Bengbu

Bengbu lies in northern Anhui Province on the middle reaches of the Huai River. Known in ancient times as a place for harvesting pearls and long celebrated as the "Pearl City," it is one of the birthplaces of Huai River culture, a thoroughfare between north and south along the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, and a city that keeps more than seven thousand years of time tucked into its everyday life. The city administers Huaiyuan, Wuhe and Guzhen counties and the four districts of Longzihu, Bengshan, Yugui and Huaishang; as of the end of 2024 its jurisdiction covered 5,951 square kilometers, with a permanent resident population of 3.262 million. The Shuangdun Culture Site, some 7,300 years old, yielded carved symbols here that are recognized as one of the important origins of Chinese writing; the legend of Yu the Great cleaving the mountains to channel the Huai and summoning the lords to a gathering lingers around Mount Tu in Huaiyuan County; and the Battle of Gaixia, which laid the foundation of the great Han dynasty, took place on the banks of the Tuo River in Guzhen County. Longzi Lake spreads wide to the southeast of the urban area, the Wanghuai Tower atop Zhanggong Hill commands a view of the whole city, and the Tushan-Baimu Spring Scenic Area carries the memory of the culture of Yu the Great. As a city "pulled here by a train," Bengbu became a thoroughfare between north and south after the Jinpu Railway opened in 1911, and today it is a national comprehensive transportation hub city, with Bengbu South Station on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway reaching in every direction. Shaobing stuffed with fried tenderloin, Tuo Lake crabs and Huaiyuan pomegranates give the city both the depth of history and the warmth of street life, and its four distinct seasons make spring willows by the lake and autumn climbs of Mount Tu each rewarding in their own way. Come to Bengbu, slow your steps, and walk along the Huai River and Longzi Lake, reading at leisure the stories it hides in its ripples and its street life.

Bengbu sits in northern Anhui Province on the middle reaches of the Huai River, which crosses the city from west to east and splits it into two halves, north and south. It has neither the grandeur of famous mountains and great rivers nor the soft charm of a water-town, yet it possesses a natural ease of north meeting south — the openness of the Huaibei Plain with a touch of the grace of the Jianghuai hills. Locals habitually call it the "Pearl City," for this has been a place of pearl harvesting since ancient times. The city is small and unhurried: the water of Longzi Lake glitters in fine fragments under the sun, the shadow of the tower on Zhanggong Hill stands quietly, and cargo boats pass slowly along the Huai one after another. This city, born of water and raised by the railway, has tucked more than seven thousand years of time into its daily life, and deserves your slow walking and slow looking.

Bengbu's history is long: as early as the Neolithic age, people were settling on this land. In prehistoric times it was the activity area of the Huaiyi people; legend has it that Yu the Great, coming south by way of the Huai and Si rivers to control the floods, married a daughter of the Tushan clan on today's Mount Tu in Huaiyuan County and fathered Qi. In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, this area belonged in turn to the states of Xu, Lu, Song, Wu, Yue and Chu; commanderies and counties were established under the Qin, with the south bank of the Huai under Jiujiang Commandery and the country north of the Huai under Sishui Commandery. In the fifth year of the Baoyou era of the Southern Song (1257), Huaiyuan Prefecture and Jingshan County were established; in the seventh year of the Xianchun era (1271), Huai'an Prefecture and Wuhe County were added. In the twenty-eighth year of the Zhiyuan era of the Yuan (1291), Huaiyuan Prefecture was abolished and Jingshan County was renamed Huaiyuan County. In the second year of the Tongzhi era of the Qing (1863), land was set aside to form the Sanxiansi administration, directly under Fengyang Prefecture. Fengyang Prefecture was abolished in 1912, and in 1947 Bengbu was formally established as a city — the first city in Anhui Province to be so established.

Bengbu was liberated in 1949, and its city and county structures were adjusted several times thereafter. In 1983 the three counties of Huaiyuan, Wuhe and Guzhen were placed under Bengbu's administration, forming today's pattern. The city now administers the three counties of Huaiyuan, Wuhe and Guzhen and the four urban districts of Longzihu, Bengshan, Yugui and Huaishang, along with two functional zones — the high-tech industrial development zone and the economic development zone. As of the end of 2024 the city's jurisdiction covered 5,951 square kilometers, the urban districts 969.39 square kilometers, with a permanent resident population of 3.262 million. The city is not large, yet it gathers mountains and waters, ancient sites and street life all within a small compass.

