Shangjiu Mountain Scenic Area

Shangjiu Mountain Scenic Area

Shangjiu Mountain Scenic Area is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

Shangjiu Village is located in the southwest of Shiqiang Town, Zoucheng City, Shandong Province. It was first built in the early Northern Song Dynasty. The village is surrounded by nine large and small hills, and the entire settlement is distributed to the northwest of these hills. In Fuxi culture, the northwest is considered an exalted direction, hence the name "Shangjiu" (Upper Nine) Mountain.

Ancient Shangjiu Village

Ancient Shangjiu Village

Shangjiu Village is a national-level traditional village, a demonstration site for leisure agriculture and rural tourism in China, one of China’s most beautiful pristine ancient villages, a model village for rural tourism in China, a national AAA-level scenic area, a historical and cultural village in Shandong Province, and a pilot site for the Rural Memory Project in Shandong Province.

Ancient Shangjiu Village

Ancient Shangjiu Village

Located in Zoucheng, the hometown of Mencius, Ancient Shangjiu Village is deeply influenced by Confucian and Mencian culture and is regarded as a folk village directly shaped by Confucian-Mencian thought. At the same time, the village lies within the influence zone of Guoli, the hometown of Fuxi, and is also deeply impacted by Fuxi culture. Additionally, the ancient village is the place where Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai became sworn siblings and where the Qin Emperor’s ancient road is located, giving the Liang-Zhu culture and Qin Emperor culture certain influence here as well.

Ancient Shangjiu Village

Ancient Shangjiu Village

The village still retains three complete stone-paved streets from the Ming and Qing dynasties, over 300 stone-walled courtyards, more than 1,200 stone houses, and a total construction area of over 30,000 square meters. Notable sites include the Temple of the Dark Emperor, the Yi Well, the Xiao Family Courtyard, the Old Schoolhouse, the remnants of the Old Fortress Wall, and the Zheng Family Cemetery. The village also houses over 2,000 traditional daily-life and production tools and folk implements, including stone mills, stone rollers, stone mortars, stone benches, stone troughs, oxcarts, flatbed carts, sickles, plows, and winnowing baskets. Traditional crafts such as Liuqin opera, waist drum performances, dragon dancing, and the making of owl-foot shoes are still practiced today.

The village is situated “against the mountain, surrounded by water, and facing a scenic backdrop.” Surrounded by rolling hills, it offers a poetic landscape. With a wealth of traditional architecture and daily-life artifacts, the area boasts distinctive local cultural features and well-preserved environmental scenery.

The village’s Confucian academy, the grand residence where the six brothers of the Zheng family lived harmoniously, the residence of the Confucian official Scholar Xiao, the Taoist temple complex of the Temple of the Dark Emperor, as well as intangible cultural heritage elements such as paper-cutting, embroidery, Liuqin opera, willow weaving, and the legends and wedding customs of Shangjiu Mountain all reflect the village's ancient virtues of honoring Confucianism and upholding moral integrity, as well as its simple and honest folk customs.

Shangjiu Village enjoys a beautiful environment and represents a typical residential setting of mountain villages in southwestern Shandong. The stone houses of Shangjiu Village are a unique form of vernacular architecture created by the ancestors of the mountainous regions in southwestern Shandong and are a rare historical and cultural heritage. The layout of the buildings is free and unrestrained, reflecting the simple aesthetic values of folk life and holding high folk-cultural value. In addition, the wood carvings and stone engravings found throughout the buildings are diverse in technique, exquisitely crafted, and lifelike, with these vibrant images also holding considerable artistic value.

Shiqiang Town: Shiqiang Town is located 12 kilometers southwest of Zoucheng City, known as the hometown of Confucius and Mencius and a national emerging energy industrial city in Shandong Province. It is about 8 kilometers east of the Beijing-Fuzhou Expressway, Beijing-Shanghai Railway, and National Highway 104; 8 kilometers west of the Baima River and 25 kilometers west of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal; 10 kilometers north of the Lanji Highway; 12 kilometers south of the Jiwei Highway. Provincial Highway Jizao runs through the entire town. It is 160 kilometers from Jinan Yaoqiang Airport, 40 kilometers from Jining Airport, and 3 kilometers from the Zouxian Power Plant, Asia’s largest pithead thermal power plant with an annual generating capacity of 4.4 million kilowatts. The town covers a total land area of 1... More detailed information on Shiqiang Town++