Linshu County 临沭县

Setting and landscape

Hills and uplands grow peanuts and sweet potatoes, while the deep soils of the Shu alluvial plain carry wheat, maize, vegetables and osier willow. The Cangma Mountain (苍马山) scenic area joins five peaks, Cang, Ma, Cao, Guan and Yan; the green layered ridges of Cangshan (苍山叠翠), main peak 394 metres, were counted among the Eight Views of old Yizhou. The old course of the Shu River forms a scenic area nicknamed the Lijiang of the north.

History

Beixin culture remains at Dongpan (东盘) show settlement some 7,000 years ago, and the Beigoutou site (北沟头古遗址), 3 kilometres northwest of the county town, spans the Longshan culture to the Han and has yielded eggshell black pottery cups; it became a provincial heritage site in 1977. Legend places the death of Gun (鲧), punished for failing to tame the great flood, on Mount Yu (羽山). In 500 BC the rulers of Qi and Lu met at Jiagu Mountain (夹谷山) in the east of the county, with Confucius attending as Lu's minister of justice. Under the Tang a Linshu county was split off from Linyi in 621 and merged back in 623; the present county dates from August 1941.

During the war against Japan Linshu was the central county of the Binhai base area, and the county calls itself the only one in Shandong where Liu Shaoqi (刘少奇) worked. The Shandong branch of the Xinhua News Agency was founded here on 28 June 1941.

What to see

The Binhai Red Culture Memorial Park (滨海红色文化纪念园) opened in 2011. The Binhai Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery (滨海革命烈士陵园), 5 kilometres northeast of the county town in front of Cangshan, is modelled on the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing. The Liu Shaoqi in Shandong Memorial Hall (刘少奇在山东纪念馆) stands at the southern foot of Cangshan, and the Xinhua Shandong branch birthplace memorial is at Qianlicheng village (前利城村) in Jiaolong Town (蛟龙镇). The Binnan memorial park at Chenxunhui village (陈巡会村) in Diantou Town (店头镇) has a memorial hall on the works that diverted the Shu and regulated the Yi (导沭整沂), whose committee moved there in March 1949.

Local products and crafts

Linshu is named a world craft city as the capital of willow weaving. Diamonds are among the county's minerals, and it is also known as China's home of diamonds.

Getting oriented

National Highway 327, provincial road 225, the Changchun–Shenzhen and Linyi–Lanshan expressways and the Yi–Shu railway (沂沭铁路) cross the county.

Highlights

• Cangma Mountain scenic area 苍马山: Five linked peaks, including Cangshan, one of the Eight Views of old Yizhou.
• Binhai Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery 滨海革命烈士陵园: Cemetery 5 km northeast of the county town, modelled on the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum.
• Liu Shaoqi in Shandong Memorial Hall 刘少奇在山东纪念馆: Memorial hall at the southern foot of Cangshan.
• Jiagu Mountain 夹谷山: Site of the meeting of the rulers of Qi and Lu in 500 BC.
• Linshu willow weaving 柳编: Osier willow craft that earned the county the title capital of willow weaving.