Where to Stay in Anqing, Anhui

What is Anqing known for?

Huangmei opera began in Anqing, and the form's spread through the twentieth century rested on performers from the city, which is why the prefecture is known first for a sound rather than a skyline. Chen Duxiu was born here as well. His tomb stands in the city he came from, and he served as the first General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1921 to 1928.

What are the main landmarks in Anqing?

Pagodas outnumber the rest. The Zhenfeng Pagoda, the Taiping Pagoda and the Fayun Temple Pagoda stand across the prefecture, with Yingjiang Temple and Sanzu Temple holding the older monastic ground. Faiths sit side by side.

The Sacred Heart Cathedral, the Holy Savior Cathedral and the Nanguan Mosque put more than one tradition inside the same prefecture, while the Xuejiagang Site, the Sunjiacheng Site and the Zhangsidun Site carry its archaeology. Baiyazhai, Shitaishidi and the Anqing Museum complete the list.

What is the history of Anqing?

People were here long before anyone kept records that fix founding years. The Xuejiagang Site, the Sunjiacheng Site and the Zhangsidun Site show settlement in this stretch of Anhui long before the prefecture had a name, and Shitaishidi belongs to the same early register. Stone carried the next chapter.

The Tianzhushan Shanguliuquan Stone Inscriptions were cut at Mount Tianzhu, leaving a written record on the rock rather than in an archive, while Yingjiang Temple and Sanzu Temple carried the religious line forward. Learning gave the prefecture its second reputation. The Tongcheng Confucian Temple, the Tomb of Zhang Tingyu and the Red Building of Anhui University and Former Jingfu Academy mark a scholarly tradition that ran from the classical school into the modern university.

Then came the opera. Huangmei opera originated in Anqing and spread outward on the strength of performers from the city, which fixed the prefecture's name to a stage form. Chen Duxiu was born here.

He became the first General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, holding the post from 1921 to 1928, and the tomb of Chen Duxiu remains in the city. War left its own site, the Counter-Japanese Soldiers Cemetery at Yezhai.

Where is Anqing?

Anqing occupies the southwest of Anhui. Mount Tianzhu rises within the prefecture, so a boundary drawn for administration takes in both the three urban districts and a range of hills carrying its own temples and inscriptions. The contrast is sharp.

Tongcheng, with its Confucian Temple, sits out in that county ground, and a visitor moving between it, the mountain and the city spends real time on the road.

What is the climate of Anqing?

Mount Tianzhu splits the weather. The mountain runs cooler than the urban districts below it, and Anqing itself lies in the subtropical band of southwestern Anhui, where the low ground and the hill country do not share a season. Height is the variable.

A morning that suits the Zhenfeng Pagoda in the city may not suit the stone inscriptions on the mountain, and the gap is measured in altitude rather than in miles.

How do you get to Anqing?

Most routes begin in the city. Anqing's three built-up districts are the practical point of entry for the prefecture, and everything else, Tongcheng, Mount Tianzhu, the county sites, is reached outward from there rather than directly. Distances are internal, not regional.

A visitor who fixes the city first and treats Sanzu Temple, the Tongcheng Confucian Temple and the Tianzhushan Shanguliuquan Stone Inscriptions as separate days out will lose less time than one trying to chain them.