Yunnan province: Shiping Ancient Town Historical and Cultural Block

Shiping Ancient Town Historical and Cultural Block
石屏县古城区历史文化街区

Shiping county is located in the southern part of Southwest China's Yunnan province, with 94.6 percent of its areas covered in mountainous regions.

It is a historical land with rich cultures, and is known as the "land of literature", "hometown of citrus", "hometown of red bayberry", "land of fish and rice", "hometown of tofu or beancurd", and "land of song and dance".

Although the old town of Shiping is located in the far south of China, Confucianism had a strong impact on it and Shiping’s influence led to traditional Han culture’s undergoing flourishing development in the south Yunnan region. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shiping was also famous for the imperial exams.

Covering a total area of 56.5 hectares, the old town of Shiping was known as "the museum of the Ming and Qing dynasty residences in southern Yunnan".

Legend has it that Shiping county was built on the shell of a large turtle floating on the waters. The water layer, just beneath the turtle shell, could be reached by drilling through it. Therefore, the first thing every household in Shiping did was excavate and dig a well, thereby obtaining an inexhaustible source of water.

Well holes were connected with each other in the town so that owners could easily retrieve their lost water buckets in their neighbors’ wells. It is said that there were five deep wells in the east, west, south, north, and middle of the town, which were believed to be the five pillars locking down the turtle in case it tried to return to the sea.

All the five deep wells still exist and their water has become a natural spring source for making brine, the essential ingredient for making Shiping tofu; a tradition of the past 600 years.

Main attractions:
Ancient Chinese home schools and free schools, former residences of civil service, military and local department officials, and residences for candidates who excelled in the imperial exams in feudal China for the zongrenfu, or the department in charge of royal affairs.