Swans on a lake facing the nine-story Wenchang Pagoda in the Tianye countryside park in Jiayu county, Hubei province. CHINA DAILY
Visitors who travel to Jiayu county, Xianning city, in Central China's Hubei province for the first time are often impressed with its culinary offerings, especially the fish and lotus roots.
Almost every restaurant offers dishes featuring these ingredients.
Xiao Wo, a poet from Beijing, once remarked on how amazing it is that some restaurants can make an entire table of dishes with either ingredient.
Located in the south of Hubei, renowned as a province of a thousand lakes, Jiayu covers an area of 1,017 square kilometers, and about one-third of that is covered in water.
It has 21 lakes, is home to 15 types of fish and yields 60,000 tons of lotus roots a year.
Jiayu, which literally means "good fish" in Chinese, is one of two counties named after the aquatic creatures. The other is Yutai in Shandong province.
Jiayu got its name from the following lines of the poem The South Produces Good Fish from The Book of Songs, the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, dating back to between the 11th and 6th century BC:
"The south produces good fish, and the fish swim and wag their tails.
There is fine wine at the gentlemen's banquet, and guests feast and drink merrily."
Aside from its pescatarian-friendly cuisine, Jiayu is also famous for its lotus roots, wudu (a clay instrument) and culture of the Three Kingdoms (220-280) period.
With the title of the National Garden City conferred by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China, Jiayu's appeal to visitors is strongest in spring, when sprouts emerge from willow branches by the lakes.
An aerial view of Niutoushan Forest Park in Jiayu county. CHINA DAILY
Visitors row boats and feast on the freshly harvested delicacies provided by the lakes, says Li Yuangen, president of the Jiayu County Catering Society.
Being a chef for nearly four decades, Li, 57, owns Base, one of Jiayu's best-known restaurants, which is one of those aforementioned eateries that can offer a table of dishes made of either fish or lotus roots.
The fish dishes include steamed, fried and braised fish, fish cakes and fish balls and soup. The lotus root dishes include cold slices with plum, fried slices, steamed lotus root balls wrapped with rice, deep-fried sandwiches and steamed roots, as well as other tempting delights.
Lotus roots from the area are so famous that the hit food documentary A Bite of China shot by China Central Television included them in its first ever episode, says Jiang Kaiqun, deputy chief of the publicity department of the Jiayu County Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Jiang accompanied the CCTV crew in Jiayu for a week during filming for that first episode, which was originally broadcast in 2012.
Thanks to the popularity of the documentary, foodies flock to Jiayu to taste dishes made with famous lotus roots, Li says.
Visitors take a boat trip in the Zhenhu National Wetland Park in Jiayu county, Hubei province. CHINA DAILY
The instrument
In 1995, CCTV's Oriental Horizon program introduced wudu, China's only clay musical instrument that is capable of resonance. Bi Yinsheng says the sounds of the instrument was among the first music appreciated by humans.
The fish-shaped instrument was created by shepherds in Jiayu during the Three Kingdoms period, when the county, on the south bank of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, was under the rule of the Wu Kingdom, before, as the Jiayu County Chronicles says, spreading to the river's middle and lower reaches.
The instrument is hollow, with 10 holes in its belly and back. The performing technique is similar to that of a flute. When the music is soft, it can make people calm. And when it is loud or sonorous, it can energize the listener.
Bi, 74, a pensioner with the Jiayu county cultural center, was born into a financially restricted family and lost the sight in one eye as a child as the result of an illness. However, he had a gift for music and can play various instruments.
In 1994, he played the wudu in Thailand and South Korea with the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe, led by Deng Pufang, then chairman of the China Disabled Persons' Federation.
The county has three training centers that teach people how to play wudu. Visitors can watch performances there, according to the Jiayu county's publicity department.
The Three Kingdoms
The Three Kingdoms period, which was an era of heroes and legends, has been romanticized in the Chinese culture, and popularized in operas, folk stories, novels, films and video games.
