Best Places to Visit Honghe

Yuanyang is a county located in southern Yunnan, lying down on the southern back of Red River. The breathtaking terraces cascade down the slopes of the towering Ailao Mountains to the banks of the Hong River, where is settlement of Hani ethnic people. They are mainly good at agriculture, and the terraced fields are hewn from the rolling topography by the Hani throughout hard work.Yuanyang Rice terrace is in remote, which is hard to be disturbed by culture from outside and reserve pure ethnic culture. The breathtaking landscape is treasure who loves nature.  The following is best places to visit in Honghe prefecture.

1. Yuanyang Rice Terraces

Ranking as one of the top terraced fields in the world, the Yuanyang Terraced Field is famous for the magnificent scenes and boundless area.Yuanyang Terraced Field is the cultural essence passed by generati ons. The large area of the field could not be built just in a night. Each part of this field is a page of the history book related to the Hani ethnic group.

2. Jianshui Ancient Town

Jianshui with a long history of more than 1200 years was called Lin’an in the ancient time,first built in Tang Dynasty. As one of the national famous historic and cultural towns of China, it has more than 50 ancient buildings in good keep, enjoying a great reputation as a ‘Museum of Ancient Buildings and Residential Houses’. Jianshui Old Town is not large, mainly including several streets center on Lin’an Road. Except for the famous Jianshui Confucius Temple and Zhu Family Garden, many other ancient building worth your visiting.

3. Jianshui Confucius Temple

Jianshui Confucius Temple is first built in Yuan Dynasty. With a history of more than 600 years, it is the third largest Confucius Temple in China, just behind the Qufu Confucius Temple in Shandong Province and Beijing Confucius Temple. The temple has a traditional Chinese construction style, facing south. It is 625 meters deep, covering an area of 18.78 acres, including 31 buildings. This Confucius Temple is a display of the cultural mixture of the Han and the other ethnic groups of South Yunnan.

4. Shadian Grand Mosque

Grand Mosque of Shadian was originally built in the year of 1684. After several restorations and reconstructions, the new Grand Mosque of Shadian is built into a large-scaled mosque with a construction area of 18,000 square meters. It is able to hold a capacity of 10,000 people to do prayers at a time. Grand Mosque of Shadian is consisted by main buildings of prayer hall, vault and four minarets. This grand mosque has inherited the decoration style from Nabawi Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia.

5. Jianshui Swallow Cave 

The Yanzi Cave in Jianshui is called the “first karst cave in Asia” in China and abroad. Outside the cave are many peach trees. Flowers bloom in spring, the cave is clear and cool in summer, and warm air overflows in winter. Every year from May to July, millions of swifts will come here to nest. There will be a square at the Zhongdong Dock, and there will be free folk custom performance at regular intervals.

6. Alu Cave

This enormous cave system may be explored on a 3,000m long tourist trail. The tour includes 18 chambers, a cave river and a resurgence, karst windows, and a wealth of speleothems. The tour shows three different passages of the cave which are called Luyuan Cave, Yuzhu Cave, and Biyu Cave, each with characteristic speleothems.

7. Zhu Family Garden in Jianshui Ancient Town

Located inJianshui Ancient Town, Jianshui Zhu Family Garden is a set of large-scale residential with the reputation as “Grand View Garden at Southwest Border of China”. The whole bui lding has steep ridge eaves, painted beams and intricate painted ceiling, exquisite and elegant. The layout of halls and courtyards is very reasonable with rich and countless changes which like a maze.

There are still many scenic spots waiting for you to explore and discover！