Qingyan Ancient Town

Qingyan Ancient Town is a walled Ming dynasty fortress town in Huaxi District, about 30 kilometres south of central Guiyang, Guizhou. It was founded in 1378 as a military garrison and developed into a trading post on the road through the province. The town retains its stone-paved lanes, four gate towers, temples, ancestral halls, archways and old courtyard houses, built in a mix of Han, Miao and Buyi styles. Visitors enter through a gate and walk the main street, where shops sell local snacks, crafts and souvenirs. The best-known food is the Qingyan pork trotter (zhu tizi), braised in soy and spices and sold from many stalls, alongside rose sugar cakes, tofu balls and tea. Several temples line the lanes, including Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian sites, and some of them charge a small entrance fee of CNY 10 to 20. The Dingguang Temple and the Wanshou Palace are among the more visited. A stone archway on the main street commemorates local scholars and officials, and the town has produced a number of notable scholars in its history. Visitors can walk the full circuit in three to four hours, including time for food and temples. The town can be crowded at weekends and national holidays, when locals and tour groups arrive from Guiyang, and weekday mornings are quieter. In the evening, lanterns light the streets and the atmosphere becomes more relaxed. Photographs are typically taken from the gate towers, the stone archways and along the lanes. Buses and taxis run from central Guiyang in about 40 minutes.