At the chaotic end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), warlords were seeking greater influence for their respective fiefs.
In 208, Cao Cao, a warlord and father of the founder of the Wei Kingdom, was preparing to conquer the fertile land of the southern reaches of the Yangtze River.
Liu Bei, founder of the Shu Kingdom, and Sun Quan, founder of the Wu Kingdom, formed an alliance against Cao, defeating him by burning his boats at the battle of Red Cliff, believed by some to have taken place at Jiayu. The battle laid the foundation of the Three Kingdoms, namely Wei, Shu, and Wu.
The county is home to numerous relics from the Three Kingdoms and place names related to figures of that period.
Wild lotus roots soup from Base, one of Jiayu's best-known eateries, which can offer a whole table of dishes made with lotus roots. CHINA DAILY
Near the county seat is the so-called Arrow Collection Place which is a hill on the Yangtze River embankment. The hill is believed to be where arrows shot into scarecrows were collected and piled.
The Wu army commander Zhou Yu was said to be jealous of the abilities of Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei's top aide. Zhou challenged him with a seemingly impossible task before the battle of Red Cliff of making 100,000 arrows in 10 days.
Zhuge, who was said to excel in astronomy and forecasting weather, replied: "Give me three days." He signed a pledge placing him liable for punishment should he fail to complete the mission.
Zhuge borrowed 20 boats, each lined with more than 1,000 scarecrows and manned by 30 soldiers.
In the small hours of the third day, a thick mist spread over the surface of the river and people could hardly see each other.
The 20 boats sailed toward Cao's camp. When the fleet got close to it, Zhuge ordered his soldiers to shout and beat drums to fake an attack.
Cao's camp mistook it for a surprise attack by the enemy. Since they could not see anyone on the river, they gathered more than 10,000 bowmen to shoot arrows at the source of the shouting and drum beats.
The scarecrows were quickly shot full of arrows. Zhuge had his fleet turned around to expose the back of the scarecrows.
When the mist dispersed, Zhuge ordered the boats to return, each with 5,000 to 6,000 arrows protruding from the scarecrows.
Upon learning the story, Zhou was said to have let out a deep sigh, resignedly commenting: "His clever calculations are beyond my reach."
Visitors pick grapes in the Nanjia Vineyard, a famous fruit-picking base in Jiayu. CHINA DAILY
The park
About a 30-minute drive from the hill is the Tianye countryside park in Jiayu's Guanqiao town which is a National AAAA-level tourist attraction.
The park attracts numerous visitors who like walking along the South and North Lakes in the hilly park — which only has a few tall buildings and a wide panoramas — breathing fresh air and being immersed in tranquillity away from the hustle and bustle of city life.
Many go up to the Wenchang Pagoda, which is nine stories tall and stands at a height of 59 meters.
The pagoda, built in traditional fashion, is a landmark of the park. It only takes a few minutes to reach the top, thanks to an elevator inside.
Looking down from the top of the pagoda, visitors from cities are usually overwhelmed by the green bamboo trees all around, and hills and lakes in the distance.
The structure is named after a deity whose name literally means "cultural prosperity," and is a legendary figure who helps students learn.
A farm in the park that grows organic vegetables and fruits is very popular among urbanites, as they can pay to pick their own produce to take home with them.
Organic lettuce growing at the Happy Farm in the Tianye countryside park in Jiayu. CHINA DAILY
As an agricultural county, Jiayu boasts fertile land, giving rise to many fruit plantations.
"Both my nephew, who is a university student, and niece, who is a senior high school student, like picking herbs on my land," says Zhi Yun, a middle-aged owner of the 7.3-hectare Nanjia Vineyard, which is three kilometers away from the county seat and specializes in grapes, yellow peaches, sweet persimmons, cherries, figs, mulberries, loquats and crape myrtle flowers.
"They both say the potherbs remind them of the taste of spring and that picking them helps them let off steam after school," he says.
Long Yu contributed to this story.