To understand Bengbu's quiet confidence, start with the Shuangdun Site. Located in Huaishang District, it dates back some 7,300 years. The site yielded more than 600 carved symbols covering production and daily life, astronomy and calendrics and other fields, recognized as one of the important origins of Chinese writing. In the same site park stand the Shuangdun tombs of the Spring and Autumn period, about 2,600 years old; both are national key cultural relics protection units. In 2013 the Shuangdun Site was listed in the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units, and later entered the project list of national archaeological site parks; the planned area of the Shuangdun National Archaeological Site Park totals 98.61 hectares.

To take in these ancient remains at one go, the best place is the Bengbu Museum. It stands on the west side of Longzi Lake, on the citizen's square south of the municipal government; it moved into its new building in 2015, with a total floor area of 34,000 square meters. The museum holds 5,973 sets of cultural relics, 81 of them first-class, and mounts basic exhibitions such as "From Sand to Pearl: the Historical Culture of Bengbu" and "Flowing Civilization: the Historical Culture of the Huai River," along with the special exhibition "A Smile from Seven Thousand Years Ago: the Painted, Tattooed Clay Heads of Shuangdun Culture." A national first-class museum, it is also a national 4A-level tourist attraction — a quiet, knowledge-rich retreat in the city.

East of the museum lies the lake Bengbu people know best: Longzi Lake. It is the city's own lake, with a water surface of 8.4 square kilometers, its shores winding, its waters broad; seen from the air it resembles a dragon rising into the sky. The lake is embraced by hills on three sides — Cao Hill and Zhuizi Hill on the eastern shore, Meihua Hill, East Lu Hill and West Lu Hill to the south — all lushly vegetated, making it a city lake where water and mountains lean on each other. The scenic area covers a planned total of about 44.1 square kilometers; it was approved as a provincial-level scenic area by the Anhui provincial government in 1998, designated a national water conservancy scenic area by the Ministry of Water Resources in 2003, and rated a national 4A-level tourist attraction in 2008 — one of the few scenic areas in China lying right beside a city.

The most distinctive landmark of Longzi Lake is the China North-South Boundary Marker on its shore. Bengbu happens to lie on the climatic transition between north and south, and this sculpture stands that geographic meaning beside the water — a sight many visitors to Bengbu come to see. Two parks line the lake, east and west: the western park is divided into waterside, gateway, vitality, exploration and celebration zones, while the eastern park spreads out broad lawns and a woodland-bird recreation area, with a lakeside footpath and cycle track stringing water, lawns and woods into one line. Early morning and dusk are the pleasantest hours: the lake surface glows softly, strollers wander in twos and threes, the hill silhouettes are faint in the distance, and the city's clamor is shut out beyond the shore.

West from Longzi Lake into the urban area, you reach the Zhanggong Hill Scenic Area. Located in Yugui District, it covers 110.6 hectares, 39.3 of them water, with the hilltop at 71.2 meters — a city park of paired water and hills, densely green, rated a national 4A-level tourist attraction in 2009. Its principal sight is the Wanghuai Tower, 35.33 meters tall with seven stories and eight sides; from the top you can look over the whole Pearl City and gaze afar at both banks of the Huai. The "Pearl and Mussel Greeting Guests" sculpture at the south entrance borrows the meaning of "Pearl City," and the garden-within-garden, the waterside pavilion corridor, Zhanggong Island and other spots lie scattered about — the place where locals do their morning exercise, stroll and idle away an afternoon.

Bengbu's other calling card is the culture of Yu the Great, whose heart lies at Mount Tu. The Tushan-Baimu Spring Scenic Area was approved as a provincial-level scenic area by the Anhui provincial government in 1987, with a planned total of 62.51 square kilometers, 8.92 square kilometers of them core scenic area, composed of the Mount Tu, Heihu Hill, Mount Jing and other scenic zones. The main peak of Mount Tu rises 338.7 meters — not tall, yet weighty with the legend of Yu the Great. On the summit stands Yuwang Palace, also called the Temple of Yu the Great, a shrine to Yu the Great and Tushan-shi, mother of Qi, more than two thousand years old; on the mountainside is the Shimu Stone, shaped like a seated woman, known to locals as the "husband-watching stone." The Mount Tu temple fair, held on the twenty-eighth day of the third lunar month each year, has been entered on the provincial intangible cultural heritage protection list.

