Lianhua County 莲花县

Setting and landscape

The county is mostly hills and mountains, higher on the north, east and west and lower in the centre and south, with river valleys and small basins between. A local saying sums it up as "seven and a half parts mountain, one and a half parts fields, one part water and homesteads". The main river, the Lian River (莲江), rises at Gaotianya (高天崖) in the northern mountains and runs 69.4 kilometres; the Liushi River (六市江) flows into Hunan's Lu River (渌水). Neighbours are Anfu (安福) and Yongxin (永新) in Jiangxi, Chaling (茶陵) and You County (攸县) in Hunan, and Luxi (芦溪) to the north. The mean annual temperature is 17.5 °C.

History

In 280, under the Jin, Guangxing County (广兴县) was split from Yongxin, with its seat near present-day Qinting (琴亭). Lianhua itself dates from 1743, when the Qing formed Lianhua Subprefecture (莲花厅) from parts of Yongxin and Anfu, seated at Lianhuaqiao (莲花桥); it became a county in the early Republic. The county belonged to the Jinggangshan revolutionary base and later to Ji'an (吉安), before being transferred to Pingxiang in 1992. Xinhua describes it as the only county in China named after a flower. In Lukou (路口), Hutang village (湖塘村) was named to the second list of Chinese traditional villages in August 2013.

Food and local products

Xinhua describes Lianhua blood duck (莲花血鸭) as a dish some 700 years old, tied to legends of Southern Song resistance to the Yuan; it is on Jiangxi's intangible heritage list and among the "Ten Jiangxi Dishes". Cooks chop a local Lianhua ma duck (莲花麻鸭), stir-fry it in hot oil and braise it, then pour in duck blood mixed with rice wine, which sets into fine amber granules and turns the meat a red-brown colour. A duck farm at Hongyuan village (红源村) in Fanglou (坊楼) raises the birds on mountain spring water and paddy insects. Other Lianhua farm products include handmade tofu skin, selenium-rich eggs and soft-shelled turtle.

Highlights

• Lianhua blood duck 莲花血鸭: Duck stir-fried and braised, finished with duck blood and rice wine; on Jiangxi's intangible heritage list.
• Lian River 莲江: The county's main river, 69.4 km long, rising at Gaotianya in the north.
• Hutang village 湖塘村: Village in Lukou named a Chinese traditional village in 2013.