Jinzhou 锦州Jǐnzhōu

About Jinzhou

Jinzhou sits on the Liaoxi Corridor, the coastal route between north China and the north-east, and its counties keep remarkable Liao-dynasty buildings, above all Fengguo Temple in Yixian, founded in 1020, whose great hall shelters seven giant Buddhas. Near Beizhen rise the Yiwulü Mountains, honoured as the guardian mountain of the north, with the Beizhen Temple at their foot. Off the coast, Bijia Mountain is an islet reached along a causeway that the tide uncovers twice a day.

What to eat in Jinzhou

• Goubangzi smoked chicken (沟帮子熏鸡)
• Jinzhou barbecue (锦州烧烤)

Listed sites in Jinzhou

20 sites in Jinzhou are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.

• Beiputuo Mountain, Jinzhou 北普陀山 4A scenic area · on the map
  A hill park of about 26 sq km on the north-western edge of Jinzhou, made up of six peaks and nine sights, with a Buddhist temple that holds Spring Festival prayer events.
• Bijia Mountain 笔架山 4A scenic area
  A small island of about 1 sq km in Liaodong Bay that a natural sand-and-gravel causeway about 1.6 km long links to the mainland; the tides expose it twice a day and cover it again.
• Dachaoyang Hot Spring Resort, Beizhen 大朝阳温泉山城 4A scenic area · on the map
  A hot-spring resort and hotel complex at the foot of Yiwulü Mountain about 6.5 km west of Beizhen town, developed by a Liaoning company and next to the Yiwulü nature reserve.
• Daluhua, Yiwulü Mountain 医巫闾山大芦花 4A scenic area · on the map
  A scenic area in Baojia township on the middle-southern part of the Yiwulü range, a national geopark known for steep rock pinnacles, with a main peak of about 630 m.
• Dongfang Huadicheng Wetland Hot Spring Resort 东方华地城湿地温泉旅游度假区 4A scenic area · on the map
  A resort of about 28,000 mu (roughly 1,900 ha) on the wetlands at the mouth of the Daling River on the Bohai coast, including about 10,000 mu of reed beds.
• Fengguo Temple 奉国寺 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  A Liao-dynasty temple founded in 1020 in the old town of Yixian, whose main hall, nine bays wide and raised on a 3 m platform, is one of the largest surviving timber Buddhist halls in China.
• Guangji Temple Complex and Jinzhou Museum 广济寺古建筑群（锦州市博物馆） 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  A walled group of old temple buildings in the middle of Jinzhou, centred on a 13-tier brick pagoda begun under the Liao dynasty in 1057 and a Buddhist temple rebuilt in the Qing dynasty, with a Mazu temple, a Guanyin pavilion and a shrine to soldiers killed in the 1894 Sino-Japanese War.
• Jinzhou Oriental Happy Kingdom Water World 锦州东方欢乐王国水世界 4A scenic area · on the map
  A seaside water park on the Bohai coast next to the Bijia Mountain scenic area, with more than ten water rides, a wave pool, a seawater cascade pool, an infinity pool facing the Bijia causeway and a sand beach.
• Jinzhou World Garden Expo Park 锦州世博园 4A scenic area · on the map
  The main site of the 2013 Jinzhou World Garden Expo, a landscaped park of about 7 sq km on the Bohai coast, of which 3.3 sq km is land and 3.7 sq km water.
• Liaoshen Campaign Memorial Hall 辽沈战役纪念馆 4A scenic area · on the map
  A museum and memorial park about the Liaoshen Campaign, the autumn 1948 campaign of the Chinese Civil War in which the People's Liberation Army took Jinzhou, Changchun and Shenyang from Nationalist forces.
• Liaoxi Jiuhua Mountain, Linghai 辽西九华山 4A scenic area · on the map
  A privately developed theme park of about 3.5 sq km on a wooded hill at the edge of Linghai's town centre, built from 2013 and rated 4A in 2015, which became a social-media hit in 2023 as a 'compressed pack' of China's famous sights.
• Qingyan Temple, Beizhen 青岩寺 4A scenic area · on the map
  A temple complex in three courtyards, upper, middle and lower, set on steep ground at the southern end of the Yiwulü range in Changxingdian town, within a scenic area of about 13 sq km that the provincial tourism page also describes as a national geopark.
• Yanjing Temple Scenic Area 岩井寺 4A scenic area · on the map
  A wooded hill park in Wendilou town north of Jinzhou, set between two peaks of about 436 m and 459 m and protected as a city-level nature reserve.
• Yiwulü Mountain 医巫闾山 4A scenic area
  A mountain range some 45 km long on the western edge of Beizhen, revered since ancient times as the guardian mountain of the north and, under the Liao dynasty, an imperial hunting ground; its highest peak, Wanghai Peak, is about 870 m.
• Banji Pagoda 班吉塔 National heritage site · on the map
  A small Liao-dynasty brick pagoda of 1058 at the foot of Pangu hill, about 0.5 km north of the Xiaoling River.
• Beizhen Temple 北镇庙 National heritage site
  The state temple to the spirit of Yiwulü Mountain, the northern one of China's five guardian mountains, founded in 594 and rebuilt under the Ming dynasty from 1370.
• Guangning City, Beizhen (Drum Tower and Li Chengliang Arch) 广宁城（鼓楼与李成梁石坊） National heritage site
  Guangning was the Ming-dynasty garrison city of Beizhen, and two of its landmarks stand on the main north–south street: the Drum Tower of 1563, a two-storey tower on a brick-and-stone base pierced by a gateway, and the stone memorial arch of 1580 to the Ming frontier commander Li Chengliang, about 9 m high.
• Guangsheng Temple Pagoda, Yixian 广胜寺塔 National heritage site · on the map
  A 13-tier octagonal brick pagoda at the south-west corner of Yixian's old town, with seated Buddhas, bodhisattvas, flying figures and guardians carved in brick on every face.
• Twin Pagodas of Chongxing Temple 崇兴寺双塔 National heritage site
  Two octagonal, 13-storey solid brick pagodas stand 43 m apart in the north-east of Beizhen's old town, 44.46 m and 42.63 m high, with Buddha niches, guardian figures and flying figures carved in brick.
• Wanfotang Grottoes 万佛堂石窟 National heritage site
  A Buddhist cave temple cut into a cliff on the north bank of the Daling River, begun in 499 under the Northern Wei dynasty and among the oldest grottoes in north-east China.

On the map

Open Jinzhou on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.

Learn more

• Wikipedia
• Official website
• Wikipedia (Chinese)