Lushan Root Carvings

Lushan Root Carvings

　　The main tourist shopping destination is the Root Carving Street: Lushan County’s Root Carving Street is located at the entrance from Ya'an to Lushan, stretching nearly one kilometer from the State Taxation Bureau in Modong Town to the former Modong Toll Station. With convenient transportation and high foot traffic, it serves as an ideal spot for investment and entrepreneurship. After years of operation, it has gradually taken shape, now hosting nearly forty root carving manufacturers with a total investment of over 10 million yuan and annual sales of around 8 million yuan. Designed with personalized, thematic, and humanistic concepts, the Root Carving Street of Lushan—successfully themed around "Han Soul" and "Shu Roots"—has added a new highlight to tourism in both Lushan and the wider Ya'an region. The term "Han Soul" is a concise encapsulation of Lushan’s essence: from Han Dynasty que towers, steles, stone beasts, and stone coffins to a wealth of unearthed relics, Lushan has earned recognition as a Sichuan Provincial Historical and Cultural City, famed as the “Hometown of Han Culture.” Thus, the “Han Soul” theme is a key element in shaping the “Root Street,” infusing the root carvings with profound cultural meaning.

　　The term “Shu Roots” carries a dual meaning: it refers both to the roots of Shu culture and to the ancient tree roots of the Shu Mountains. The root carving works are crafted from the stumps left behind after trees have been felled. Many of these roots are over a thousand years old, some even three or four thousand years old. The history of these roots can be traced back to the ancient Shu Kingdom. As the phrase goes, “When Epang Palace was built, the Shu Mountains were stripped bare,” highlighting the fact that during the Qin Shi Huang era, vast numbers of trees were felled in the Shu Mountains to construct the Epang Palace. The deeply buried roots of the Shu Mountains have weathered the passage of time, becoming silent witnesses to Sichuan’s history. The concept of “Shu Roots” seeks to elevate ordinary root carvings into special artisan pieces that bear witness to Sichuan’s history through the excavation of historical narratives.

　　The entire street features architecture modeled after the Han Dynasty. In front of shops are red-painted wooden lattice-style antique corridors, providing convenience for tourists to stroll and rest. The walls lining the street are topped with gray tube tiles reminiscent of those from the Han Dynasty, while the milky-white walls are interspersed at intervals with small pieces of sandstone, each engraved with the repeated characters “Han Soul” and “Shu Roots” to remind visitors they are entering the Root Carving Street. The cultural relic sites within the street—the enclosing wall of the Wanghui Stone Coffin and the restored corridors—are designed in perfect harmony with the overall style and architecture of the street.