Jingkou District 京口区

Setting and landscape

The district lies at the eastern end of the Ningzhen hills (宁镇山脉), where low hills meet the Yangtze alluvial plain. The ground is higher in the middle and flat to the east, the west and along the river, and a chain of hills runs north to south through the centre: Jiao Hill, Beigu Hill, Xiang Hill (象山), Jingxian Hill (京岘山) and others. Apart from Xinmin Island (新民洲), a sandbank in the Yangtze, most of the district is hilly. The Yangtze runs 11 kilometres through it and the Grand Canal 5.7 kilometres, meeting the river at Jianbi (谏壁). Runzhou District (润州区) faces it across the old canal to the west.

History

Jingkou is one of the old names of Zhenjiang: high, level ground was called jing and the river mouth below Beigu Hill was called kou. Sun Quan (孙权) of Eastern Wu built the Tieweng walled town (铁瓮城) here and made Jingkou the political centre of his state. After the Yongjia upheaval of the Jin dynasty, northern gentry families moved south and provinces were set up for them at Jingkou. The Sui named the area Runzhou (润州), and the Song raised it to Zhenjiang prefecture, a name still in use. In spring 1929 the Jiangsu provincial capital moved from Nanjing to Zhenjiang, with its seat in Jingkou. The city's urban district took the name Jingkou District in December 1983.

What to see

The district government describes Jiao Hill as a hill that wraps around its temple and Beigu Hill as a temple that crowns its hill. Jiao Hill's Dinghui Temple (定慧寺) dates, according to Wikipedia, to the Xingping era of the Eastern Han; it was earlier called Jiaoshan Temple and received its present name when the Kangxi Emperor visited on a southern tour. The Jiao Hill Stele Forest (焦山碑林), a nationally protected site, keeps about 80 cliff inscriptions and more than 400 steles, led by the Yihe Ming (瘗鹤铭), the "Inscription for a Buried Crane", and carvings in the hands of Su Shi (苏轼), Mi Fu (米芾), Huang Tingjian (黄庭坚) and Lu You (陆游).

The iron pagoda of Ganlu Temple (甘露寺铁塔) on Beigu Hill, the Huju Bridge (虎踞桥) and the Tieweng walled town are also national protected sites. Mengxi Garden (梦溪园), built in 1085, is where the Northern Song scientist Shen Kuo (沈括) lived until 1092 and wrote his Dream Pool Essays (梦溪笔谈). Provincial protected sites include Wuliu Hall (五柳堂), the Zhang Yunpeng former residence (张云鹏故居) and the tomb of Zong Ze (宗泽墓).

Highlights

• Jiao Hill 焦山: Hill whose Dinghui Temple the district government lists as a national key temple.
• Jiao Hill Stele Forest 焦山碑林: National protected site with about 80 cliff inscriptions and more than 400 steles, including the Yihe Ming.
• Beigu Hill 北固山: Hill whose Ganlu Temple iron pagoda is a national protected site; the river mouth below it gave Jingkou its name.
• Mengxi Garden 梦溪园: Built in 1085; Shen Kuo lived here until 1092 and wrote the Dream Pool Essays.