Qijiang Ancient Town

Overview
Qijiang Ancient Town is located in the south of Santai County in Mianyang City, 45 kilometers from the county center, 124 km away from Chengdu. Qijiang is the birthplace of the Santai culture. There is the Warring States Period King Qi City and the legendary King Qi Tomb. The cliff tombs from the Han Dynasty to the Jin Dynasty throughout the town are the key cultural relics protection units in the country. The cliff sculptures in the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Ming and Qing Dynasties The ancient buildings, streets, temples and stone bridges vividly reflect the long history and ancient culture of Qijiang River. The Jinjiang River and Qijiang River converge in the territory, and the mountains and clear waters echo each other with the simple and elegant ancient town. It is an excellent place for sightseeing, vacation, travel and leisure.

Outside the town's ancient, there is an ancient stone bridge across the Qijiang River named Bridge of Nine Dragons, started built in the Qing Emperor Qianlong Period(AD 1736 --1795). The bridge uses nine dragons in high relief as the pier, and 20 rectangular flat stones as the beam. The nine dragons of various shapes, build against the current, are vividly constructed, which showcases the exquisite workmanship. In 1992, Qijiang Town was announced as the historical and cultural town in Sichuan Province.

What to see
In between Qijiang Riverbanks hills, with the town as the center, there is a distribution of tens of thousands of cliffs, among which the Han Cliff tomb group of the Qijiang River is one of the four grand tomb groups around the country. In some places the cliff tombs are dispersed row upon row, as dense as hives. Within the tombs, some shapes are nationwide unique, such as caisson ceilings, scattering blossoms, brackets, window frames, and railing and other shapes. Ethnic Han paintings like "Dog Bites Rat", "Erotic Secret Show " and other Han stone inscriptions represent the folk culture of Chinese Han. On the other hand, the stoves, water wells, niches, stoves case, closet, bed table, stairs, drains and other stone inscriptions in the Han tombs are a vivid reappearance of the Han daily living lifestyle and daily habits 2000 years ago. The entire tomb groups can be described as a scroll depicting the real life and culture of the Han Chinese.

Town-God Temple
On every 27th of May according to lunar calendar, believers from around the village rush miles into Qijiang Town to attend the centuries-old Town-God Temple Fair. And such activities have been listed as the intangible cultural heritage of Sichuan Province, thanks to an ancient folk event—Pray for Rain, during which believers pray for peace and good weather before the Town-God Temple. On the day of the fair, people love to go to the ancient town for the view of folk performances, to listen to the ancient opera on the theatrical stage and to go into the ancient Qi Kingdom tomb group to experience the culture.

When the Town-God is on parade, he will let loose the judge, cow-head, horse-face, big and small ghosts from the Underworld, in order to arrest the bad guys. This is intended to drive away the scourge and epidemic disease, to display to the public the emotion expression and activities of the other world, and at the same time to show all the activities of this world, which is also an expression of the people’s yearning for a better life. The most exciting of all is to pray for rain, during which "Golden Dragon" and "Water Dragon" are being used. Within the cheering crowds, the "dragon" in the lure of the "Pearl" perform hopping, diving, changing from time to time; and the grass-made "Water Dragon" in the surroundings of numerous water injection guns fly up and down, making a spectacular scene and winning bursts of applause from the crowd. All of these are entrusted with the people's desire for good weather and pray for good and punishment of evil, as well as karma. The realistic atmosphere, both haze of terror and festive joy bring people involved an educational performance.

Information
Location: Qijiang Town, Santai County, Mianyang City,Sichuan Province
Opening time: all day
Ticket Price: Free; CNY20 for visting Qijiang Han Tombs
Time for visiting: 2-3 hours
How to get there:
1) By bus: you can take direct bus from Chengdu Beimen Bus Station to Santai Tourist Bus Terminal, it takes around 3 hours from Chengdu and costs CNY50 per person
2) By train: you can take high speed train from Chengdu East Train Station to Mianyang station, then take bus from Mianyang station to Santai county. The high speed train takes around 40 minutes.
3) Book a private transfer is the most convenient way to visit Santai Qijiang Ancient Town from Chengdu for western travelers.