Jiuzhou Ancient Town
Heritage SiteAnshun, China
Visiting Jiuzhou Ancient Town
- Ticket
- Free
- Rating
- 4A
About Jiuzhou Ancient Town
Jiuzhou Ancient Town sits in the southeastern part of Anshun and preserves a well-worn slice of traditional Guizhou town life, with a street layout said to follow principles drawn from yin-yang and five-elements cosmology, an arrangement still visible in the town's winding lanes and building placement today. The town carries national 4A scenic status and stands out among Anshun's attractions for its emphasis on history and everyday atmosphere rather than dramatic natural scenery.
Within the town, visitors can find a number of old temples, traditional courtyard-style residences, and remnants of ancient post roads that once connected this part of Guizhou to wider trade and travel networks. These structures, many showing genuine age and wear rather than modern reconstruction, give Jiuzhou a layered sense of history that rewards slow, unhurried wandering through its streets, with details like carved doorways and worn stone paving turning up around almost every corner.
Beyond the historic buildings, the town retains a notably relaxed, lived-in feel, with local residents going about daily routines alongside the old temples and courtyards, giving visitors a sense of a working town rather than a purely tourist-oriented site. This makes it a good option for travelers who prefer soaking in atmosphere over ticking off a checklist of sights, and a couple of hours spent simply wandering tends to be more rewarding here than following a fixed route.
As a change of pace from the natural spectacles that dominate an Anshun itinerary, such as Huangguoshu Waterfall and Dragon Palace, Jiuzhou Ancient Town offers a quieter, more historically grounded stop, well suited to an afternoon of easy walking and cultural sightseeing for visitors wanting a fuller picture of the region beyond its karst scenery.
Cultural heritage
Jiuzhou old town stands in Anshun's Xixiu district, about thirty-seven kilometres from the city centre. Founded in the Zhizheng reign of the Yuan, it was once the seat of the old "Anshun Zhou" and is now a China Historic and Cultural Town and a key birthplace of Tunpu culture. Its streets follow a yin-yang and five-elements plan, richly endowed with old temples, courtyard houses and postal roads, and the Tunpu people have miraculously preserved the customs of Jiangnan life from six centuries ago, of which chicken chilli is the most representative taste.
Visiting: Wandering Jiuzhou, flagstones and postal roads string together the old pattern of temples and pavilions, and the stone-and-timber life of the Tunpu shows in the courtyards; the scent of chicken chilli drifts from the shopfronts, and a hot Tunpu dish over rice captures best the Ming afterglow and unhurried life of "dreaming one's way to Jiuzhou."
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