Xinghua Duotian (Raised Fields)

Xinghua Duotian

Xinghua Duotian is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Distributed across various towns in Xinghua City, including Duotian, Linhu, Chengdong, and Zhuhong. The core conservation area is located in the southeastern part of Duotian Town, around Luzhou, Zhengbei, Gaojiadang, and Yangjiadang, covering a total area of over 5,000 mu.

Xinghua is situated in the central part of the Li-Lower River region in central Jiangsu, characterized by low-lying terrain and continuous lakes and marshes, historically formed from the siltation of a lagoon. Today, the Gengjiadui site within Duotian Town and the nearby Nandang site indicate that as early as the Neolithic Age and the pre-Qin period, planting activities and the rudiments of duotian had already emerged. To cultivate the land and combat flooding, the ancestors built up mounds and fields by piling up natural soil on lakes and marshes, creating “duos” (island-like fields), also known as “an,” “feng,” or “dao.”

After the construction of the Changfeng Weir in the second year of the Tang Dynasty’s Dali era (767), with increased labor and the development of agriculture, duotian fields became widespread. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, wooden piles and frames were driven into marshes, filled with mud, water plants, and covered with soil to form raised fields (known as fengtian). After the Ming Dynasty, these fields gradually became more fixed and elevated. Alongside the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, scenes such as “ducks quacking among fengtian, and geese calling over reed-covered waters” emerged, giving rise to phrases like “fragrant fengtian” and “poetic reed islets,” from which the terms “fragrant fields” and “poetic islets” later derived.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, with improved flood control and drought resistance capabilities in the Li-Lower River region, by around 1980, many duotian fields in the area were either leveled and turned into contiguous farmland or excavated for brick-making. Some duotian fields were also newly formed, but at significantly reduced heights. The large expanse of duotian fields within the core conservation area has largely retained its original ecological state, forming a unique cultural landscape that is now very rare in China, possessing high historical, cultural, scientific research, and development value. Mr. Mu Qing, former president of Xinhua News Agency, once remarked: “(Xinghua’s) duotian will be a tourist destination of the 21st century.”

In 2009, it was designated as a cultural relics protection unit by the Xinghua Municipal People’s Government; in 2011, it was listed as a cultural relics protection unit by the provincial government; in 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture designated the Traditional Agricultural System of Xinghua Duotian in Jiangsu as an Important Agricultural Heritage Site in China; in 2014, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations listed Xinghua Duotian as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System. On October 7, 2019, Xinghua Duotian was included in the eighth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Eighth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units