Shexian County

 

Shexian County（歙县） is equally listed into the four best-preserved ancient cities of China with other three famous ancient cities, and the other three are Langzhong（阆中古城） in Sichuan, Lijiang（丽江古城） in Yunnan and Pingyao（平遥） in Shanxi. All of them were all the second batch of national historical and cultural cities. The famous attractions in Shexian include:

（1）Yuliang dam（渔梁坝） is the oldest and largest-scale river dam on the Xinan River（新安江） in the ancient times. It has more than 1000 year’s history. It links with Old Street of Yuliang ancient town in the north. The old street of Yuliang ancient town is preserved well at present, which is characterized of the typical Huizhou-style architecture.

（2）Taibai Tower（太白楼） is located in the west side of Taiping Ancient Bridge（太平桥） . The tourists could go upstairs to look at the landscape of west part of city and the charm of tower and bridge. It is a double-storey building with the exemplified traditional architectural style. It is said that in the prosperous time of Tang Dynasty, the great romantic poet Li Bai（李白）planned to visit Xu Xuanping（许宣平）, who was a hermit in Shexian County, but they haven’t got the opportunity to meet each other. Although with regret, Li Bai get excited when viewing the amazing scenery in Shexian and drank lots of wine to express his joy. So the later people specially built this tower at the location where Li Bai drunk wine. And they named this tower as Taibai Tower, because Taibai was another name of Li Bai. 

（3）Nanqiao Tower（南谯楼）, currently exists, is characterized of the architectural style of Song Dynasty. Shexian County Museum is located in this tower, which was the center to show the historical and cultural relics of different generations in the past, including the painting and calligraphic works, chinaware, Shexian inkstone and so on of the past time.

（4）Doushan Jie(斗山街，Doushan Street), as the hometown of Huizhou businessmen, is a scenic area accumulated the attractions such as folk residence, ancient street, ancient carving, ancient well and so on. The stone-paved street is as long as a poem and the long-time drizzle. The typical residence such as Wang Family Mansion, Yang Family Mansion, Pan Family Mansion and the ancient private schools and so on are worth watching.

（5）Huizhou Cultural Exhibition Center is a traditional style building in the center of Shexian county around original Huizhou Governmental Office. It is a tourism town with the strong ancient atmosphere. In 2000, it was opened to be the center to show the original appearance of Ming and Qing Dynasties.

 

Shexian County also produced many great Chinese philosophers such as Zhu Xi (朱熹) and Cheng Hao (程颢), and their feudal thoughts that influenced the mentality of ancient Chinese women who had to be chastity and some would died to protect or prove their cleanness. Many of the 100-odd chastity toriis in the county were built to celebrate the merits of these traditional women. Therefore, Shexian is known as "the Home of Torii（牌坊之乡）".