace site of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods yet found in China.

In the north of the city, the Cao Yu Culture Tourism Area (曹禺文化旅游区) holds the Cao Yu Memorial Hall, with more than 3,000 items on the playwright, and a museum in a reconstruction of his family's ancestral home. Ziyue Lake Park (紫月湖公园) is one of the city's parks, and Fanwan Lake (返湾湖) is a national wetland park. The Xinglong water-control hub of the South–North Water Transfer Project is in Qianjiang.

Food and heritage

The city government calls Qianjiang the birthplace of rice–crayfish co-farming, and its restaurants serve crayfish in more than a hundred ways, including braised crayfish (油焖大虾) and garlic crayfish (蒜蓉大虾). Zha hujiao (鲊胡椒) is a fermented local dish, fried with pork intestines or cooked with snakehead fish. Junmi cha (焌米茶) is a filling local food that farmers take against hunger and thirst in the hot, busy summer farming season, and "a bowl of junmi cha and a plate of zha hujiao" can make a whole meal. Flower-drum opera, shadow puppetry, Qianjiang folk songs, the lantern festival and the straw dragon are all on the national intangible-heritage list.

Highlights

• Longwan National Archaeological Site Park 龙湾国家考古遗址公园: Site of King Ling of Chu's Zhanghua Terrace palace, a national protected site since 2001.
• Cao Yu Memorial Hall 曹禺纪念馆: More than 3,000 items on the playwright, in the Cao Yu Culture Tourism Area.
• Ziyue Lake Park 紫月湖公园: One of Qianjiang's city parks.
• Qianjiang braised crayfish 潜江油焖小龙虾: One of more than a hundred crayfish dishes served in the city.
• Zha hujiao 鲊胡椒: Fermented local dish fried with pork intestines or cooked with snakehead fish.