Yuzhou Old City

Yuzhou is the walled seat of Youyang, the old prefecture town inside the modern county town. Youyang was known as Youzhou in ancient times, and for centuries it was the seat of the Ran family's tusi state, which was granted the title of xuanwei office in 1314 and became one of the strongest chiefdoms in the Wuling mountains. The Qing ended that in the reforms of 1728 to 1735, and the county was reorganised as a direct prefecture in 1735. The walled town preserves the plan of that administration rather than its fabric: a gate, a main street, the hall of the office, and the stilt-house roofs of the Tujia country around it.