Fenghuang Ancient Town 凤凰古镇

About Fenghuang Ancient Town

The town's built fabric is described in a signed essay by 孙亚玲 in the China City News, a paper published by People's Daily, dated 2020-05-04. The writer describes a street paved in stone slabs, lined with Ming and Qing Hui-style dwellings of white walls and dark tiles and with shops whose bronze-coloured wooden shutters open onto local produce. The buildings she walks past have carved, lacquer-finished wooden lattice windows, heavy walnut doors and carved stone door bases. She names two interiors: the Meng family guesthouse, where the innkeeper shows a carved wooden bed he dates to the Shunzhi reign of the Qing, its headboard carved with a dragon-and-phoenix motif and a carved chair set inside the panelling at each of the head and foot ends; and the Fengyuan money house, a five-bay brick building of three successive courtyards with coin-shaped ornament on its eave tiles and courtyard drain, three water vats standing in the courtyard and a silver-ingot-shaped stone trough now used as a planter. The same essay places Daliang Mountain and Fenghuang Mountain in the country around the town. The essay describes the town as around 1,400 years old, a figure the page gives in its own voice and which no other source reached here repeats.

The county's own account of what it does for the town comes from the Shangluo Daily, the city daily for the subject's own prefecture, in a report bylined 通讯员 谢玮 and dated 2022-05-30. The county reports that it revised its measures for protecting the ancient town and issued a notice on protection and construction management, bringing the historic buildings, landscape features, architectural decoration and natural and cultural forms of the core scenic area into a key protection scope. It staged a large shehuo performance titled 《涅槃腾飞》 and organised a drinking-game culture competition for the town, and it says it converts online audience traffic into on-site visitor traffic.

The same report describes a second strand of county work, the rescue of folk crafts. The town's disbanded troupes — the stilt-walkers, the dragon-lantern and lion-dance troupe, the yugu storytelling society, the erhuang opera society and the yangge flower-stick troupe — were re-formed and perform for visitors on a regular schedule, according to the paper. The county says it is applying to have the Han-drama erhuang form listed as intangible cultural heritage, and that it has mobilised the town's ironworkers, coppersmiths, weavers and carvers, among other craftspeople, to record their techniques, collect their products and preserve the work on video. It adds that it is packaging local specialities including chilli sauce and traditionally brewed liquor as branded products.

Neither source describes the town's layout beyond its main street, and neither gives visitor information. The essay is travel writing written during a period when the paper records that most shops on the street were shut, so its account of the street's commerce reflects that moment. The Shangluo Daily item is an official work report and its account of county measures is reported as the paper gives it; the paper's own evaluation of the results is not adopted here.

What to look for

• The stone-slab main street and the Ming and Qing Hui-style dwellings with white walls and dark tiles, as described in the China City News essay
• The carved, lacquer-finished wooden lattice windows, heavy walnut doors and carved stone door bases along the street
• The Shunzhi-era carved wooden bed that the essay describes at the Meng family guesthouse, subject to the guesthouse being open
• The Fengyuan money house, with its coin-shaped eave-tile and drain ornament, courtyard water vats and silver-ingot-shaped stone trough
• The folk performances that the Shangluo Daily says the town's re-formed troupes give for visitors

Location & getting there

Getting to Fenghuang Ancient Town

Identify the main visitor approach and any separately managed houses, museums or performances. Ask before entering residential spaces or photographing residents.

• Search for 凤凰古镇 with 商洛市 and 柞水县.