Turn to the Yuhuicun Site, on the southern foot of Mount Tu between the Huai River and the Tian River, also known as the Yuxu Site — major material testimony to the culture of Yu the Great. Within the site were found remains of the late Neolithic Longshan culture, filling a regional gap in that culture; a large "sacrificial platform" survives, corroborating the event recorded in the Zuo Zhuan: "Yu assembled the lords at Mount Tu, and those who held jade and silk were a myriad states." The Yuhuicun Site is a national key cultural relics protection unit and has entered the project list of national archaeological site parks; the site park's museum and protection works for the site itself have now been completed in turn and are opening step by step to the public.

Cast your eye toward Guzhen County and you meet another stretch of sterner history. The Gaixia Site stands on the bank of the Tuo River, its remains dating mainly to the late Dawenkou culture and the Han dynasty; its body is a city site in the shape of a rectangle with rounded corners, covering about 150,000 square meters inside the walls, with a moat ringing them. This, tradition says, is where the "songs of Chu on every side" and the "ambush on ten sides" of the Chu-Han contention played out — the rise of a dynasty and the fall of a hero fixed in one place. The Gaixia Site was designated a county-level cultural relics protection unit as early as 1980, raised to an Anhui provincial key cultural relics protection unit in 1986, listed by the State Council in 2013 in the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units, and in April 2023 the Gaixia Archaeological Site Park opened to the public and was approved as a national 4A-level tourist attraction.

Water is another of Bengbu's undertones. Tuo Lake, in Wuhe County only 3.5 kilometers from the county seat, is broad and clear — the largest unpolluted natural freshwater lake in northern Anhui, approved as a provincial-level nature reserve by the Anhui provincial government in 2000. Its waters are rich in waterweeds and plankton, natural feed for fish, shrimp and crabs; the clear-water hairy crabs it yields are famed for their size, tender flesh and abundant roe, and once made the list of "China's Ten Famous Crabs." When the autumn wind rises and the reed catkins whiten and the crab roe fattens, boating on the lake and eating crab by the water is the locals' old way of passing autumn.

Bengbu's folk arts are worth seeing too, the most famous being the Huagudeng. It spread through the Huai River basin, combining song, dance and drama, its movements vigorous and earthy, lively and warm; Premier Zhou Enlai hailed it as the "Oriental Ballet," and it is also praised as the "orchid of the Huai banks." In 2006 the Huagudeng was approved by the State Council for the first batch of the national intangible cultural heritage list. Fengzuizi Village in Qinji Town, Yugui District, is a key place of its transmission: it was designated a China Huagudeng original-ecology protection village in 2004 and named "China's No. 1 Huagudeng Village" in 2005. Today young and old in the village can all dance a few passages; once the drumbeat starts, the whole village comes alive.

Besides the Huagudeng, Bengbu has the Sizhou Opera, Wuhe folk songs and other folk arts passed down generation to generation; authentic singing can still be heard in the streets and the countryside. Most of these arts grew out of the rhythm of labor and the joys and sorrows of life, singing the days of the people along the Huai. Walking the lanes of the old city, when a passage of gongs and drums or a line of song drifts by, you feel that the city's warmth of life lies not only on the table but also in these tunes and gestures. At festivals and temple fairs, troupes of performers can often be seen parading the streets in lively bustle.

As for food, Bengbu's street flavors run strong, the most famous being shaobing stuffed with fried tenderloin. Created in the last decade of the twentieth century, it combines baked flatbread, fried pork tenderloin and sauce; bitten hot, the crust is crisp and the tenderloin silky, and it has become a traditional specialty found all over the city. In summer crayfish come into season, most popular with garlic and "shisanxiang" thirteen-spice flavors — a bright red plate served up with an iced drink is the very picture of a summer night. These foods make no show, but win by being real; the small shops in the streets often hide the most authentic tastes, and much of local daily life.

