Ancient towns in Xiangxi

Furong Town, an ancient town hung on the waterfall

In 1987, people came to know this small town through the film “Furong Town”, with Liu Xiaoqing and Jiang Wen as the leading roles, in which the rice tofu in Furong Town was very famous.

You will be impressed by such local buildings as the stilted buildings in Tusi Palace and the ancient pavilions. The Tujia and the Miao folk cultures permeate all the buildings. The waterfall through the whole town adds a magical color to this ancient town. It seems as if you were in a fairy world with the sound of flowing water lingering in the ear. The dazzling commodities sold by peddlers on the road paved with green flagstones are full of national characteristics.

As night falls, the orange lights from thousands of households and the red lanterns interspersed at the night market, as well as the colorful waterfall constitute the picturesque Furong Town.

Red Stone Forest

In Guzhang County lies another mysterious land with red stone from Ordovician period, which turns ochre on sunny days and dark brown on rainy days. Some of the areas in the Red Stone Forest look like the bottom of seas in ancient time.

The Red Stone Forest is just like a maze full of layers of rocks, canyons and ancient fossils with a long history. Qianzhou Ancient Town
 
With bluestone alleys, ancient folk houses and a curved “Qingfeng Bridge” over Hujia Pond, Xiangxi also boasts quaint water towns like the area in the south of the Yangtze River.
 
The green river along with the blue-stone streets gives people a sense of peace. The folk artists from the Tujia and Miao ethnic groups perform their unique skills in the street, interpreting the charm of folk handicrafts.
 
Qianzhou Ancient Town by the Wanrong River has a unique charm of Xiangxi. Fenghuang Ancient Town
 
In this ancient town, we can see a green river passing through the local ancient pavilions. There are so many famous residential buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties, a variety of temples, pavilions and cultural relics, all of which are full of architectural style of cultural heritage in the southwest of China. Flagstone alleys connect the ancient city in all directions.
 
Shen Congwen, who wrote the novel “Border Town”, used to live here. Xiong Xiling, the fourth prime minister of Beiyang Government, was born here. You can also soak up the profound culture preserved in the Tian’s Family Ancestral Temple and the Chen’s Family Ancestral Temple.