Taohua town selected as cultural and art creation base

Tourists visit Taohua Island in Putuo district, Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/zhoushan.cn]

Taohua town in Putuo district, Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province was recently selected as one of the top 10 cultural and art creation bases in Zhejiang. 

The bases were selected by the provincial department of culture and tourism to encourage writers and artists to better promote Zhejiang to the outside world. 

Taohua Island, or Peach Blossom Island, located in the town, is a renowned scenic spot in Zhoushan, which is portrayed in the works of late Hong Kong martial arts novelist Louis Cha Leung-yung, better known by his pen name Jin Yong.

It is also home to the highest mountain in Zhoushan – Mount Anqi.

The island got its name not because it actually has peach trees, but because of the natural black patterns on stones that resemble the branches of peach blossoms.

A local folk legend attributes the black patterns to the ink unintentionally spilled by a hermit in the early Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), who refused to obey an imperial edict and fled to the island to study Taoism and practice alchemy.