Come to Bengbu in autumn and you must taste Tuo Lake crabs. Steaming brings out their true flavor: lift the shell, the roe is full; dip in a little ginger and vinegar, and the freshness turns sweet on the finish. There are also traditional snacks such as fermented-rice glutinous rice balls and guotie pan-fried dumplings, half sweet and soft, half crisp and savory, at friendly prices. In Bengbu, from morning breakfast stalls to late-night snack streets, you can always find a bite to your taste. The food here bears the imprint of north and south meeting: the wheaten foods and salty savor of the Huaibei north, the rice dishes and fresh lightness of the Jianghuai — three meals a day can change their style without ever repeating.

If you come in autumn, do not miss Huaiyuan pomegranates. A national geographical indication protection product that also holds a national agricultural-product geographical indication — the local "double-geographical-indication" specialty — they are famed for thin skin, large grains, soft seeds and sweet juicy flavor, with white-flower jade-seed and red-flower jade-seed varieties each distinct. In 2024 Huaiyuan pomegranates, centered on Huaiyuan County and Yugui District, were planted over 48,000 mu, with a brand value of 3.692 billion yuan, and deep processing — pomegranate wine, pomegranate drinks and more — is gradually growing into an industry. The ancient pomegranate orchards around Mount Jing connect with the Baimu Spring, Bianhe Cave and other sights; climb in autumn, the leaves gold, and both the scenery and the fruit are good.

Bengbu lies in the transition between the northern subtropical humid monsoon climate and the southern temperate semi-humid monsoon climate, sharing the features of both zones: marked monsoons, four distinct seasons, a mild climate and moderate rain. According to standing data published by the municipal forestry department, the annual mean temperature is 15.1°C, multi-year mean precipitation about 910 millimeters, the annual frost-free period 217 days and annual sunshine 2,167.5 hours, with ample light. Spring, with its green willows and abundant flowers, and autumn, with its clear air, are the two pleasantest seasons; summer tends hot and rainy, winter cold and dry — four clearly bounded seasons that make the city's produce exceptionally rich.

As a city "pulled here by a train," Bengbu has always been easy to reach. The Jinpu Railway opened in 1911, and Bengbu leapt into being a north-south thoroughfare and a water-and-land hub. Today it is a national comprehensive transportation hub city: Bengbu Station is a first-class passenger station on the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, Bengbu South Station on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is one of the seven central hub stations on that line, the Beijing-Taipei and Nanjing-Luoyang expressways converge here, Bengbu Port is the largest port on the thousand-li Huai River, and the civil airport has been built and opened to traffic — rail, road, water and air together raise a three-dimensional network. For travelers, no matter where you start, reaching Bengbu is convenient; after landing, walk along the Huai and the lakeshores, and you will better understand whence the city's ease comes.

Bengbu suits two or three unhurried days. Give the first day to the urban area: in the morning stroll along Longzi Lake, look at the North-South Boundary Marker sculpture, then enter the Bengbu Museum to see Shuangdun pottery and Huai River relics; after lunch turn to Zhanggong Hill and climb the Wanghuai Tower for a view over the city; toward evening return to the lakeside or the Huai bank for an authentic shaobing with fried tenderloin. Spend the second day heading for Yugui District: in the morning climb Mount Tu, visit Yuwang Palace and the Shimu Stone, and feel the weight of the culture of Yu the Great; in the afternoon go to the Yuhuicun Site to see the archaeological site park; if it is autumn, taste the crabs of Tuo Lake on the way. If you have a third day, see the Gaixia Site in Guzhen County, or sit a quiet afternoon by Tuo Lake in Wuhe County.

Bengbu is not the kind of city that dazzles at first glance; its goodness hides in slow daily life. Cargo boats pass slowly on the Huai, anglers fish by the lake, the smell of shaobing drifts from old lanes, and symbols seven thousand years old lie in the museum's cases. Here history is not a specimen set on a shelf but breathes together with the present. Come to Bengbu without a schedule: walk Longzi Lake and Mount Tu, taste the street flavors, and slowly you will understand why this city on the Huai deserves to be remembered — and deserves your going and coming again, to savor at leisure.