Longyou Tianchi Lotus Scenic Area

　　The national 3A-level tourist attraction — Tianchi Lotus Scenic Area is situated in Hengshan Town, Longyou County. It is the core area of the northern rural leisure tourism route in Longyou and the premium section of Longyou’s ten-thousand-mu lotus fields. The scenic area encompasses several villages including Tianchi, Zhitang, Yaotangbian, and Taxiaye, covering a total area of 26 square kilometers. With 3,000 contiguous acres of lotus ponds, every summer the lotus flowers bloom gracefully, presenting a spectacular view of “ten miles of lotuses in striking red.” This attracts visitors to Tianchi to enjoy this vibrant scenery and experience the enchanting rural landscape.

　　Longyou County is one of China’s six major selenium-rich bases and also the largest selenium-rich region in Zhejiang Province. “A selenium wellness destination with ten miles of fragrant lotuses,” Tianchi Lotus Scenic Area is not only a paradise of lotuses but also a treasure trove of selenium-rich land. The selenium-rich soil area, centered around villages such as Tianchi and Zhitang, spans 33.46 square kilometers and is abundant in specialty agricultural products rich in selenium, such as rice, white lotus seeds, and purple sweet potatoes.

　　In addition to its unique lotus pond scenery, Tianchi Lotus Scenic Area also boasts profound cultural heritage. The scenic area contains over 30 well-preserved ancient buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties, resembling an open-air rural museum. Among them, two ancient structures — the national key cultural relics protection units Sanhuai Hall and Guanxi Family House — are particularly precious: “Sanhuai Hall,” approximately 400 years old, covers a construction area of 842 square meters; “Guanxi Family House,” built during the Ming Dynasty, is said to have been the residence of descendants of the Yang family generals from the Song Dynasty. It features exquisite brick carvings, complete inscribed tablets and plaques, accurate dating, and holds extremely high artistic value. There are also provincial intangible cultural heritage items such as Straw Dragon and Longyou Wu Opera, as well as municipal and county-level intangible cultural heritage listings including Imperial Carriage Procession and Eighteen Storytellers, along with numerous traditional crafts, cuisines, and folk songs. The village where the scenic area is located, Tianchi Village, has also been named among the second batch of Folk Culture Tourism Villages in Zhejiang Province and is the first such village in Quzhou City. In recent years, CCTV’s program “Rural Rendezvous” and Zhejiang Satellite TV’s “Mobile Grand Stage: Selenium-Rich Lotus Festival” have all been filmed at Tianchi Lotus Scenic Area.

　　Source: Quzhou Municipal Tourism Bureau