Furong Town

Furong Town is an ancient settlement with a 2,000-year history, standing on the banks of the Youshui River, 51 kilometers away from the county seat. It was originally the administrative seat of Youyang County in the Western Han Dynasty. Benefiting from convenient water transportation on the Youshui River, it links Sichuan and Guizhou upstream and connects to Dongting Lake downstream. A historic trading port of Yongshun, it has long been hailed as the "Thoroughfare between Chu and Shu". It also bears the laudatory titles of Grand Youyang Town, one of the "Four Famous Towns of Western Hunan", and "Little Nanjing".

More than just a time-honored millennial ancient town, Furong Town is a tourist resort integrating natural scenery and primitive ethnic customs. Serving as the gateway to the Mengdong River Scenic Area, it is an ideal destination for those seeking seclusion and ancient relics. Surrounded by green mountains and clear waters, the town features winding, deep lanes, stilted wooden houses of the Tujia ethnic group leaning over the water, and a five-li-long street paved with bluestones. Every corner embodies the simple, age-old folk customs of the Tujia people, leaving tourists full of praise and reluctant to depart. After touring Mengdong River and Furong Town, Mr. Hu Jiwei composed a lyric in praise: Wuling Mountains boast graceful hills and misty streams,

Scenes like the Three Gorges grace Xizhou’s realms.

Steep verdant cliffs rise all around,

Gaily painted boats drift gently unbound.

Fresh fish stewed, playful spirit monkeys bound,

Immortals wander through dragon caves profound.

Stilt houses line old Furong Town,

Where Tujia hospitality abounds.

(Wharf Scenery, photographed by Yi Weilong)

Beyond its stunning natural landscapes and rich ethnic customs, Furong Town boasts cultural landmarks including the Xizhou Bronze Pillar, a National Key Cultural Relic recording the political and military history of the Tujia people, as well as the outdoor filming location for the movie Furong Town.

The Xizhou Bronze Pillar is now preserved inside the Furong Town Folk Customs Exhibition Hall. In 940 AD, Ma Xifan, King of Chu, and Peng Shichou, Prefect of Xizhou, ended years of warfare by signing a peace treaty to divide territory for separate governance. A bronze pillar weighing 5,000 jin was cast as a token of their covenant. Historical records state: "In the 4th year of the Tianfu reign of the Later Jin Dynasty (939 AD), Peng Shichou, Prefect of Xizhou, fought the Battle of Xizhou against Ma Xifan, who then ruled Hunan. After his defeat, Peng made peace with Ma in the 5th year of the Tianfu reign (940 AD). The course of the war and the terms of the truce were carved onto a bronze pillar. Weighing five thousand jin, the pillar stands twelve chi tall, with six chi buried underground. Octagonal and hollow, it was filled with copper coins and capped with a bronze finial. The oath of alliance was inscribed on its surface, and the pillar was erected at Huixi. When re-erected in the 2nd year of the Tianxi reign of the Song Dynasty (1018 AD), additional official titles of local Tujia chieftains were carved onto it. In the mid-Qing Dynasty, the bronze finial atop the pillar was stolen and sank to the riverbed, while the copper coins inside were extracted using malt sugar by thieves. In the 11th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1885 AD), Zhang Zengyang, Prefect of Yongshun Prefecture, built a pavilion to protect the pillar, which was destroyed during the Republic of China era."

Cast from pure, lustrous bronze, the pillar bears intaglio calligraphy in the Yan and Liu scripts across its eight sides. After a thousand years of wind, rain, frost and snow erosion, the inscriptions remain as clear as the day they were carved. The Xizhou Bronze Pillar constitutes vital historical documentation for the study of ancient Tujia history and is revered as a sacred artifact by the Tujia people.

Viewed from afar, the five-li bluestone street of Furong Town resembles the spine of a thread-bound ancient book, its pages unfurled by the hand of heaven to rest serenely and stately beside the Youshui River. The stilt houses hovering above the water, along with all the joys and sorrows unfolding within and without them, shift with the passage of time, narrating countless powerful, warm, stirring tales... Wandering along the bluestones, sunlight filters through dark, scale-like tile eaves, spilling pale goose-yellow light with the tinkling of wind chimes at upturned roof corners, wrapping you in an overwhelming sense of antiquity.

Stilt houses emerged as a result of successive imperial dynasties’ garrison and suppression policies against the Tujia people, who were driven into remote mountain forests under harsh living conditions. The Old Book of Tang records: "These southern lands are plagued by miasma, and the mountains bear toxic weeds, sand crickets and pit vipers. Local inhabitants all dwell in elevated buildings accessed by ladders, known as ganlan stilt structures." Coupled with a scarcity of farmland, the Tujia had no choice but to build stilt houses on steep cliff slopes