Atlas of China
Zhaotong 昭通Zhāotōng
Apple orchards, wintering cranes and cliffs hung with ancient coffins
About Zhaotong
Zhaotong fills Yunnan's north-east corner, a highland of farming and mining on the old routes from Sichuan that the Yi regard as their ancestral homeland. In winter, black-necked cranes gather on the marshes of the Dashanbao reserve, and the guild halls of Zhaotong Old Town, founded in 1732, have been restored. At Doushaguan, a Tang inscription and hanging coffins overlook a gorge on the ancient Five-Foot Road, and the Jinsha River on its border carries huge dams such as Baihetan.
What to eat in Zhaotong
- Chicken stewed with tianma (天麻炖鸡)
- Zhaotong mini meat skewers (昭通小肉串)
Listed sites in Zhaotong
12 sites in Zhaotong are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Daguli Amusement Park 大古里欢乐城 4A scenic area · on the map
An amusement park and leisure complex on the edge of Zhenxiong county town in north-eastern Yunnan. - Dashanbao Black-necked Crane National Nature Reserve 大山包 4A scenic area
A national nature reserve protecting about 19,200 hectares of high plateau marshland and grassland at 2,200–3,300 metres, west of Zhaotong city. - Huanglianhe Waterfalls 黄连河 4A scenic area · on the map
A river valley in the Wumeng Mountains just outside Daguan county town, which the county promotes as a 'home of waterfalls'. - Jinsha Water Park, Suijiang 绥江金沙水上乐园 4A scenic area · on the map
A water park on the Jinsha River reservoir at Suijiang county town, laid out on floating platforms on the river, with swimming areas and inflatable play courses. - Shaonuping Lakeside Resort 邵女坪 4A scenic area · on the map
A lakeside resort town on the Xiangjiaba reservoir of the Jinsha River, redeveloped for tourism from 2023 on the site where 318 households displaced by the reservoir were resettled. - Western Grand Canyon Hot Springs 西部大峡谷温泉 4A scenic area · on the map
A hot-spring and water-park resort on Wenquan Avenue on the western side of Shuifu, above the Jinsha River just upstream of the Xiangjiaba dam at Yunnan's northern border with Sichuan. - Xiaocaoba 小草坝 4A scenic area · on the map
A forested upland around Xiaocaoba town, north-east of Yiliang county town, in the Chaotianma section of the Wumengshan National Nature Reserve, which protects large tracts of subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest. - Zhaxi Meeting Memorial Site 扎西会议纪念地 4A scenic area · on the map
Memorial sites in Zhaxi, the county town of Weixin, where the Chinese Communist Party Politburo held a series of meetings in early February 1935 during the Long March, completing the leadership changes begun at the Zunyi Conference. - Long Family Ancestral Hall 龙氏家祠 National heritage site
The ancestral hall built from the early 1930s by Long Yun, the ethnic Yi chairman of Yunnan's provincial government in the Republican era, about 7 km south of Zhaotong city. - Washi Hanging Coffins 瓦石悬棺 National heritage site · on the map
Wooden coffins placed in a cliff face at Washi village in Weixin county, one of several hanging-coffin sites in north-eastern Yunnan. - Yuan Zi Inscription at Doushaguan 袁滋题记摩崖石刻 National heritage site · on the map
A small cliff inscription of 794 at Doushaguan pass in Yanjin county, recording how the Tang envoy Yuan Zi passed this way on his mission to invest Yimouxun as king of Nanzhao. - Zhaotong Old Town 昭通古城 National heritage site · on the map
The historic core of Zhaotong, a Qing town founded in 1732 whose wealth from silver mining in the Zhuti area drew merchants from other provinces; their guild halls, among them the Shaanxi and Guangdong halls, still stand.
On the map
Open Zhaotong on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Zhaotong on the map