Qianzhou Ancient City is the old walled town inside Jishou, the capital of the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. First fortified by the Ming in 1552, it became the seat of a Qing subprefecture in 1704 and kept the administration of the region until 1952, when the county government moved downstream to Suoli, today's Jishou centre. Its Confucian temple, begun in 1729, anchors the old town after destruction and restoration, and the Qianzhou new district now growing beside it is pulling the city's offices back toward the walls.
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.