Leping 乐平市

Setting and landscape

Leping is hill and mountain country in the Jiangnan hills, drained by the Le'an River (乐安江) into the Poyang Lake system of the Yangtze. The Le'an River is called the Nanmen River (南门河) in town because it runs outside the south gate; the Jishui (洎水), Changle (长乐水) and several smaller streams feed it. The large Communist Reservoir (共产主义水库) in the east is now the Cuiping Lake (翠平湖) water scenic area.

History

A Leping county was first set up in 178 with its seat at Yincheng (银城), in today's Dexing; it was abolished and restored several times before the seat settled in 883 at Huaye (花靥镇), today's Jiyang (洎阳) quarter. The county lost land to form Wuyuan in 740, Dexing in 938 and Wannian (万年) in 1512. In 1930 a soviet government was set up here, and the north-east Jiangxi committee of the Fujian–Zhejiang–Jiangxi soviet was based here. Leping became a county-level city in 1992.

What to see

Leping has 412 old and traditionally rebuilt opera stages, attached to ancestral halls, temples, guild halls and houses; by use they divide into fair-weather stages and stages built for rain as well as sun. Their building craft was added to the national intangible heritage list in 2014. The Mingfentang stage (名分堂戏台) in Xuyan village (浒崦村), Zhenqiao town (镇桥镇), belongs to the Cheng clan hall of 1817: a back-to-back 'mandarin duck' stage 25 metres wide and 14 metres high, one face on the square and the other facing the main hall. It became a national key cultural relics protection unit in 2013. The Wuguitang stage (五桂堂戏台) at Xiangjiazhuang (项家庄) in Hongyan town dates from 1730.

Hongyan Fairyland (洪岩仙境), in the north-east of the city, is a Mesozoic limestone karst cave 1,620 metres long with 80,000 square metres of chambers full of stalactites. Also in Hongyan town, Caojiali village (曹家里村) sits among mountains at over 500 metres and often looks out on a sea of cloud.

Highlights

• Mingfentang stage 名分堂戏台: Double-faced clan-hall stage of the Cheng family in Xuyan village; national key unit since 2013.
• Hongyan Fairyland 洪岩仙境: Karst cave 1,620 metres long in the north-east of Leping.
• Wuguitang stage 五桂堂戏台: Clan-hall stage of 1730 at Xiangjiazhuang, Hongyan town.
• Caojiali village 曹家里村: Mountain village above 500 metres in Hongyan town, known for cloud seas.
• Lijushan bayberries 历居山杨梅: Bayberries from Lijushan, listed by Wikipedia as a Leping speciality.