Zhenyuan Ancient Town (镇远古城/Zhenyuan Ancient Town) is one of the most beautiful ancient cities in China that you can visit when traveling to Tianhu MiaoZhai. What attracts tourists here? Let’s find out!
What is the history and characteristics of Zhenyuan Ancient Town?
Located in Guizhou province, Zhenyuan Ancient Town has long been an ancient town of the Miao people
Zhenyuan Ancient Town has gone through a long history, so it has many rich cultural relics in addition to favorable nature and endless mountains.
Since the founding of King Qin Zhaoxiang of Qin (277 BC), this place has gone through more than 2,200 years of history. This place has always been a center of land and water transportation since those times. In 1226 during the Song Dynasty, this place was given the name Zhenyuan province, which is used to this day.
Divided by the Wuyang River, Zhenyuan town is divided into two parts: the north – where local soldiers are stationed – is called Wei Cheng / 卫城; The south is where residents live and administrative agencies are concentrated, called Fu Cheng / 府城. In the ancient citadel, there are still ruins of the city gate and sections of ancient walls.
There are 2 bridges on the Yu Yang River, the western bridge is called Chen Da Qiao (new big bridge); East bridge – Chu Sheng Qiao (old bridge)
The area between the old bridge and the new bridge is the old town of Zhenyuan, including the streets of Xinzhong / 新中街, Xinglong / 兴隆街 and Shuncheng / 顺城街 connecting each other. Both sides of the road have ancient streets and alleys with many inns, restaurants and shops with ancient architecture.
Since ancient times, this town has had many traditional annual folk activities such as festivals on March 3 or September 9. Among them is the Duan Yang Dragon Boat Cultural Festival (Duan Yang / 端阳) originating from the Ming Dynasty, held on the Wuyang River during the Dragon Boat Festival.
Boat Festival is the most ceremonial holiday in Zhenyuan today held around May – July of the solar calendar every year (5th day of the 5th lunar month). Coming to Zhenyuan on this occasion, tourists in Zhenyuan ancient citadel can not only discover how people hold worship ceremonies, boat races, and duck catching competitions on the river, but can also manually release flower lanterns on the river at night.
What is beautiful about Zhenyuan Ancient Town?
If you expect a place with high-rise buildings or busy shopping centers, you will probably be disappointed. However, if you like peaceful rivers, green nature, especially landscapes like Chinese historical films, this is an extremely ideal place for you.
The town has an area of just over 3 square kilometers but has up to 160 scenic spots including caves, palaces, pavilions, temples and bridges across the river with unique architecture, delicate carvings and landscapes. wonderful nature.
Qing Long Cave
Qing Long Cave (Blue Dragon Cave / 青龙洞 ) is actually an ancient temple complex located on Zhonghe Mountain (Zhonghe shan / 中和山) on the east side of Zhenyuan Ancient Town, covering an area of about 21,000 square meters. This is the center of all ancient relics in Zhenyuan.
Qing Long Cave Temple includes many ancient and sophisticated architectural works of pavilions, temples, and palaces architecture, cleverly combined with the railing construction of Miao people’s stilt houses, also known as “Southern Hanging Pagoda” or “Guizhou Museum of Ancient Architecture”.
Thanh Long Cave was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Through many wars, the shape and architecture you see today are the results of restoration and renovation.
Thanh Long Cave has many separate architectural buildings, including Thanh Long Cave, Ziyang Library (紫阳书院 / Ziyang shuyuan), Central Zen Monastery (Zhongchan yuan / 中禅院), Wanshou Palace (Wanshou gong / 万寿宫). , Praying for Holy Wishes (Zhu Sheng Qiao / 祝圣桥)… a total of 36 single buildings, worshiping Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism
What should you pay attention to when traveling to Zhenyuan Ancient Town?
Tran Vien ancient town has a quite small area, accommodation establishments are often concentrated in one area with many different options. The best hotel here is Yi Yue International Hotel but the distance from there to the attractions is a bit far.
So if you want to fully enjoy the ancient town, you can choose a hotel/motel on the banks of the Yu Yang River, in the evening people will light torches and red lanterns like in historical movies. Accommodation in Zhenyuan ranges from 80 – 120 CNY/night but during holidays it will increase quite a bit.
As a cultural and historical city, Zhenyuan is rich in tourism resources. The subtropical humid climate, the annual temperature in Zhenyuan averages 16.4 degrees with four distinct seasons also makes this place an ideal tourist destination all year round.
The ancient citadel of Zhenyuan is not as well known to tourists from world as the ancient town of Phoenix, Lijiang or Hangzhou, but just coming here once, you will remember and linger on this place for a long time to come.
