Hengshan County 衡山县

Setting and landscape

The county is mostly hill country with river valleys and some plain. Its ground rises towards Zhurong Peak (祝融峰) in the middle and slopes down to the northwest and southeast, which divides it into a "front mountain" and a "back mountain" area (前山, 后山). Besides the Xiang, the main rivers are the Juan (涓水), the Jingpi (荆陂河) and the Wu (乌江). The Xiang carries a 64-kilometre navigable channel through the county, and the county seat is Kaiyun (开云镇).

History

The name Hengshan first appears in 290, when Emperor Hui of Jin renamed the old Hengyang County. From the Ming to the Qing the county belonged to Hengzhou prefecture (衡州府). Its modern shape comes from two later cuts: in 1966 the land on the east bank of the Xiang became Hengdong County (衡东县), and in 1984 the town and township of Nanyue, with ten villages from three other townships, were taken out to form Nanyue District (南岳区).

What to see

Xuanzhou (萱洲镇), an old town, lies at the southern tip of the county. China National Radio reported on the first Xuanzhou land-art season in March 2024, held among spring peach, plum and rape blossom, with a field design using motifs from Hengshan shadow puppetry (衡山皮影戏) beside the high-speed railway. The Hengshan Xuanzhou National Wetland Park (衡山萱洲国家湿地公园), approved as a national pilot on 31 December 2014, covers 2,740 hectares across Hengshan and Hengdong counties at the meeting point of two bird migration routes; 85 bird species have been recorded, and staff sighted four scaly-sided mergansers there in 2016.

In Huangni village, Xinqiao (新桥镇), the former home of Tang Qunying (唐群英故居) keeps the study she named "Shiwujia" (是吾家, "this is my home"), where she read as a young woman and edited her poems in later life; it became a Hunan provincial protected site in 2001. Other sites in the county include Zijinshan Forest Park (紫金山森林公园), the Dayuandu artificial lake (大源渡人工湖), the Kangwang Temple (康王庙), the site of the Yuebei Peasants' and Workers' Association (岳北农工会旧址) and the martyrs' cemetery of Mao Zejian (毛泽建烈士陵园).

Highlights

• Xuanzhou 萱洲古镇: Old town at the county's southern tip; host of a land-art season among spring blossom first held in March 2024.
• Hengshan Xuanzhou National Wetland Park 衡山萱洲国家湿地公园: 2,740-hectare wetland park approved as a national pilot in 2014; 85 bird species recorded.
• Former Residence of Tang Qunying 唐群英故居: The "Shiwujia" study in Huangni village, Xinqiao; Hunan provincial protected site since 2001.