Qingbaijiang District 青白江区

Setting and landscape

The district covers 378.94 square kilometres, about 31.6 km across from east to west. Jintang County (金堂县) lies to the east and south-east, Longquanyi District (龙泉驿区) to the south, Xindu District (新都区) to the west, and Guanghan (广汉市) in Deyang (德阳市) to the north.

History

At Shuangyuan Village (双元村) the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology has uncovered more than 260 tombs of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, which China News Service reported in 2018 as the largest group of tombs of that age yet found in Sichuan. Tomb 154 holds a boat coffin 6.4 metres long cut from a single nanmu log; a pit beneath it held six bronzes, a burial custom that the excavation leader Wang Tianyou says came from the Chu region rather than from the ancient Shu.

In 553 the Western Wei set up Jinyuan Commandery (金渊郡) here, and today's Chengxiang (城厢镇) was the seat of its Baimou County (白牟县). Before 1960 the area belonged to Xindu and Jintang counties. In 1956 the Sichuan Fertiliser Plant was built at Huayan (华严), and the Chengdu Steel Works followed; the district was formally established on 15 July 1960, after the fertiliser plant's party organisation had repeatedly asked for a local government to manage the needs of the fast-growing workforce.

What to see

Chengxiang, the old county town of Jintang until the 1950s, keeps Confucian and military temples rebuilt in the Qing dynasty. Its Juehuang Hall of Mingjiao Temple (明教寺觉皇殿), at 113 Dadong Street inside Chengxiang Middle School, is the only surviving building of the temple; its main structure dates from the early Hongwu reign (1368–1382), it keeps Ming painted decoration and a 6.8-metre Buddha, and it became a Sichuan provincial protected site in 2012. The town also has the provincially protected Peng Jiazhen Shrine (彭家珍祠). At Mimou (弥牟镇) are remains called the Eight Formations (八阵图), said to be where Zhuge Liang (诸葛亮) practised battle formations.

Getting oriented

The Chengdu International Railway Port (成都国际铁路港) lies in the district. Chengxiang has a station on the Dazhou–Chengdu railway (达成铁路).

Highlights

• Juehuang Hall of Mingjiao Temple 明教寺觉皇殿: Early-Ming timber hall in Chengxiang with Ming painted decoration; provincial protected site since 2012.
• Shuangyuan Village Cemetery 双元村墓地: More than 260 Spring and Autumn and Warring States tombs, including a 6.4 m boat coffin.
• Chengxiang 城厢镇: Former Jintang county town with Qing-rebuilt Confucian and military temples.
• Peng Jiazhen Shrine 彭家珍祠: Provincial protected site in Chengxiang.