Ziquejie Terraces

　　The Ziquejie Terraces Scenic Area in Loudi City is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction, a national natural and cultural dual heritage site, a national water conservancy scenic area, and an important national agricultural heritage site.

　　The Ziquejie Terraces Scenic Area is located in the central part of the Fengjia Mountain Range of the Xuefeng Mountains, with an elevation of 1,236 meters and a highest peak at 1,585.2 meters. Centered around the Ziquejie Terraces, the area encompasses over 56,000 mu of terraced fields, including more than 20,000 mu of contiguous terraces, mainly distributed across the Xixi Administrative Region of Shuiche Town. These terraces span from 500 to 1,100 meters in elevation, totaling over 400 levels.

　　The Ziquejie Terraces date back to the Qin and Han dynasties, flourished during the Song and Ming dynasties, and have a history of over 2,000 years. They are the fruit of labor created by ancestors of multiple ethnic groups, including the Miao, Yao, Dong, and Han peoples, and represent a historical blend of southern rice farming culture with the mountain fishing and hunting cultures of the Miao and Yao peoples.

　　Historical Evolution

　　Human activity in the Ziquejie area of the Fengjia Mountain region can be traced back as early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

　　During the Han dynasties, the ruling class stipulated that the Miao and Yao peoples living here were “only required to perform corvée labor and exempt from land taxes.”

　　In the Tang and Song dynasties, the imperial court encouraged the reclamation of wasteland, issuing multiple edicts related to farmland development and actively promoting the cultivation of “high fields.”

　　In the fifth year of the Xining era of the Northern Song Dynasty (1072), after the establishment of Xinhua County, policies such as “providing oxen and loaning seeds to encourage reclamation, and planting mulberry and rice to pay taxes” prompted a large influx of Han settlers. Together with the local Yao people, they ushered in a new era of Ziquejie’s agricultural culture.

　　By the early Ming Dynasty, under the government’s active recruitment and reclamation incentives, the development of the Ziquejie Terraces entered another boom period. Alongside terrace development, many public facilities directly serving production were successively built. Just taking the teahouses on the Xixi side of Ziquejie as an example, there were over ten such structures, including Danru Pavilion, Jiqing Pavilion, Zerun Pavilion, and Yingxi Pavilion. Even at the summit of Fengche Alley, over 1,600 meters above sea level, a teahouse was constructed—testament to the prosperity of Ziquejie Terrace development at the time.

　　During the Qing Dynasty, Ziquejie belonged to Baoqing Prefecture. The purple rice of Ziquejie was designated as imperial tribute rice by Emperor Qianlong.

　　After the Xinhai Revolution, from the third to the tenth year of the Republic of China (1914–1921), Ziquejie was under the jurisdiction of the Xiangjiang Circuit. From the twenty-seventh to the thirty-eighth year of the Republic of China (1938–1949), it was part of the Sixth Administrative Inspectorate of Hunan Province.

　　On October 21, 1949, New… Ziquejie came under the Shaoyang Prefecture.

　　In October 1977, Ziquejie belonged to the Lianyuan Region.

　　In July 1999, Ziquejie was placed under Loudi City.

　　In June 2004, the Ziquejie Terraces Scenic Area was approved as a provincial key scenic spot.

　　In December 2005, the Ziquejie Terraces Scenic Area was designated as a national key scenic spot by the State Council.

　　In January 2006, the Ziquejie Terraces Scenic Area was listed among the first batch of national natural and cultural dual heritage sites.

　　In April 2007, the Ziquejie Terraces were awarded the titles of “New Eight Views of Xiaoxiang” and “Hunan’s Hundred Scenic Spots Loved by the People” in Hunan Province.

　　In 2012, the Ziquejie Terraces Scenic Area was approved as a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

　　On December 30, 2008, Ziquejie was approved as a “Provincial Water Conservancy Scenic Area.”

　　In May 2013, the Ziquejie Terraces became one of China’s Agricultural Heritage Systems.

　　On September 16, 2014, the Shuicheng Irrigation Project of the Xinhua Ziquejie Terraces was inscribed on the inaugural World Heritage Irrigation Structures list.