Zhuanghe 庄河市

Setting and landscape

The city government explains the name as "a river by every village" (庄庄有河) and calls Zhuanghe an important water source for Dalian, with 365 rivers and streams and 37 reservoirs. The coast runs for 373 kilometres, and 106 islands belong to the city, five of them inhabited. The city government says Zhuanghe is the only breeding ground in China of the endangered black-faced spoonbill. Protected areas include the Bingyu National Geopark (冰峪国家地质公园) and three national forest parks: Tianmenshan (天门山), Xianrendong (仙人洞) and Yinshitan (银石滩).

What to see

Bingyu Gorge (冰峪沟), 40 kilometres north of the city, is known as the "little Guilin of the north". Its quartzite peak forest keeps an intact native forest of red pine and sawtooth oak, and the Yingna (英纳河) and Xiaoyu (小峪河) rivers wind through it. Buddhist and Taoist worship share the area in the Shengshui Temple (圣水寺), dating from the Song and Liao period, and the Bore Cave temple (般若洞庙) from the late Yuan or early Ming. The Zhuanghe government cites historical records that the Tang emperor Taizong camped his army here and named the gorge.

Haiwang Jiudao (海王九岛), the "Nine Islands of the Sea King", lie at the northeast end of the Changshan Islands, 15 nautical miles south of Zhuanghe. The group includes Dahaiwang, Xiaohaiwang and smaller islets named after the animals they resemble, such as a turtle, an elephant and a pair of lions, with sea-eroded rocks and caves. The writer Guo Moruo (郭沫若) compared the islets to a painted screen.

Food and local products

The city government calls Zhuanghe the "world's clam store" (世界蚬库) and says its Manila clams (杂色蛤), pufferfish and oysters are known across China. Seven farm products carry the Zhuanghe name as national geographical indications: blueberries, strawberries, rice, mountain burdock, nameko mushrooms, Manila clams and oysters. Zhuanghe big-boned chicken (庄河大骨鸡) is a registered geographical-indication mark.

History

Neolithic sites show early settlement. On 9 September 1945 an Eighth Route Army vanguard took Zhuanghe, and on 12 September the Zhuanghe County Democratic Government was set up, the first county-level government under the Communist Party in southern Liaoning. Local folk painting, calligraphy and paper-cutting have won many prizes in China and abroad.

Highlights

• Bingyu Gorge 冰峪沟: Quartzite peak forest with native pine and oak forest, 40 km north of Zhuanghe, called the little Guilin of the north.
• Haiwang Jiudao 海王九岛: Island group at the northeast end of the Changshan Islands with sea-eroded rocks and caves.
• Zhuanghe blueberries 庄河蓝莓: One of seven Zhuanghe farm products registered as national geographical indications.