Xiangxi 湘西Xiāngxī

About Xiangxi

Xiangxi, the Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture of north-west Hunan, is a karst upland cut by the Youshui and Wushui rivers. Beyond Fenghuang's old town, Furong Ancient Town in Yongshun, the old Wangcun, took its name in 2007 from a film shot there, and nearby Laosicheng, seat of the hereditary Peng chiefs for six centuries, became a World Heritage Site in 2015. Liye yielded more than 36,000 Qin-dynasty writing slips in 2002, and near Jishou the Aizhai Bridge crosses a gorge 336 metres up.

What to eat in Xiangxi

• Guzhang Maojian tea (古丈毛尖)

Featured places in Xiangxi

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  Fenghuang Ancient Town 凤凰古城

  Stilt houses leaning over the Tuo River in a town that glows after dark

  Best time: Mar–May, Sep–Nov · Time needed: 1–2 days · 5A scenic area · National heritage site

Listed sites in Xiangxi

19 sites in Xiangxi are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.

• Aizhai Bridge, Shibadong Village and Dehang Gorge 矮寨·十八洞·德夯大峡谷 5A scenic area
  A 5A scenic area west of Jishou that joins three places: the Aizhai suspension bridge, opened in 2012, whose 1,176 m main span carries the G65 expressway more than 330 m above the Dehang gorge; the Dehang canyon itself, with cliffs, stone peaks, Miao villages and the 216 m Liusha waterfall; and Shibadong, a Miao village in Huayuan County.
• Biancheng (Chadong) 边城茶峒 4A scenic area · on the map
  A riverside town on the Qingshui River where Hunan, Guizhou and Chongqing meet; formerly called Chadong, it was renamed Biancheng in 2005 after Shen Congwen's novella Border Town (Biancheng), which is set here.
• Fenghuang Giant Panda Park 凤凰中华大熊猫苑 4A scenic area · on the map
  A giant panda park about 7 km west of Fenghuang old town, opened in July 2020 with eight pandas brought from the Dujiangyan Qingchengshan base of the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda in Sichuan.
• Furong Ancient Town 芙蓉镇 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  A Tujia town in Yongshun County built on cliffs above a waterfall that drops into the You River; formerly called Wangcun, it took its present name in 2007 after the film Hibiscus Town was shot here.
• Gumiao River Hundred Waterfalls Gorge 古苗河百瀑大峡谷 4A scenic area · on the map
  A 12.8 km gorge on the Gumiao River in Huayuan County, a river the local Miao regard as their mother river, with more than a hundred waterfalls large and small.
• Hongshilin Red Stone Forest 红石林 4A scenic area · on the map
  A national geopark in Guzhang County where columns of red carbonate rock, laid down on an ancient sea floor some 450 million years ago, form a stone forest with a core area of more than 20 km².
• Laosicheng 老司城 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  The ruined capital of the Peng clan, the Tujia chieftains (tusi) who ruled the Yongshun area from the 10th century until the Qing ended their rule in the 1720s; the walled city by the Lingxi River was their seat from the Southern Song onwards.
• Liye Ancient Town 里耶古城 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
  A town on the You River in southern Longshan County, where excavations in 2002 uncovered a walled town of the Warring States period and, in one of its wells, more than 36,000 inscribed Qin-dynasty slips.
• Pushi Ancient Town 浦市古镇 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
  A former river port on the Yuan River in Luxi County that thrived in the Ming and Qing dynasties, when it was nicknamed 'Little Nanjing'.
• Qianzhou Old Town 乾州古城 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
  An old walled town on the Wanrong River in southern Jishou, the prefecture capital, with stone-paved lanes, old gates and a riverside street.
• Qiliang Cave 奇梁洞 4A scenic area · on the map
  A karst cave at the foot of a cliff in Qiliangqiao village, Tuojiang town, a few kilometres north of Fenghuang old town.
• Rebala Tujia Villages 惹巴拉 4A scenic area · on the map
  A cluster of Tujia villages along the Laoche River in Miao'ertan Town, Longshan County, with wooden houses, a large covered bridge and the tall Chongtian tower; Rebala and neighbouring Liuhe were among the first villages named Chinese traditional villages in 2012.
• Taiping Mountain, Longshan 太平山 4A scenic area · on the map
  A forested mountain park about 4 km from Longshan county town, long a Buddhist site with temple halls on its slopes.
• Wulong Mountain Grand Canyon 乌龙山大峡谷 4A scenic area · on the map
  A karst canyon in Guitang Town, Longshan County, covering about 41 km² of the Wulongshan National Geopark and riddled with caves, of which surveys have counted 212.
• Xiangxi Ethnic Culture Park 湘西民族文化园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A cultural complex in the Xiangxi high-tech zone of Jishou, planned from 2015 as a showcase of the prefecture's Tujia and Miao heritage.
• Yuanshui Painted Cliffs 沅水画壁 4A scenic area · on the map
  A riverside scenic area at Baisha, the county town of Luxi, where cliffs known as the 'ten-li painted wall' line the Yuan River, a stretch of river associated with the writing of Shen Congwen.
• Bu'ermen 不二门 National heritage site · on the map
  A rocky stretch of the Mengdong River just south of Yongshun county town, listed for an archaeological site of the Shang and Zhou periods and now a national forest park.
• Former Site of the Hunan–Hubei–Sichuan–Guizhou Revolutionary Base (Tawo) 塔卧湘鄂川黔革命根据地旧址 National heritage site · on the map
  Seven old courtyard compounds in Tawo Town, Yongshun, that housed the provincial Communist Party committee, revolutionary committee, military district, party school, a branch of the Red Army school, a radio station and an arsenal of the Hunan–Hubei–Sichuan–Guizhou base area, set up by the Second and Sixth Red Army Groups under He Long and Ren Bishi in 1934–35.
• Huangsiqiao Old Fort 黄丝桥古城 National heritage site · on the map
  A small garrison town about 24 km west of Fenghuang, enclosed by a complete ring of blue-grey stone walls with battlements and gate towers that can be walked round in about ten minutes.

Getting to Xiangxi

Train, flight and driving times from the cities most visitors come from, with stations, fares and how many run a day; each opens the full comparison.

• Zhangjiajie 张家界 to Fenghuang · high-speed train 51 min, 18 a day, from ¥84

All routes

On the map

Open Xiangxi on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.

Learn more

• Wikipedia
• Official website
• Wikipedia (Chinese)