Xiangyin County 湘阴县

Setting and landscape

The land tilts from low hills in the southeast, the last spurs of the Mufu Mountains (幕阜山), down to the Dongting Lake basin in the northwest. The highest point, Qingshan'an (青山庵), reaches only 552.4 metres, while the riverbed at Haohekou (濠河口) lies 4.3 metres below sea level. Plains cover about 44 percent of the county and water about 42 percent, with inner lakes such as Helong Lake (鹤龙湖) and Yangsha Lake (洋沙湖).

History

The name Xiangyin dates from 591, when the Sui renamed Yueyang County and moved its seat to the old walled town of Luo (罗城). In 625 Xiangyin absorbed Luo County and came to cover today's Miluo and Pingjiang as well; Pingjiang was split off in 707 and Miluo in 1966.

What to see

The Yuezhou kilns (岳州窑), also called the Xiangyin kilns, are celadon kiln sites of the Han to Tang period on the lower Xiang. Lu Yu (陆羽) named Yuezhou among the six famous kilns in his Tang-dynasty Classic of Tea (茶经). Hunan archaeologists have found 26 kiln sites on both banks of the Xiang in the county. The Mawangkan site (马王墈) in Wenxing (文星) holds the Yuezhou Kiln Site Museum, built in 2003; excavation there in 1997 uncovered a Sui dragon kiln and a Southern Dynasties celadon bowl fragment marked "Taiguan" (太官), which shows that the kiln had the character of an official kiln. The kilns became a national key cultural relic in 2019.

Liuzhuang (柳庄), Zuo Zongtang's Former Residence in Zhangshu town (樟树镇), is the farm Zuo bought in 1843 with 900 taels of silver saved from tutoring fees. He moved in the next year, farmed and wrote on agriculture, and the family stayed 13 years. The county rebuilt the 48-room house on its original site in 2004.

Food and local products

Zhangshugang chillies (樟树港辣椒) come from Zhangshu town, where a river, two lakes and a harbour enclose a small basin with deep, mineral-rich soil. The variety has been selected for nearly 200 years and is valued as crisp, tender and fragrant; the first crop comes to market at the end of April or in early May. It gained a national geographical-indication certification trademark in 2013, and in 2022 seeds flew on the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft for breeding trials.

Getting oriented

Miluo lies to the east, Yiyang (益阳) to the west and Changsha's Wangcheng District (望城区) to the south. The county seat is Wenxing.

Highlights

• Yuezhou Kiln Site Museum 岳州窑遗址博物馆: Museum on the Mawangkan kiln site in Wenxing; the Yuezhou kilns became a national key cultural relic in 2019.
• Zuo Zongtang's Former Residence (Liuzhuang) 左宗棠故居（柳庄）: Farm bought by Zuo Zongtang in 1843 and home to his family for 13 years; rebuilt on its original site in 2004.
• Zhangshugang chillies 樟树港辣椒: Chilli variety from Zhangshu town with a national geographical-indication trademark since 2013.