Red Mountain and Water Valley Scenic Area

Red Mountain and Water Valley Scenic Area

Red Mountain and Water Valley Scenic Area is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

Red Mountain and Water Valley Scenic Area is located in the northwest of Wuwei County, bordering the Yangtze River to the south and Chaohu Lake to the north, facing Wuhu and Tongling across the river. It is 100 kilometers from the provincial capital Hefei and just over ten kilometers from the Chaowu Road. Through the connection of the Ningwu Intercity Railway and the Beijing-Fuzhou High-Speed Railway, it has formed a comprehensive transportation network with cities such as Hefei, Nanjing, Ma'anshan, Tongling, Anqing, and Hangzhou, gradually developing into an emerging rural leisure resort and red tourism demonstration base within the Hefei metropolitan area and the Wanjiang City Belt.

The scenic area covers a total area of 28 square kilometers and boasts abundant tourism resources, encompassing the most representative attractions in the northwest of Wuwei. The area mainly consists of six parts: the New Fourth Army 7th Division Memorial Hall, Bai Tang Lake Resort, the former site of the New Fourth Army 7th Division Headquarters, the idyllic village of Jianbian, the ten-thousand-mu flower base, and Ying Shan Temple. With a diverse range of tourism resources and increasingly refined tourism products, it has initially developed functions such as sightseeing, leisure, and vacation. Product is the "form" of tourism, while culture is its "soul." In recent years, on the basis of fully tapping into red resources, the scenic area has integrated advantageous resources, merging green eco-cultural tourism, ancient religious cultural tourism, and red cultural tourism to form a tourism cultural concept of “Red as the soul, Green as the root, Water as the rhyme, and People as the core.” It is committed to creating a premium tourist destination and achieving sustainable development of regional tourism.

The newly built New Fourth Army 7th Division Memorial Hall has an investment of 17.5 million yuan, covering an area of approximately 26,400 square meters, and includes 8 exhibition halls and 1 special video hall. The museum uses multimedia audiovisual techniques, including sand tables, holographic projections, and documentaries, to authentically recreate the glorious history of the New Fourth Army 7th Division. Nearly a thousand artifacts used or captured by the 7th Division, such as weapons, maps, and daily necessities, are displayed.

Located in Jianbian Village within the scenic area, the former site of the New Fourth Army 7th Division Headquarters preserves seven thatched cottages with stone-brick and wood-earth structures, including desks and chairs once used by the division leaders. In front of the cottages are three crabapple trees grafted by Comrade Zeng Xisheng in 1941, which remain lush to this day.

The Wanjiang Revolutionary Cemetery, established in 1958, covers an area of 68 mu. At the center of the mountaintop stands a 15-meter-high martyrs' memorial tower. To the north of the tower lie the tombs of seven martyrs, including Li Zhi Gao, former Chief of Staff of the New Fourth Army 7th Division. The cemetery is well laid out with lush greenery all year round, presenting a serene, solemn, and dignified atmosphere.

Today, the New Fourth Army 7th Division Memorial Hall, the Wanjiang Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery, and the 7th Division Headquarters Site complement each other, becoming important carriers for inheriting the glorious traditions of the New Fourth Army and bases for patriotic education.

On the foundation of building a red tourism brand, the scenic area innovates its red tourism development model by integrating red tourism with green vacations, eco-leisure, rural tourism, religious tourism, and folk experiences. After visiting the former site of the New Fourth Army 7th Division Headquarters and the New Fourth Army 7th Division Memorial Hall, visitors can take a rest in Jianbian Village, admire the red-brick and blue-tiled architecture, listen to the murmuring streams, and savor local delicacies.

The scenic area features a flower and plant viewing and leisure zone of over 15,000 mu, primarily showcasing rare floral varieties. Rare flowers such as crabapple, purple magnolia, and white magnolia bloom competitively across the mountains, offering breathtaking views and poetic charm. The thousand-mu peony garden and peach blossom garden are ideal choices for weekend leisure among tourists from nearby cities. Bai Tang Lake, with a water surface area of 50,000 square meters, is surrounded by mountains on three sides. The lake water is clear and of good quality, complementing the surrounding landscape with picturesque scenery. The area is free from pollution and noise, featuring an excellent ecological environment and making it an ideal destination for leisure and vacation.

The secluded and tranquil Ying Shan Temple was first built during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty and is a key cultural heritage site in Anhui Province. The temple has three courtyards facing south and features the Mahavira Hall, Thousand-Hand Guanyin, Hall of Five Hundred Arhats, and numerous meditation rooms, forming a sizable temple complex. During the annual temple fairs on the 19th day of the second lunar month and the 9th day of the ninth lunar month, large numbers of pilgrims flock to the temple from across the country, making it a bustling site of incense burning and tourism.

Since its opening to the public, the scenic area has continuously intensified its promotional and marketing efforts from multiple perspectives. Its reputation has been steadily rising. During the peak tourist season each year, the area attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors, with inbound and short-haul international tourists accounting for about 0.6% of the total. Currently, the scenic area is working to further explore its cultural essence and seek new paths for development under the new normal, aiming to highlight the unique advantages of Red Mountain and Water Valley tourism. Building on existing tourism resources, it is developing distinctive experience projects and, through the construction of branded, featured tourism offerings, leveraging its superior transportation location to actively integrate into the Southern Anhui International Cultural Tourism Demonstration Zone. The goal is to make it a renowned red tourism destination in the Yangtze River Delta, an important green vacation base in the Hefei metropolitan area and Wanjiang City Belt, and a key rural tourism node in the Chaohu Lake Tourism Circle.