Jianshui Old Town

Jianshui, 220 km south of Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province, was referred to as Butou or Bashu in old times. In the the Nanzhao Kingdom (738-902), Huili City was established during 806-820, and it was under the jurisdiction of Tonghai Dudufu (Dudufu was the administrative region of Nanzhao Kingdom); during the Dali Kingdom (937-1253), it was under control of Xioushan prefecture. Huili is a word from the old language of Yi ethnic group which means a vast ocean and in Chinese, however, it is Jianshui.

jianshui chaoyang pavilion

Jianshui Prefecture was set up in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and covered by Lin'an Lu (Lu or Road was an administrative unit in the Yuan Dynasty) whose capital city was in Tonghai; Simultaneously, a Military Supervising Institute was also established in Jianshui in charge of Lin’an, Luxi and Yuanjiang etc. In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the capital city of Lin'an Lu was shifted to Jianshui from Tonghai; and in the the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), Jianshu Prefecture was titled as Jianshui County.

Jianshui Confucian Temple, Yunnan

Jianshui Old Town was originally constructed with earth in the period of the Nanzhao Kingdom and was enlarged into a brick town in 1387, the 20th year of the reign Emperor Hongwu (1368-1398) of the Ming Dynasty. The South, North, and West Pavilions of Old Town were destroyed when Li Dingguo, a general in the late Ming Dynasty, led his troops to charge at Lin’an. Nowadays, only the East Pavilion, Chaoyang Lou, has remained erecting for 600 years after surviving wars and earthquakes.

Shuanglong Bridge Jianshui

As the ancient education organ, Confucian Temple of Jianshui was started as early as the Yuan Dynasty. Importance on education was strengthened in the Ming and Qing dynasties when Chongzheng, Huanwen, Chongwen and Chongwequ Academies were established successfully. Since then, Jianshui has enjoyed the fame of “Wen Xian Ming Bang” (A place prosperous in education) and “Dian Nan Zou Lu”(A famous education site in the south of Yunnan ),and was dubbed as “Lin Ban Bang” in the Ming and Qing periods, which means half of those successful scholars in Yunnan are from Lin’an.

Jianshui Zhang Family's Garden

In 1994, Jianshui was listed among the China's Third Batch of Historic and Cultural Cities by the State Council. For more than 1,200 years, Jianshui boasts of more than fifty well-preserved old architectures, and is deemed as a live museum of folk residences and ancient architectures. The highlights around Jianshui are Jianshui Swallow Cave, Zhu Family's Garden, the Confucian Temple, Cahoyang Pavilion, Shuanglong Bridge (Double Dragon Bridge), Tuanshan Village, Zhang Family's Garden, and the Ancient Wells scattering in the old town, etc.


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