This Yunnan County is Unique: A 600-Year-Old Ancient Village with Fantastic Scenery, Yunnan Tofu - A Chinese Specialty, Have You Been There?
Yunnan's Shijing County is located in the northwest of the Red River State, here has a long history and profound cultural heritage, it is one of the few places in Yunnan that are known as ‘literary stronghold’ places. Since the Yuan Dynasty, this place has been re-established with religion and culture, with a vibrant academic atmosphere and a focus on cultural education, especially with the fusion of Han culture and local minority cultures, after hundreds of years of historical sedimentation, it left behind a rich legacy of the intersection of Central Plains culture and frontier ethnic cultures.
Due to its remote location, many ancient villages and towns, ancient buildings and courtyards have been preserved intact, and many traditional cultures have been inherited in a systematic manner. Below we will introduce several tourist attractions in Shijing, if you have the opportunity, you can appreciate the ancient and rustic Shijing culture.
1, Zhengying Ancient Village
Zhengying Village has a history of more than 600 years, and is known as the ‘first village of Yunnan’. The village has three streets and nine alleys named after surnames and geographical environment, the streets are paved with blue-stone, and the houses are mostly large four-in-a-row courtyards. The entire village has 403 courtyards, and 28 complete courtyards are preserved.
In the village, the famous Chen Family Ancestral Hall and Zheng Family Ancestral Hall are of large scale, with exquisite wooden carving architectural decorations, carving and calligraphy all demonstrate a high level of cultural quality.
2, Shijing Ancient City
Legend has it that Shijing Ancient City was built on a stone formed by the transformation of the God Turtle of Luyang, the ancient city is integrated with the earth's crust, and has a history of over a thousand years. The layout of the ancient city is very distinctive, the north-south and east-west main streets converge at the front of the ancient government office, and several streets and alleys intersect in the dense buildings, and there are no streets without curves and no alleys without turns. The curved streets and alleys divide the ancient city into more than ten blocks of different sizes, which is like the cracks in the demon body, but also contains the layout of ‘Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams’.
3, Shijing Temple of Literature
Shijing Temple of Literature was built during the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty carried out repairs and expansions, and the Qing Dynasty carried out repairs in the Shunzhi, Qianlong years. The Temple of Literature covers an area of 4257 square meters, facing south and north. The existing buildings include the Gate of Starry River, the Pool of Harmony, the Hall of Great Completion, the Hall of Ancestral Teachers, and the Pavilion of Classic Collection.
The Pool of Harmony has exquisite stone carvings, with detailed carvings of railings.
4, Shijing Old Street
The ancient government office of Shijing is located in the center of Shijing Ancient City, it was built during the Yuan Dynasty, and after the founding of New China, it was once the government location until 2006. Experts identified that currently, the most complete Yuan Ming Qing dynasties ancient government offices in Yunnan are Shijing Ancient Government Office.
5, Yuan Jia Valley Residence
Yuan Jia Valley was Yunnan’s only juren Yuan Jia Valley's old residence, located at No. 22, North Street, Shijing, facing west and east, it is a Qing Dynasty typical wooden structure four-in-a-row courtyard residence. Yuan Jia Valley Residence is small in area, but rich in connotation, it is a microcosm of Shijing's history and culture.
6, Xilong Lake
Located 2 kilometers east of Shijing County, there is Xilong Lake, which is one of the nine plateau freshwater lakes in Yunnan. There are three islands in the lake, and there are 72 bays on the south shore, and the mountains along the lake curve nine times, forming a five-claw mountain into the lake, and there used to be three islands and nine curves, which was a scenic spot. There are people coming and going all year round, relying on small boats for inter-island travel, and it is known as ‘the second West Lake’ in Diannan.
Shijing tofu has a long history, is famous in and out of the country, and has been on ‘China Kitchen’.
Here, tofu is made in a unique way, without using gypsum and brine, but directly using the underground wells of Shijing Ancient City to make tofu. We personally took part, originally a barrel of bean paste with pulp and juice, poured into the well water, after several dozen minutes, it actually turned into a block of delicious tofu. The protein content of this tofu is higher than other areas by more than 10%, and it is called ‘a Chinese specialty’.
