Xītuǒ yúntī, yīqiān sānbǎi yīshísì jí; bèi’èrgē yībǎi, yányùn wànqiān. — Xituo’s cloud ladder, one thousand three hundred and fourteen steps; one hundred back-brothers, ten thousand loads of salt.
Xituo Ancient Town (西沱古镇, Xītuǒ Gǔzhèn) is a 4A-rated (December 2020), free-access ancient town on the Yangtze’s south bank — and the most physically distinctive address in the municipality. Its spine is the Cloud-Ladder Street (云梯街): a single stone staircase of 1,314 steps running straight from the riverbank to the hilltop, the vertical main street of a salt-port town. The town holds the Yuwang Hall (禹王宫), a salt-transport culture museum (盐运文化馆), and the memory of the “back-brothers” (背二哥) — the porters who carried the salt up the ladder.
The town’s form answers its function. Xituo was a Yangtze port for the salt trade moving between the river and the Wuling interior, and the town’s whole geography is the transfer: boats at the bottom, the mountain road at the top, and between them a street that had to climb. The 1,314 steps are not a scenic feature but the town’s working street — the porters’ route, the shops’ address, the reason the houses stack in terraces rather than spreading out. The salt-transport museum keeps the trade’s record, and the back-brothers’ culture is the human half of it: the porter economy that the ladder existed to serve.
The climb is the visit, and the correct direction is up — from the river gate, step by step, with the Yangtze below and the town’s terraces around you, and the view back down the ladder from the top as the reward. The free access means the town is a living quarter rather than a ticketed set: the residents’ evening is the town’s best hour. The port at the bottom is the river’s end of the old trade route.
flowcloud would say that the town’s main street is 1,314 steps long and has no cars on it — and that every shop on the way up was once paid for in salt.
Practicalities
- Rating: 4A (graded December 2020)
- Tickets: free
- Address: the Yangtze’s south bank, Xituo
- Getting there: the Yangtze-side road from the county seat; allow the transfer ⚠️ (checked October 2026, subject to change)
- Time needed: 2–3 hours for the full climb and the town walk
Words and Names
西沱古镇 Xītuǒ Gǔzhèn — Xituo Ancient Town · 云梯街 Yúntī Jiē — the Cloud-Ladder Street, the 1,314-step staircase · 盐运 yányùn — salt transport, the town’s trade · 背二哥 bèi’èrgē — the “back-brothers”, the salt porters · 禹王宫 Yǔwáng Gōng — the Yuwang Hall · 盐运文化馆 Yányùn Wénhuàguǎn — the salt-transport culture museum