Zhongxian

Introduction

Zhongxian got its name by moving stories about two patriots. One is about Ba Manzi in the Warring States period (475-221 BC). Then became a general to the army of the Kingdom of Ba. Later in a civil war of the Kingdom, he was sent to the Kingdom of Chu to beg military assistance to put down the rebellion. Chu demanded three Ba cities as the forfeit. Once Chu's troops had helped restore stability to Ba, the King of Chu demanded the payoff. Ba Manzi refused. He said: 'Though I promised Chu the cities you will take my head in thanks to the King of Chu, for the cities of Ba cannot be given away'. The King of Chu was moved and sighed: 'Cities would count as nothing had I loyal ministers like Ba Manzi'. He then ordered that Ba Manzi's head be buried with full honorsShibaozhai, Zhongxian.

The second tale is of another valiant general Yan Yan, who was captured by the Shu general Zhang Fei. He refused to surrender. Zhang Fei was so deeply moved by Yan's loyalty and bravery that he personally treated him as an honored soldier.

What to see

In addition to enjoy the bamboo handicrafts, local food speciality, beancurd milk, there is a famous town in this county. That is Shibaozhai. Shibaozhai, Literally means Stone Treasure Fortress, Located in ZhongCounty, at the south bank of the Yangtze River, 278 km away from Chongqing, it was first built in Qing Dynasty in 1750. Shibaozhai is one historic site that will look much different in 2009. When the lake formed by the Three Gorges Dam is completed, most of this bluff will be under water and the temple will sit close to the lake's edge on a newly formed island. The wooden architecture stands on the riverside. It is built by catch upon a rectangular rock with sheer cliffs with a height of 56 meters and 12 stories. And every floor of the wooden structure contains interesting artifacts. Each of the 12 floors of Shibaozhai is dedicated to a famous general of the Three Kingdoms period (220-265AD), a local scholar or a remowned Chinese poet.

Climbing the 12 stories is not as difficult as it may sound because you will need time to look at the paintings and sculptures on each level. Nowadays, it takes about 1.5 hours to climb from the pier to the top of Shibaozhai and round back from a back footpath. from our perspective, the statue enshrined in temple on the top flat looks not quite uniform, the reason local people enshrine GuanYu (who is known as military god in Chinese) in the first room of the temple is there was local troop gathered here, and in the second room, the Yu Huang and the baby-birthing god, maybe the enshrined statues are what the local people need most rather than what you seen in Fengdu.