Chuxiong 楚雄Chǔxióng

About Chuxiong

Chuxiong lies on the main road between Kunming and Dali and is home to many of Yunnan's Yi people, whose music and bonfire dances fill the squares of the Yi People's Ancient Town in the evenings. Lufeng has yielded Jurassic dinosaurs since 1938, and a Lufengosaurus became the first complete dinosaur skeleton mounted in China. Farther north lie the clay pillars of the Yuanmou Earth Forest, close to where the fossil teeth of 'Yuanmou Man' were found, and the old salt town of Heijing.

Featured places in Chuxiong

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  Yuanmou Earth Forest 元谋土林

  Ochre clay pillars carved by rain in a hot, dry valley, glowing at sunrise and sunset

  Best time: Nov–Apr · Time needed: 1 day · 4A scenic area

Listed sites in Chuxiong

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

• Chuxiong Prefecture Museum 楚雄彝族自治州博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
  Opened in July 1995, the prefecture museum in Chuxiong covers the archaeology, history and Yi culture of central Yunnan in eight main galleries, with fossils, bronzes and Yi costume among its strongest collections.
• Guanglu Old Town and Longhua Temple 光禄古镇 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  This scenic area covers the old centre of Guanglu, a small town north-west of Yao'an county seat, and Longhua Temple at the town's western edge.
• Heijing Old Town 黑井古镇 4A scenic area
  Heijing, on the Longchuan River, grew rich on its salt wells and was at its most prosperous in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
• Jinshan Ancient Town 金山古镇 4A scenic area · on the map
  A Ming–Qing-style commercial and residential quarter in Lufeng city, built from 2017 as part of a shantytown-redevelopment scheme and opened in 2019.
• Lion Mountain, Wuding 武定狮子山 4A scenic area · on the map
  Lion Mountain, just west of Wuding town, has long been called the 'first mountain of the south-west'.
• Lufeng World Dinosaur Valley 禄丰世界恐龙谷 4A scenic area · on the map
  Lufeng has been known for Jurassic dinosaur fossils since 1938, when the first skeletons, including Lufengosaurus, were dug up in the area.
• Shiyang Old Town 石羊古镇 4A scenic area · on the map
  Shiyang, north-west of Dayao, is an old salt town, once the seat of the Baiyanjing salt administration, and has a salt-culture museum.
• Yi People's Ancient Town 彝人古镇 4A scenic area · on the map
  A Yi-style 'ancient town' newly built in Chuxiong city as a commercial, hotel and residential district, with an opera stage, squares, shops and restaurants.
• Yi Ten-Month Solar Calendar Park 十月太阳历文化园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A modern cultural park in Chuxiong's high-tech zone that presents the Yi people's traditional ten-month solar calendar.
• Yuanmou Man World Park 元谋人世界公园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A leisure park on Fenghuang hill in Yuanma town, themed on the 'Yuanmou Man' hominin fossils found in the county, combining cultural displays with water-park rides and a hot-spring pool complex.
• Zixi Mountain 紫溪山 4A scenic area · on the map
  Zixi Mountain, west of Chuxiong city, was one of Yunnan's Buddhist holy mountains in the Ming and Qing dynasties and is now a forest park and summer retreat.
• Chuxiong Confucian Temple 楚雄文庙 National heritage site
  Chuxiong's Confucian temple was founded in the Ming dynasty, and in the Qing the county and prefecture temples were combined on one site.
• Dayao White Pagoda 大姚白塔 National heritage site
  This solid brick pagoda on top of Baofa Hill, above Dayao county town, was first built in the Nanzhao period and has an unusual outline: a large oval crown swells above a narrow waist and an octagonal base, like the hammer used to strike a stone chime, which gives it its other name, Qingchui Pagoda.
• Defeng Temple, Yao'an 德丰寺 National heritage site · on the map
  Defeng Temple, beside Meige Square in Yao'an county town, is a Buddhist temple whose Ming-dynasty buildings are protected as a national monument.
• Xingxiu and Fengyu Bridges 星宿桥和丰裕桥 National heritage site
  Xingxiu Bridge, in Xingxiu Park on the old course of the Xingxiu River in Lufeng city, is a seven-arch stone bridge 118.8 metres long, completed in 1832 after earlier bridges on the site had been washed away several times.
• Yuanmou Man Site 元谋猿人遗址 National heritage site
  Two fossil human incisors found here on 1 May 1965 belong to Yuanmou Man, an early Homo erectus usually dated to about 1.7 million years ago, though the dating has been disputed.
• Yunnan–Burma Railway Bridges and Tunnels at Lianxiangguan 滇缅铁路炼象关桥隧群 National heritage site · on the map
  This 6.3 km stretch of abandoned line near the old Lianxiangguan pass, south-east of Lufeng, keeps a roadbed, five bridges and four tunnels of the Yunnan–Burma Railway, begun in 1938 to bring in foreign aid during the war against Japan.

On the map

Open Chuxiong 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)