Jinxi County 金溪县

Setting and history

The land is higher in the south-east and lower in the north-west, and its highest peak is Chuyun Peak (出云峰) at 1,233 metres. The county government explains the name "Jinxi" (golden stream) by the gold and silver once mined here and by the golden colour of its mountain streams. The county was founded in 994, under the Northern Song, and its seat is Xiugu (秀谷镇).

Lu Jiuyuan, also called Lu Xiangshan (陆象山), came from Lufang (陆坊) in Jinxi; the county calls itself the birthplace of his school of the "learning of the mind" (心学). The county government describes Huwan town (浒湾镇) as the largest woodblock-printing centre south of the Yangtze in the Ming and Qing, and books printed there were known as "Jinxi books".

What to see

The county government counts 128 intact old villages and 11,633 surviving Ming and Qing buildings. Three sites are on the national protection list: Zhuqiao Village, Hougong Village (后龚村) and the Baoshan gold and silver mining site (宝山金银矿冶遗址). Zhuqiao Village (竹桥古村) has more than 800 years of history and is inhabited by a single Yu (余) clan; in front of its main gate are three old wells laid out in a triangle like the character "品" (pin), and its "ten-family" and "eight-family" lanes join neighbouring houses through connecting side doors.

Chinese Wikipedia also lists the Huwan bookshop street (浒湾书铺街), a provincial protected site; the Yangshan Academy (仰山书院), a provincial protected site in or near the county town; Shushan Temple (疏山寺), a centre of the Caodong school of Chan Buddhism; the tomb of Lu Xiangshan; and Cuiyun Mountain (翠云山) with its waterfall.

Food and local products

Huwan oil noodles (浒湾油面) are hand-pulled noodles so fine that 14 to 15 strands fit into a centimetre. They are made from wheat flour, tea-seed oil, sweet-potato starch and salt, rolled in rapeseed oil, left to rise three times, wound on bamboo sticks, stretched and dried in the open air. They entered Jiangxi's provincial intangible-heritage list in 2010. Other local foods listed by Wikipedia are Jinxi lotus-root-thread candy (藕丝糖) and Shushan kumquats (疏山金桔), and Jinxi gardenia (金溪黄栀子) is a national geographical-indication product.

Highlights

• Zhuqiao Village 竹桥古村: Single-clan Yu village of more than 800 years, a national protected site.
• Huwan bookshop street 浒湾书铺街: Street of the Ming–Qing woodblock printing trade; provincial protected site.
• Hougong Village 后龚村: One of the county's three national protected sites.
• Huwan oil noodles 浒湾油面: Hand-pulled fine noodles; provincial intangible heritage since 2010.
• Shushan Temple 疏山寺: Centre of the Caodong school of Chan Buddhism.