Lanshan County 蓝山县

Getting oriented

Lanshan borders Linwu (临武县) to the east, Ningyuan (宁远县) to the west and Jiahe (嘉禾县) to the north. The county stretches 55 km at its widest from east to west and 67 km from north to south. Provincial roads 322, 324 and 216 meet here, the Yongzhou-Lianzhou road runs through it from north to south, and two expressways completed at the end of 2012 cross in the county: the Erlianhot-Guangzhou (二广) and the Xiamen-Chengdu (厦蓉).

History

Stone axes, chisels, arrowheads and pottery unearthed at Hengjiangju (横江砠) in Zhuguansi (竹管寺) show that people lived here before the Xia and Shang. The county government also places it on the route of the legendary emperor Shun's (舜) tour of the south. A county named Nanping (南平) was founded here in 202 BC under the Han. It was merged into Linwu in 589, re-established in 671 under the Tang and renamed Lanshan in 742.

In December 1958 Lanshan was merged with Jiahe as Lanjia County (蓝嘉县); the two were split again in July 1961. The county moved under the Lingling prefecture in December 1962 and has belonged to Yongzhou since the prefecture became Yongzhou city in November 1995.

What to see

Huxi (虎溪村) in the north-west of the county sits on the boundary with the Jiuyi Mountains (九嶷山) of Ningyuan, beside the old Ninglan market (宁蓝古圩场), a single market straddling two counties. The name, "tiger stream", comes from the tiger-shaped rock hill behind the village and its constant stream. The Xie (谢) family first settled here in the Tang and Song, and the Huang (黄) family arrived at the turn of the Ming and Qing. The old buildings spread out from the Huang ancestral hall (黄氏宗祠), with stone-slab lanes, pebble courtyards, painted eaves, carved doors and windows and flying eave corners.

Yunbing Mountain (云冰山), on the Hunan-Guangdong border, is a scenic area of cloud seas and green slopes. Inside it, a Yao village of a thousand households (千户瑶寨) has grey-tiled wooden stilt houses built up the hillside.

Highlights

• Huxi Village 虎溪村: A village of Huang family houses built around the Huang ancestral hall, on the Ningyuan boundary.
• Yunbing Mountain 云冰山: A scenic area on the Hunan-Guangdong border with a Yao village of wooden stilt houses.