Lingling Ancient City 零陵古城

About Lingling Ancient City

Liu Zongyuan was demoted to Yongzhou in 805 and spent ten years there in exile, writing the 'Eight Records of Yongzhou' and 'The Snake Catcher'. Local people later built the Liuzi Temple beside the Yu stream in his memory, and the old street running beside it took the name Liuzi Street. Yongzhou itself is a national historic and cultural city with more than 2,200 years of history as a prefecture, holding 34 nationally protected heritage sites and one historic and cultural district.

Liuzi Street is the core of the Liu Zongyuan cultural tourism area, a national AAAA-level tourist area, and Ming and Qing shop buildings line both sides of it. A conservation plan for the Liuzi Street historic and cultural district covering 2024 to 2035 brings the street pattern, nine protected heritage units, 52 historic buildings and 18 representative intangible heritage items into its scope. In 2022 the Lingling Ancient City tourist area, built around the street, was included in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's second batch of national night-time culture and tourism consumption clusters, and in 2023 the Liuzi Street district became a national tourism and leisure block. The ancient-city project as a whole is newer than the temple and street at its centre, and the two should not be confused.

What to look for

• The Liuzi Temple, built beside the Yu stream in memory of Liu Zongyuan
• The Lizi stele in the temple, whose text is by Han Yu and whose calligraphy is by Su Shi
• Other stelae in the temple, including the Bushe Ge and the Xun Yuxi Ye Liuzi Miao
• The Ming and Qing shop buildings lining both sides of Liuzi Street
• The Yu stream, which Liu Zongyuan himself named and wrote about

Location & getting there

Getting to Lingling Ancient City

Identify the main visitor approach and any separately managed houses, museums or performances. Ask before entering residential spaces or photographing residents.

• Search for 零陵古城 with 永州市 and 零陵区.