Fuchun River, Xin’an River and Thousand Island Lake

Overview

About

The scenic area covers the Xin’an and Fuchun rivers in Zhejiang from Chun’an down to Fuyang, across the counties and cities of Fuyang, Tonglu and Jiande.

Both rivers are the upper Qiantang. The Xin’an rises in Xiuning County, Anhui, flows through Huangshan city, then Chun’an, Jiande and Tonglu into Fuyang. Below its junction with the Lan River it is called the Fuchun, in Tonglu the Tong River, and from Wenjiayan in Xiaoshan the Qiantang.

There are three routes: the south, centred on the Lingqi caves and the Daci Rock “hanging temple of the south”; the west, on the Xin’an River dam and Thousand Island Lake; and the east, on the Qililong stretch of the Fuchun and the Fuchun River national forest park.

Thousand Island Lake

The Xin’an River dam, built in the 1950s, is 105 m high and 462 m long; the reservoir is about 150 km long and over 10 km at its widest, about 580 km² at normal level. Its 398 islands, and hundreds of islets that appear and vanish with the water level, give it the name Thousand Island Lake.

The Fuchun and Xin’an

The 30 km from Meicheng in Jiande to Lucibu in Tonglu is the Qililong gorge, called a Lesser Three Gorges, with the sights of Qili Sails, Yan Ziling’s fishing terrace and the Gourd Waterfall.

Tonglu has the Yaolin Cave, rafting on the Tianmu Stream and the Daqi Mountain national forest park.

Fuyang, “first city on the spring river”, has the Guan Hill and the “first tower on the spring river”; the Yuan painter Huang Gongwang painted his famous Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains while living in retirement here.

Local products

The rivers are known for red-lipped shad and Ziling fish. Other specialities: Wushan bean-curd skin and Longyang gingko from Fuyang; hickory nuts, Yanqiao jujubes, Houyan chestnuts, torreya nuts and Zhongshan dried bean curd from Tonglu; lotus seeds, Qiandao silver-needle tea and Yandongguan wujiapi liquor from Jiande. Tonglu’s teas Xueshui Yunlü, Tianzun Gongya and Wuyun Quhao were imperial tribute.

Getting there

Roads are good; by water you can go up to Huangshan or down to Hangzhou. The Jinqian railway in Jiande connects with the Zhejiang–Jiangxi line.

Events

On 31 March 1994 robbers attacked and set fire to the tour boat Hairui on Thousand Island Lake, killing 24 Taiwanese tourists and 8 crew; three men were sentenced to death that June.

In literature

Wu Jun (Southern dynasties), “Letter to Zhu Yuansi”: “Wind and mist have cleared; sky and mountains share one colour. Drifting with the current, I go east or west as it will. From Fuyang to Tonglu, some hundred li, the strange hills and wondrous waters are without equal under heaven.”

Meng Haoran: “The lake past Dongting spreads wide; the river entering Xin’an runs clear.” Su Shi: “Having travelled all the hills and waters of Wu, still I say the scenery of Tonglu is the loveliest.”

Yan Ziling

Yan Guang, courtesy name Ziling, of Yuyao in Kuaiji, was a schoolfellow of Liu Xiu, who became the Eastern Han emperor Guangwu. He repeatedly refused the emperor’s offers of office and lived as a hermit on the Fuchun River. Once, sharing a bed with the emperor, he rested his foot on the imperial belly; next day the court astronomer reported a wandering star intruding on the emperor’s seat. Fan Zhongyan praised him: “Cloud-wrapped mountains, vast rivers; the master’s spirit is high as the hills and long as the waters.”