Atlas of China
Sanming 三明Sānmíng
Red Danxia gorges, earthen forts and snack bars that spread across China
About Sanming
Sanming covers forested mountains in west-central Fujian; its city was built up as a heavy-industry base from 1958 and still makes steel. Most visitors head north to Taining, where boats wind across Dajin Lake between red Danxia cliffs, part of the China Danxia World Heritage Site. Shaxian people run cheap snack restaurants across China, Ninghua's Shibi Hakka Ancestral Land is revered as the cradle of the Hakka, and walled earthen homes such as Anzhen Fort were built to keep out bandits.
What to eat in Sanming
- Shaxian bianrou wontons (沙县扁肉)
- Shaxian peanut-sauce noodles (沙县拌面)
Listed sites in Sanming
29 sites in Sanming are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Dajin Lake and Taining Geopark 泰宁大金湖 5A scenic area · on the map
Taining's 5A scenic area covers the Taining UNESCO Global Geopark, about 490 km² of mainly Danxia red-sandstone landscape, part of which is inscribed in the China Danxia World Heritage Site. - Anzhen Fort 安贞堡 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A huge fortified earthen house in Huainan town, Yong'an, built in 1885–99 by the local gentleman Chi Zhanrui and his son to protect their family from bandits, which it did through three sieges. - Central Soviet Area Anti-Encirclement Memorial Park, Jianning 中央苏区反“围剿”纪念园 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A memorial park in the north of Jianning town on the county's role in the Red Army's campaigns against the Nationalist government's encirclement offensives of 1930–34; Red Army units took Jianning on 31 May 1931 in the last battle of the second campaign. - Daxianfeng 'Tea Beauty' Scenic Area 大仙峰·茶美人 4A scenic area · on the map
A tea-themed scenic area around Daxian Peak in Pingshan township, Datian, whose terraced tea gardens have been named among China's 30 most beautiful and whose cherry trees blossom in late winter. - Dishuiyan Red Army Field Hospital Site 滴水岩 4A scenic area · on the map
A karst cave about 2.5 km from Mingxi town where the Red Army ran a field hospital from 1931 to 1934, treating more than 250 of its own wounded and some 540 wounded prisoners; the cave had water and gave cover from air attack. - Gexikao National Forest Park 格氏栲国家森林公园 4A scenic area · on the map
A national forest park at Louyuan in Xinkou town, south-west of Sanming, protecting a natural forest of Castanopsis kawakamii (gexikao), a tall evergreen of the beech family listed as near-threatened. - Guifeng Village 桂峰村 4A scenic area · on the map
A hillside village in Yangzhong town, north-eastern Youxi, where 39 Ming and Qing buildings with yellow walls and dark tiles are stacked up three slopes around a valley; it is a national historic and cultural village, described as one of the best-preserved old villages in Fujian. - Guxi Xinghe Resort 古溪星河 4A scenic area · on the map
A leisure resort in the hills of Tangchuan township, eastern Youxi, at about 870 m above sea level, developed since 2016 in what had been an empty mountain valley. - Jinnao Mountain (Minjiang Source Eco-tourism Area) 闽江源·金铙山 4A scenic area · on the map
The eco-tourism area of Jinnao Mountain in south-eastern Jianning, inside the Minjiang Source national nature reserve; the range's main peak, Baishiding, reaches 1,858 m, and its spur Yanfeng Mountain is taken as the true source of the Min River. - Jiufu Mountain 九阜山 4A scenic area · on the map
A forested mountain area in Xicheng town, south-west of Youxi town, lying within the Jiufushan provincial nature reserve. - Jiulongtan, Taining 九龙潭 4A scenic area · on the map
A Danxia gorge north of Taining town where visitors drift on bamboo rafts between red cliffs and deep green pools. - Mingqing Garden, Taining 明清园 4A scenic area · on the map
A museum park on the Jinxi River just east of Taining town, made up of dozens of old Ming- and Qing-style buildings collected from elsewhere; the first phase has nine buildings on different themes and a large collection of carved woodwork. - Ruiyun Mountain 瑞云山 4A scenic area · on the map
A small hill scenic area of about 3 km² in Chenda town on the northern edge of Sanming city, combining forest with temple buildings and old rock inscriptions. - Sansteel Industrial Tourism Area 三钢工业旅游区 4A scenic area · on the map
