Xinshao County 新邵县

Setting and landscape

The ground is higher in the south than the north; mountains dominate the northeast and northwest, and hills the southeast and southwest. The Zi River runs for 54 kilometres through the county and carries on to Dongting Lake (洞庭湖). The highest point is Yueping Peak (岳坪峰) on Longshan (龙山), at 1,513.6 metres.

Longshan straddles the meeting point of Xinshao, Lianyuan (涟源) and Shuangfeng (双峰). In December 2020 Zhu Youzhi (朱有志), a former president of the Hunan Academy of Social Sciences, wrote an essay on the mountain that was carved on the back of a 7.8-metre stone tablet reading "China Longshan". It places Yaowang Hall (药王殿) on one of the peaks, says the physician Sun Simiao (孙思邈) lived there in ancient times, and mentions a well inside the hall.

History

The area belonged to the state of Chu (楚) in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. From 1072, when the Song reopened the Meishan (梅山) uplands and created Xinhua County, the land was split between Shaoyang and Xinhua through the Yuan, Ming and Qing. Xinshao County dates from 1952; its government was set up on 1 April that year, seated at Niangxi (酿溪). It moved to Lianyuan prefecture in October 1977 and has been part of Shaoyang city since August 1983.

Sun-family bone-setting (新邵孙氏正骨术) is on the national intangible-heritage list (fourth batch, 2014). It began in the late Qing with the Sun family of Taizhimiao (太芝庙) at the foot of Longshan, who blended their own treatment of fighting injuries with the bone-setting of old Meishan medicine and Chinese bone medicine. It uses more than 150 herbs gathered on and around Longshan, and the Xinshao County hospital of Chinese medicine is its registered keeper.

What to see

The Baishuidong scenic area (白水洞景区) is in Yantang town (严塘镇), 23 kilometres from Shaoyang city. Other places the county promotes include Baiyunyan (白云岩), the flowers of Shizhong Dajie (十重大界), Yueping Peak and the Fenghuang Valley scenic area (凤凰谷景区).

Getting oriented

Shaoyang North station on the Shanghai–Kunming high-speed railway is in Pingshang town (坪上镇), and the Hunan–Guizhou railway crosses the county with a stop at Shiquan (石泉站). The county seat is 12 kilometres from Shaoyang station.

Highlights

• Longshan 龙山: Mountain where Xinshao, Lianyuan and Shuangfeng meet; Yueping Peak on it is the county's highest point at 1,513.6 m.
• Baishuidong scenic area 白水洞景区: Scenic area in Yantang town, 23 km from Shaoyang city.
• Sun-family bone-setting 新邵孙氏正骨术: National intangible heritage since 2014, rooted in Taizhimiao at the foot of Longshan.