Jianshui

Jianshui County (建水县 Jianshui xian) is a division of Honghe Prefecture in Southeastern Yunnan. Although the county seat has its own name (it's called Lin'an Town 临安镇 Lin'an zhen), the name Jianshui is commonly used to refer to Lin'an as well, as it is generally the case with Chinese county seats.

Understand
Lin'an Town is in the fertile valley of the Lin'an River, which flows across Jianshui County from the west to the east. The rest of the county is on higher, fairly mountainous, terrain, except for the southern edge, where the ground drops precipitously toward the Red River. Since the Yuan Dynasty, Lin'an has been one of the most important cities of Yunnan, the center of Confucian learning and the veneration of Confucius.

While the ancient city wall that used to surround the city has been demolished in the 20th century (only its four gate towers remain standing), a large number of historic sites remain in and around Lin'an, making it one of the top tourist destinations in the province. A pleasant city overall, Jianshui is an attractive stopping point on a trip between Kunming and the Vietnamese border.

Get in
Jianshui is served by the new standard-gauge railway connecting Kunming with Mengzi and Hekou on the Vietnamese border. As of 2016, about half a dozen trains in each direction stop at the Jianshui station every day; one train continues beyond Kunming to Dali.



The historic narrow-gauge railway has its station (Lin'an Station; see Do below) just outside of the historic downtown, but it is only used for a local tourist train, and has no regular passenger service.



Get around
The historic downtown is walkable; a number of bus routes serve the rest of the city.

The Four Gates of Lin'an
Although Lin'an's city wall has been demolished, its four surviving gates remain important space markers of the urban street network. The eastern gate (Chaoyang Gate) is the most important one.

Buy
This town specializes in pottery. It is called "Zi Tao Pottery" or purple pottery. The pottery is nice and of very good quality. Make sure you get a handmade one. Get it from one of the masters in town or at a cheaper rate from some of the shops around.

Eat
At the old train station, there is an excellent store selling crossing-the-bridge-noodles. Be sure to check them out.

Go next

 * Kunming, the provincial capital
 * Kunyang, the home of Zheng He (who is honored by a parkful of monuments, similar to the ones Confucius has here, and which can be visited for ¥12, or even for free)
 * Tonghai, at the next train station to the north, on the shores of Qilu Lake
 * Yuanyang, with its terraced rice fields
 * Gejiu, tin miners' town
 * Hekou, the gateway to Vietnam