Yangmei Ancient Town
Yangmei Ancient Town is located in the southwest of Nanning city, 36 kilometers away from Nanning downtown. It has a history over one thousand year, first founded in the Song Dynasty( 907 AD-1279 AD), and flourishing in the late of the Ming Dynasty(1368 AD-1644 AD). Buildings in Yangmei Ancient Town is the best-preserved buildings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Nanning, and the number of those buildings is over seven hundred. There are over 200 cultural heritages scattered in the old streets. This town is reputed for the ancient town, old street, clean water, strange stone and queer tree.
Yangmei Ancient Town covers an area of 6.5 square kilometers, and has a population of about 53,000, and it is surrounded by mountains in three sides, and faces a river in one side. In over one thousand years' development, it is built for its convenient water transportation, and silences in that people abandon water transportation. In the initial phase, it is built by people with four surnames, and it is named Baihua village because there are lots of white flowers here, then it is renamed to Yangxi village, and last it is named Yangmei village which has a meaning of spreading beauty. In the prosperous phase, this small town is an important business port, and has eight wharfs.
Lots of things made in the Ming and Qing Dynasties are preserved well in this town, like ancient town, old street, temple, residential building, tree, gate, wharf, and beacon tower. Those things form many subordinate attractions, and here are eight popular and well-known attractions-qing po huai gu, jian cha qing quan, tan song xiang hu, lei feng ji cui, ting dui jiang liu, jin sha yue ye, long tan xi ying, and ge wang yu xia.
In the entrance of the town, there is a big ancient gate carving its name on, and an old stone street leading you to this town. This street of three hundred meters has stores built in brick and wood structure in the Ming Dynasty, and it was a prosperous and chaotic street, built in 1832, and named Linjiang street. Those buildings tell the prosperity of the past, and the quiet street tells the ruthlessness of passing time.
Long tan xi ying refers to the scenery in the river bend where a banyan tree grows. The tree has two main branches, which look like two flying dragon, thus it is named Long tan. When the sun sets, the scenery in this river bend is much beautiful: the water, tree, and sky are in great harmony. Jin sha yue ye is the scenery in the river beach which is 2,000 meters long and 200 meters wide. One half of the beach is covered by sand and stone, and looks in yellow or light yellow. Under moonlight, it looks in light gold. And its name comes from this phenomenon. Another half of the beach is covered by white fine sand.
This town has two ancient buildings of great value. The former residence of Liang Zhitang and Liang Lieya is in Jinma street, who are participators in the Revolution of 1911 and other political movements. Their residential buildings originally occupied half of the street, but now the existing building only has one living room, three bedrooms and one yard. During the Zhennanguan uprising, secret meetings were held here. Kuixing building is built in 1736, with a height of 15.3 meters. It is a quadrate construction and has three floors, and the first floor is the biggest, and the third floor is the smallest, which looks like the Emperor's seal, thus it has another name as Diyin, or imperial seal. The first floor has a wooden statue of Guanyu, an ancient general, and the second floor has a wooden statue of Wendi, and the third floor has a wooden statue of Kuixing, holding a pen in the right hand and a book in the left hand, who is a god controlling the writing of articles and is highly respected by students and scholars. It is also the place of holding meetings about revolution in 1907, and it is listed as a cultural relic protection site by Nanning government in 1996.
In here, you can see the old buildings, and experience those ancient culture, and you may eat local delicious food and fruit, like fermented soya beans, zuojiang fish and pawpaw.
