Jing'an County 靖安县

Setting and landscape

Local people describe the county as "eight parts hills, half a part water and one part fields", and forest covers more than 84 percent of it. The Jiuling Mountain National Nature Reserve (九岭山国家级自然保护区) and Sanzhualun National Forest Park (三爪仑国家森林公园) lie within its borders; Sanzhualun, set up on a state forest farm in 1993, was Jiangxi's first national forest park, and logging there stopped entirely in 2015. More than 5,000 trees in the county are over a hundred years old, and since 2014 each has had its own assigned caretaker. Three weirs on the Beiliao River, Pubei (蒲陂), Wushitan (乌石潭陂) and Xiangbei (香陂), first built in the Tang, Ming and Qing, are listed as World Heritage Irrigation Structures.

History

Jing'an was the name of a rural ward (里) before the Tang and became a county in 937 under the Southern Tang. The Laohudun site (老虎墩遗址) in Gaohu (高湖) has layers from the middle and late Neolithic, the Shang and Zhou, the Han and Jin, and the mid-Ming, and produced an eggshell-thin black pottery goblet only 1 millimetre thick at its thinnest. The Eastern Zhou tomb at Lizhou'ao (李洲坳东周墓葬) in Shuikou (水口) township, excavated from 2007, held 47 coffins under a mound about 12 metres high and more than 300 textiles; it was named one of China's ten major archaeological discoveries of 2007 and a national key cultural relic protection unit in 2013.

What to see

Baofeng Temple (宝峰寺) in Baofeng town holds the Mazu Pagoda Pavilion (马祖塔亭), over the relics of the Tang Chan master Mazu Daoyi (马祖道一). The pagoda was first built in 791, destroyed in 846 and rebuilt in 850, when the temple received the name Baofeng; the granite pavilion dates from 1085, and the site became a national key cultural relic protection unit in 2013. A garden in the county commemorates Kuang Zhong (况钟), the upright official, a native of Jing'an, who served thirteen years as prefect of Suzhou, and contains his tomb. At Yuqiao village (渔桥村) in Xiangtian (香田), the provincial black-pottery heritage bearer Wu Yingfang (伍映方) has built a 12-chamber dragon kiln and revived hand-made black pottery under the name Jing kiln (靖窑).

Food and local products

Jing'an ponkan mandarins (靖安椪柑) and Jing'an white tea (靖安白茶) are national geographical-indication products. Zhongyuan (中源) hand fans (掌扇) are an intangible-heritage craft, and Chen Shida (陈时大) is one of its recognised bearers.

Getting oriented

The county seat is at Shuangxi (双溪) town. Since the Nanchang–Tonggu expressway opened, the county town lies 36 km from central Nanchang (南昌).

Highlights

• Sanzhualun National Forest Park 三爪仑国家森林公园: Jiangxi's first national forest park, set up in 1993 on a state forest farm.
• Mazu Pagoda Pavilion, Baofeng Temple 宝峰寺马祖塔亭: Pagoda over the relics of Mazu Daoyi; national key cultural relic protection unit since 2013.
• Lizhou'ao Eastern Zhou tomb 李洲坳东周墓葬: Tomb with 47 coffins and more than 300 textiles; national key unit since 2013.
• Beiliao River weirs 北潦河陂堰: Three Tang to Qing weirs listed as World Heritage Irrigation Structures.
• Jing'an white tea 靖安白茶: National geographical-indication product.