←All destinationsZigui · Homeland of Qu Yuan
Heritage · Relics
OVERVIEW
Orange groves, gorge river and the home of Duanwu
Between the new town and the old gorge, poetry, citrus and dragon boats still shape the local sense of season.
“Duanwu is not an attraction; it is a seasonal memory one river town rehearses again and again.
— Orange groves, the river surface and the drums of the dragon boats keep an old story inside present-day life, which is how the poetry acquires a smell.
HIGHLIGHTS
The old hometown
Use the ancestral hall and the displays to place the Qu Yuan story in its own ground.
Orange groves and riverbank
Walk the slopes outside town where the citrus meets the gorge.
HISTORY
Named for a Sister, Moved by the Water
Zigui has more than three thousand two hundred years of written history, one of the cradles of Chu culture and the home of Qu Yuan. The name comes from the Commentary on the Water Classic: the poet had a worthy elder sister who, hearing of his banishment, also came home — and zi derives from that word for sister. The Qu Yuan shrine was founded in 820 CE at Quyuantuo in old Guizhou town; it was moved to Xiangjiaping in 1976 for the Gezhouba dam, and again to Fenghuang Hill in 2006 for the Three Gorges project. Today the site sits just six hundred metres from the dam, with twenty-four relocated gorge monuments gathered around it. The street names of the new town — Tianwen, Jiuge, Longzhou, Jusong — all come from Qu Yuan's poems.
GETTING THERE
How to arrive
High-speed rail
Zigui station on the Zhengzhou–Chongqing line, or a regional coach from Yichangdong.
By boat
Maoping is a major cruise berth, close to both the Qu Yuan site and the dam.
Note
Duanwu packs the calendar, so confirm the programme in advance. Give half a day each to the museum and the riverbank.
GOOD TO KNOW
Before you go
Seasonal Guidance
- Spring brings orange blossom against river mist
- Early summer packs Duanwu events, so plan ahead
Local rhythm
- Give half a day each to the museum and the bank
- Confirm the programme in advance during Duanwu
Combining routes
- Enter on the same line as Xiling Gorge
- North of here connects to Xingshan and Shennongjia