Xichang 西昌

About Xichang

The old city preserves street patterns, gate structures and courtyard buildings within a substantial programme of repair and renewal. Qionghai offers a different scale: water, wetland sections and the wooded slope of Lushan. Keep the urban heritage visit and the lake outing as separate parts of the day rather than treating the whole city as one pedestrian attraction.

Xichang, formerly Xichang County (西昌县), is the seat of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture (凉山彝族自治州) in southwestern Sichuan, covering 2,651 square kilometres across 37 townships. It lies in a mountainous region just northeast of Panzhihua, near Qiong Lake, with the Anning River (安宁河) as the area's main river, an affluent of the Yalong, Jinsha and Yangtze rivers. An average annual temperature of about 18 degrees Celsius and up to 320 days of sunshine a year have given it the names Moon City and Little Spring City.

On 12 September 1850, Xichang was struck by a magnitude-7.5 earthquake that collapsed more than 200 zhang (丈) of city walls, three gate towers and many houses, killing 20,652 people. In 1949, near the end of the Chinese Civil War, the city briefly served as the base from which the Republic of China's Southwest Military and Political Command directed Nationalist forces.

The China Xichang Satellite Launch Center (中国西昌卫星发射中心), one of China's three major satellite launch centres, lies in the northern part of Xichang, though it is actually located within neighbouring Mianning County; because of this Xichang is also known as the Aerospace City. The centre went into operation in 1984, and communications satellites are the most common payload launched from it.

What to look for

• Jianchang’s gates, restored wall sections and streets around Sipailou show the old city layout.
• Qionghai’s wetland shore provides broad water views below Lushan.

Location & getting there

Getting to Xichang

For the heritage streets, arrange a city transfer to Datong Gate at Jianchang Ancient City. For the lake, use the Guanniao Island wetland entrance or the named lakeside district of Yuesefengqing Town. These are separate arrival points.