In the southwest of Hunan Province, in the valley of the Nanhua Mountains on the Tojiang River, there is an ancient city named after the mythical creature Phoenix.
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The history of the city began in the third year of the rule of the Song Empire, when the first earthen houses appeared. After 450 years, buildings were built of brick. Fenghuang began to acquire its modern look during the reign of the Ming XIV empire and the Qing XVII empire, but it gained architectural completeness thanks to the emperor Kangxi, from the Qing dynasty, in the early 18th century. Since then, Fenghuang has hardly changed. Nearly.
Everything, as then: winding streets, surrounded by the high walls of the old city, hundreds of family shops, towers, houses on wooden stilts along the canals, a mill on the water, boats cutting through the fog in the morning and of course traditional crafts and languages of the Miao and Tujia nationalities sounding only in these parts.
The Nanhua Mountains have defended Fenghuang for hundreds of years from natural disasters and invasions, and today the Chinese authorities protect it from the influence of everything modern. But it is difficult to completely shut off from the outside world. Sitting under a 200-year-old bridge on the pavement, laid by their great-great-grandfathers, the guys played songs by Jack Jones. Cool to play!
We were very lucky to come to Fenghuang at night. After all, at night it turns into a festival of lights. Hundreds of red lanterns are lit along the canals, the main bridge of Hongqiao lights up with bright lights and the city shimmers in bright colors, reflecting in the water. Women wash clothes in the river, do the dishes, and tourists pose for each other in traditional costumes against the iridescent canals of the river and jump from stone to stone.
Everything in this city is so traditional that it seems like a good backdrop for a movie about old China. But, lost in its narrow streets, you see how much life there is in this place. Here are the women who have seated small children in traditional baskets behind their backs, just rush for fresh tofu. The old men who are recklessly playing the second batch of Chinese checkers, Guo and Shogi. Vaughn wandered the seller with baskets over his shoulder. And in his baskets such that the tourist does not even come to mind to try. The linen is dried in the narrow streets, the wall is collapsing on the inside of the shed, the flowers in the pots and the lazy cats are tangled on two hundred year old stone steps. The city of Phoenix is real.
If idle wandering around the city you prefer a clear route, then here is what to see in Fenghuang. Sights of Fenghuang.
In the North Gate Tower and the Fenghuang Administrative Tourism Bureau you can buy one ticket (about $ 20 - tickets to Chinese sights will cost you a lot of money), where you can visit the following sights:
• Ancestral Hall of the Yang Family
• Family house of the Shen Cong-wen family
• The family house of the Sen Silin family
• Museum Guichen,
• Wangshaw Temple,
• Hun Bridge (admission by ticket only)
• boating on the river Tuo,
• Entrance to the Eastern Towers (Qing Dynasty, 1715)
Everything is open from 8.00 to 17.30.
Life hacking travelers! Most of the attractions of Fenghuana can be viewed for free. A ticket is needed if you are going to get straight into each family house and temple.
• A real adventure will be a walk on the roofs in the area of the city wall at the North Gate. There are preserved stone-carved fish and various animals perched on the roofs of old houses.
• Old Town History Museum
• Temple of the Three Kings
• Jiangxing Temple
• Confucian temple
• Chaoyang Temple Temple
• At night, of course, you should walk along the unique Hongqiao Bridge to see the nightly Fenghuang.
• Temple goddess patron saint of navigators.
• The former home of the writer Shen (very popular in China).
Enjoy your walk around the city of Phoenix! And we plunge into the memory of the yellow streets, flooded with light.
