Lengshuijiang 冷水江市

Setting and landscape

The ground is high in the north and south and low in the middle, a lopsided saddle. The Zi River valley in the centre is made of plain, low ridges and hills; the northern ranges rise to 994 metres at Laiziling (癞子岭), and the southern ones, including the Dacheng range (大乘山), reach 1,072 metres at Zushiling (祖师岭). Chinese Wikipedia explains the name, cold-water river, by the many wells along the Lian stream (涟溪), whose water is very cold.

History

The area was part of Xinhua (新化); after short-lived carve-outs in 1951 and 1961, the county-level city was formally created in 1969. The name of the Xikuangshan (锡矿山) mine in the north-west of the city means tin mine mountain; Chinese Wikipedia notes that antimony was once mistaken for tin. Mining at Xikuangshan goes back to the Western Han, formal extraction began in 1897, and the city government calls it the birthplace of China's antimony industry; it was entered on the fourth national industrial heritage list in 2020. Huaqiao (花桥) lay at the heart of old Meishan (梅山), the region where the fort chief Zhang Hu (张虎) rose against the Yuan in 1277.

What to see

Former spoil heaps at Xikuangshan have been replanted with flowers and turned into mining-landscape attractions. Chinese Wikipedia lists Boyue Cave (波月洞) and Xianqi Cave (仙憩洞) among the main sights. The langjiang drum (浪犟鼓), a Meishan exorcist (nuo, 傩) dance on the city's intangible heritage list since 2020, is kept by one ritual altar in Shatangwan (沙塘湾); the masked dancer wears a long drum on the back and beats both heads backwards over the shoulders and with the heels.

Food and local products

The Huaqiao or Duoshan beef feast (铎山牛席) is served along a street in Duoshan town (铎山镇) where each house hangs a whole slaughtered ox and diners order by the cut, from head to tail. Local people eat plough oxen that have worked for two or three years rather than cattle raised for beef; cooks work over fierce heat, season with local mountain-pepper oil and dried red and white chillies, and serve dishes such as sour-hot tripe and beef-offal hotpot. The city government also names spring-water snails (泉水嗦罗) and spicy tofu (麻辣豆腐), Shuiyunfeng yellow peaches (水云峰黄桃, a geographical-indication product), Meishan (眉山) grapes and Tieshan (铁山) bayberries.

Highlights

• Xikuangshan 锡矿山: Antimony mine worked since 1897; national industrial heritage listing in 2020.
• Duoshan beef feast 铎山牛席: Whole-ox feast of cuts and offal cooked with mountain-pepper oil and chillies.
• Langjiang drum 浪犟鼓: Meishan nuo dance struck backwards and with the heels; city intangible heritage since 2020.
• Shuiyunfeng yellow peach 水云峰黄桃: Geographical-indication fruit.