Xinfeng County 信丰县

Setting and landscape

Xinfeng is a basin, high around the edges and low in the middle, tilting from south to north, and the county describes it as the second-largest basin in Ganzhou. The Taojiang runs through the centre from south to north, gathering its tributaries, and a spread of low hills and wide valleys of about 600 square kilometres fills the middle. Mountains rise on the east, south and northwest; the highest point is Hushandong (虎山岽), 1,015.7 metres, and the lowest, 135 metres, is at Wuyang village (五羊村) in Xiniu (西牛镇). Most of the county lies between 200 and 400 metres. Jinpenshan Forest Park (金盆山森林公园) is a national forest park.

History

The county was created in 682 under the Tang as Nan'an (南安县), split from Nankang (南康). It was later renamed Xinfeng because another Nan'an existed in Quanzhou (泉州); the name is read as "people trustworthy, goods plentiful". Xinfeng was a core area of the three-year guerrilla war on the Jiangxi–Guangdong border, and the county counts it as a cradle of the New Fourth Army.

What to see

The Dasheng Temple Pagoda (大圣寺塔) on Shengta Square (圣塔广场) was built in 1064 under the Northern Song. The brick pagoda has six sides and nine storeys and stands 66.5 metres with its finial; it became a national key cultural relics site in 2006. The Yudai Bridge (玉带桥) in Zhongxin village (中心村), Hushan township (虎山乡), about 45 kilometres from the county town, was completed in 1740 with money raised by the local landowner Yu Fengqi (余凤歧), so it is also called Fengqi Bridge. It crosses a bend of the Hushan River on three stone arches, curves in plan over an arc of 88.15 metres, and carries a pebble-paved deck under a timber-and-stone gallery with a shrine pavilion at mid-span. Chinese Wikipedia describes it as the longest surviving curved covered bridge south of the Yangtze; it became a national key site in 2013.

Food and local products

The county government calls Xinfeng the birthplace of the southern Jiangxi navel orange, and says the orange-juice plant Nongfu Spring built here forms China's only navel-orange-themed national 4A scenic area. Xinfeng radish (信丰萝卜) is a national geographical-indication product, and the county is known for straw mushrooms and red melon seeds. Wikipedia lists dried radish and radish dumplings (萝卜饺) among local foods.

Highlights

• Dasheng Temple Pagoda 大圣寺塔: Six-sided, nine-storey brick pagoda of 1064, 66.5 m tall; national key site since 2006.
• Yudai Bridge 玉带桥: Curved three-arch covered bridge of 1740 in Hushan township; national key site since 2013.
• Jinpenshan Forest Park 金盆山森林公园: National forest park.
• Xinfeng radish 信丰萝卜: National geographical-indication product.