Industrial tours inside the works of Fujian Sansteel, the steel producer in the Liexi area of Sanming. - Shaxian Snack Culture City 沙县小吃文化城 4A scenic area · on the map
A food-themed quarter built from the late 2000s at the foot of Taojin Mountain on the north-west side of Shaxian town, laid out in the style of the mansions of the area's wealthy Ming and Qing families. - Shibi Hakka Ancestral Land 石壁客家祖地 4A scenic area · on the map
Shibi in Ninghua county is revered as the cradle of the Hakka people, the place where Hakka forebears settled before spreading south and overseas. - Shuiwei Red Army Village 水尾红军小镇 4A scenic area · on the map
A mountain village in Kefang township on the Fujian–Jiangxi border which was a rear base of the Red Army and seat of the Jianning county Soviet government in the early 1930s. - Taoyuan Cave and Linyin Stone Forest 桃源洞·鳞隐石林 4A scenic area · on the map
A Danxia landscape scenic area of about 29 km² north-east of Yong'an city, made up of Taoyuan Cave, Baizhang Rock and three other zones; its best-known sight is Yixiantian, a cleft 90 m high and 127 m long that narrows to 0.4 m and is climbed by 206 steps. - Tian'e Cave, Ninghua 天鹅洞 4A scenic area · on the map
A group of limestone caves east of Ninghua town, the core of a 143 km² national geopark of karst landscapes. - Tianfang Yuetan Hot Springs 天芳悦潭 4A scenic area · on the map
A hot-spring and forest-wellness resort at Gaolai near Songkou in eastern Qingliu, in what the county describes as Fujian's densest belt of hot springs. - Wanshouyan Site 万寿岩遗址 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A small, isolated limestone hill at Yanqian, west of Sanming, whose caves hold the oldest known traces of people in Fujian: stone tools from Lingfeng Cave have been dated to about 185,000 years ago, and Chuanfan Cave preserves a stone-paved floor and drainage channel some 30,000–20,000 years old. - Xiatianxia Scenic Area 侠天下 4A scenic area · on the map
A martial-arts (wuxia) themed adventure area in Tangchuan township, eastern Youxi, which opened in 2015 as the county's first A-rated attraction. - Yuhua Cave 玉华洞 4A scenic area · on the map
A limestone cave often described as the largest in Fujian, at the foot of Tianjie Mountain south-east of Jiangle town, with about 6 km of passages through six chambers and three underground streams thick with stalactites and stalagmites. - Zhu Xi Cultural Park 朱子文化园 4A scenic area · on the map
A park at the birthplace of the Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi, born here in 1130, on Gongshan hill on the south side of Youxi town. - Datian Earthen Forts 大田土堡群 National heritage site
Five fortified earthen houses (tubao) in Datian county make up this national heritage group: Pipa Fort in Jianshe town, Fanglian Fort in Junxi town, Anliang Fort in Taoyuan town, and Tai'an Fort and Guangchong Hall in Xiaohua village, Taihua town, built between the Qianlong reign (1736–95) and 1857. - Shangshu Di, Taining 尚书第 National heritage site · on the map
A Ming mansion on Shangshu Street in Taining's old town, built in the late Wanli and Tianqi reigns (early 1600s) for Li Chunye, Minister of War: five houses side by side, each with three courtyards, on a plot about 80 m by 50 m. - Shuimei Earthen Forts 水美土堡群 National heritage site · on the map
Three fortified earthen houses built by the Zhang family of Shuimei village, Shaxian, between the Daoguang and Tongzhi reigns (1821–74): Shuangji, Shuangxing and the largest, Shuangyuan, which covers about 6,000 m² and climbs the hillside in tiers. - Yong'an Wartime Provincial Capital Sites 永安抗战旧址群 National heritage site · on the map
From 1938 to 1945 Yong'an was Fujian's wartime provincial capital, and twelve buildings used by the provincial government and its offices form this heritage group, listed among the national memorial sites of the War of Resistance against Japan in 2015. - Zhengshun Temple 正顺庙 National heritage site · on the map
A temple to the local deity Xie You in the Liexi area of central Sanming, founded in 1233 and regarded as the oldest and best-preserved timber building in the city.
On the map
Open Sanming on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
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