Biānchéng yī jiǎo, yī jiǎo tà sānshěng; Lālā Dù kǒu, bǎinián yī dù. — One corner of the border town, one foot touching three provinces; the Lala ferry’s mouth, a hundred years of crossing.
Hong’an Border Town (洪安边城, Hóng’ān Biānchéng) is a 4A-rated (December 2021), free-access town at the junction of Chongqing, Hunan and Guizhou (渝湘黔三省交界) — the prototype of Shen Congwen’s Border Town (《边城》), the novel that fixed this kind of river crossing in Chinese literature. The town’s products are its geography: the “one foot in three provinces” spot (一脚踏三省), the Three-No-Matter Island (三不管岛) in the river, the century-old Lala ferry (拉拉渡) at 2 yuan a person, and the old headquarters of the Liu-Deng army (刘邓大军司令部旧址). The evening show “Sleepless Border Town” (《不夜边城》) is ticketed separately at 78 yuan.
The town’s fame is Shen Congwen’s doing: his Border Town took the West Hunan river-crossing world — ferries, barracks, the young girl Cui Cui waiting — and made it the pastoral of modern Chinese fiction. Hong’an keeps the physical type the novel was drawn from: the river, the ferry, the stone pier, the street on the bank. The “three provinces” geography gives it the other half — a place that was administratively nobody’s for long stretches, hence the island named for it, and a frontier looseness that the novel’s world runs on.
The Lala ferry is the visit’s core — a rope-guided crossing that has run for a century at a token fare, and the correct way to arrive at the town is by it. The three-provinces spot is a photograph and a piece of pavement; the island is the river’s own. The evening show is the town’s modern layer, and the town at dusk, with the far bank’s lights, is what the homestays sell.
flowcloud would say that the county’s most literary address is a 2-yuan ferry — and that the novel made the crossing famous and the crossing kept the novel honest.
Practicalities
- Rating: 4A (graded December 2021)
- Tickets: free access; the “Sleepless Border Town” show 78 yuan, ticketed separately
- Ferry: the Lala ferry, 2 yuan per person
- Address: the Chongqing-Hunan-Guizhou junction, Hong’an
- Getting there: the county-seat road south to the border; allow the transfer ⚠️ (checked October 2026, subject to change)
- Time needed: a half-day; the evening show makes it a full one
Words and Names
洪安边城 Hóng’ān Biānchéng — Hong’an Border Town · 一脚踏三省 yī jiǎo tà sān shěng — “one foot in three provinces”, the junction spot · 拉拉渡 Lālā Dù — the Lala ferry, the century-old rope crossing · 三不管岛 Sānbùguǎn Dǎo — the Three-No-Matter Island · 沈从文 Shěn Cóngwén — Shen Congwen, whose Border Town drew on this world · 刘邓大军 Liú-Dèng Dàjūn — the Liu-Deng army, whose old headquarters the town keeps