Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture covers the northwestern corner of Hunan where the Wuling Mountains meet the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau, drained by the Wushui and Youshui, tributaries of the Yuan. It was formally established in September 1957 with its capital at Jishou and now administers one city and seven counties, from Fenghuang on the Guizhou border to Longshan in the north. About three quarters of its 2.4 million people belong to minority groups, above all the Tujia and the Miao, whose languages, festivals and building traditions still shape daily life. Under the Qing the region kept a semi-autonomous status under native chieftains until the gaitu guiliu reforms brought direct imperial rule.
Fenghuang was a garrison of six thousand residents and eight thousand soldiers before it was a postcard, and the Tuo river still runs the town's middle. Its 5A rating, its maglev and its floods all belong to the same century.
The Dehang gorge at Jishou runs under the Aizhai suspension bridge and beside Miao and Tujia villages, bundled into a 5A scenic area with Shibadong. The visit now runs from the engineering of the deck down to the water.
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The Aizhai bridge throws a 1,176-metre span over the Dehang gorge on the road from Hunan toward Guizhou, and the expressway package around it is two-thirds bridges and tunnels. It replaced a four-hour drive with an hour's run.
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Wangcun was a market town of Yongshun county until Xie Jin's 1986 film Hibiscus Town was shot in its streets, and in 2007 the town took the film's name. The high-speed corridor now brings the audience to the set.
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Qianzhou was the walled seat that governed this corner of the west from 1704, until the government moved to Jishou in 1952. Its 1729 Confucian temple survived war, flood of politics and a school, and the capital is now moving back toward the walls.
ReadA walled 1704 garrison town on the Tuo river in Miao and Tujia country, now one of China's most visited old towns.
A grand canyon of the Wuling range at Jishou, crossed by the Aizhai suspension bridge and bundled with Miao villages into a 5A area.
A suspension bridge of 1,176-metre main span carrying the G65 expressway over the Dehang gorge near Jishou.
The Yongshun county market town called Wangcun until the 1986 film Hibiscus Town gave it a new name.
The walled 1552 fort town that administered this corner of Xiangxi until the government moved to Jishou in 1952.
