Shangli County 上栗县

Setting and landscape

The county is about 25 kilometres across from east to west and 45 kilometres from north to south. Its hills and low mountains are outliers of the Luoxiao range (罗霄山), higher in the northeast and lower in the southwest, with an average elevation of 233.7 metres. Yichun (宜春) and Luxi (芦溪) lie to the east and Xiangdong (湘东) to the south; the county seat is Shangli town. The land suits rice, oil-tea camellia, tea and moso bamboo.

What to see

Mount Yangqi rises to about 1,000 metres. The Chan master Chengguang (乘广) opened Guangli Chan Temple (广利禅寺) here in the Kaiyuan reign of the Tang (713), and in the early Qingli years of the Northern Song (1041) the monk Fanghui (方会) founded the Yangqi school on the mountain and renamed the temple Putong Temple (普通寺). Its influence reached Japan, and Japanese Buddhists still come to trace their roots. The Tang stupas of Chengguang and Zhenshu (甄叔), each with its inscription, stand in Yangqi village and were listed as Jiangxi provincial protected relics in 1957; Yangqi Putong Temple followed in 1959. Yilong Cave (义龙洞) is a karst cave described as an "underground art gallery".

Crafts and local products

Fireworks and firecrackers are the county's signature product, and it is a major export base for them. Pingxiang fireworks making, submitted by Shangli County, entered the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2008, with the Shangli County Cultural Centre as its safeguarding body. The Ministry of Culture has named the county a home of nuo (傩) culture, which remains well preserved here.

Highlights

• Mount Yangqi 杨岐山: Founding seat of the Yangqi school of Chan, established here by Fanghui around 1041.
• Stupas of Chengguang and Zhenshu 乘广禅师塔、甄叔禅师塔: Tang monks' stupas with inscriptions in Yangqi village; Jiangxi protected relics since 1957.
• Pingxiang fireworks making 萍乡烟花制作技艺: National intangible heritage craft listed in 2008, submitted by Shangli County.
• Yilong Cave 义龙洞: Karst cave known as an underground art gallery.