Le'an County 乐安县

Setting and history

The county is longer from north to south than from east to west. The ground rises to the south and east, with low hills in the north; the highest point is Shibapai (十八排) in the south-east at 1,370.5 metres. Its main rivers are the Niutian River (牛田河) of the Wu River (乌江) system and the Gongbei River (公陂河) of the Fu River system. The seat is Aoxi (鳌溪镇).

Le'an became a county in 1149, under the Southern Song, formed from three townships of Chongren (崇仁) and one of Yongfeng (永丰), and belonged to Fuzhou through the Yuan, Ming and Qing. During the Communist revolution the county was the northern gateway of the Soviet base area, and many slogans and sites from that period survive.

What to see

Liukeng Village (流坑村), in the south-east of Niutian town (牛田镇), was founded in the Southern Tang and is inhabited mostly by the Dong (董) clan. The traveller Xu Xiake (徐霞客) described it as a busy market town. It keeps 19 Ming-era buildings or sites and more than 250 from the Qing, became a national key protected site in 2001 and was among the first China Historic and Cultural Villages in 2003. The Niutian River, also called the En River (恩江), runs past the village, and more than ten thousand old camphor trees line its banks downstream.

Other listed sites include the six-pillared Kejia Congfang memorial arch (科甲丛芳六脚牌坊) and the Lan Kejin ancestral hall (蓝科进公祠), listed by Chinese Wikipedia as the best-preserved old She (畲) building in Jiangxi. Huping Village (湖坪村) is also a China Historic and Cultural Village, and Mount Dahua (大华山) is the founding place of the Tianxin school of Taoism.

Food, products and customs

Le'an spotted pigs (乐安花猪) and Le'an bamboo shoots are national geographical-indication products. Local dishes include fermented "zhuangyuan fish" (状元鱼), fermented tofu and the She people's "eight big bowls" (畲族八大碗).

Le'an Nuo dance (乐安傩舞) comes from Donghu Village (东湖村), where the Yang (杨) clan has handed down an old Nuo rite called "rolling Nuo gods" (滚傩神). Its 18 masks, including a pig-snout and a chicken-beak, cover only the forehead and the mouth, and a troupe of 12 dances to a single drum and gong. It entered the first national intangible-heritage list in 2006.

Highlights

• Liukeng Village 流坑村: Dong-clan village with Ming and Qing buildings; national key protected site since 2001.
• Le'an Nuo dance 乐安傩舞: Donghu Village masked rite with 18 half-masks; national intangible heritage since 2006.
• Huping Village 湖坪村: China Historic and Cultural Village.
• Mount Dahua 大华山: Founding place of the Tianxin school of Taoism.
• Le'an spotted pig 乐安花猪: National geographical-indication product.