Atlas of China
Tongling 铜陵Tónglíng
Three thousand years of copper and a ghost port on a Yangtze sandbank
About Tongling
Tongling, whose name means 'copper hill', has mined and smelted copper for more than 3,000 years, and the Jinniudong Ancient Copper Mine has a small site museum. Up the Yangtze, Datong Ancient Town faces Heyuezhou, a sandbank whose salt market and steamer landing were nicknamed 'Little Shanghai' until its streets burned in 1938. Across the river in Zongyang, Fushan, an extinct volcano, carries cliff inscriptions from the Tang onwards, and farmers still grow Tongling's white ginger under shades of bamboo and thatch.
Listed sites in Tongling
11 sites in Tongling are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Datong Ancient Town 大通古镇 4A scenic area · on the map
Datong, on the Yangtze south-west of Tongling, was one of Anhui's main river ports, and the sandbank of Heyuezhou across the narrow Que River was from the 1860s to the 1930s a salt market and steamer landing nicknamed 'Little Shanghai', with three streets and thirteen lanes. - Fenghuang Mountain 凤凰山 4A scenic area · on the map
A group of low hills in Shun'an town, south-east of Tongling, known for Fengdan medicinal peony and named in 2000 'China's home of the medicinal peony'. - Fushan Mountain 浮山 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
An extinct volcano of the early Cretaceous on the shore of Baidang Lake in northern Zongyang, which seems to float on the water and is called 'the foremost literary mountain' for the poets who came here, from Meng Jiao and Bai Juyi in the Tang to Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi and Wang Yangming. - Liqiao Water Town 犁桥水镇 4A scenic area · on the map
A village in Xilian town, north-east of Tongling, redeveloped into a 'water town' resort around its old street, where Ming and Qing buildings have been restored as small museums, a crafts street and boutique inns. - Qishan Hanwu Cultural Park 汉武文化生态园 4A scenic area · on the map
A public hillside park on Qishan in Zongyang county town, themed on Emperor Wu of the Han, who by local tradition shot a flood dragon in the Yangtze at Zongyang on a southern tour and wrote the 'Song of Shengtang and Zongyang'; Zongyang became a county in 106 BC. - Tianjing Lake Park 天井湖 4A scenic area · on the map
A lake park of over 1,200 mu in the centre of Tongling, named after the 'heavenly well' on a small island in the lake. - Tongling Museum 铜陵市博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
The city museum of Tongling, long known as China's 'ancient copper capital', is devoted to bronze and copper culture. - West Lake Wetland Park, Tongling 西湖湿地 4A scenic area · on the map
An urban wetland park laid out around West Lake in the Xihu new district on Tongling's north-eastern side, with lakes, planted woodland and paths for walking. - Wutong Flower Valley 梧桐花谷 4A scenic area · on the map
A countryside flower park in Zhongming town on Tongling's eastern border with Nanling and Fanchang, covering 15.4 km² of hills and farmland. - Yongquan Resort 永泉旅游度假区 4A scenic area · on the map
A farm-stay resort in the Yeshan forest park in Zhongming town, eastern Tongling, built in Huizhou garden style, with guest houses and villas, a food street of local snacks in Jiangnan-style buildings and a collection of Huizhou carvings. - Jinniudong Ancient Copper Mine 金牛洞古采矿遗址 National heritage site · on the map
Tongling has been called China's 'ancient copper capital', and the Dagongshan–Fenghuangshan mines straddling the Nanling–Tongling border were worked from the Western Zhou to the Song.
On the map
Open Tongling on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Tongling on the map