Qiānnián qīngshíbǎn, yī jiē dào Tiānhòu Gōng; Bāguà Jǐng yī yǎn, huādēng yī jiē. — A thousand years of bluestone, one street to the Queen of Heaven; one Bagua well, one street of lanterns.
The Xijie Folk Culture Scenic Area (西街民俗文化景区, Xījiē Mínsú Wénhuà Jǐngqū) is a 4A-rated (February 2018), free-access heritage street at Zhonghe Street — the county seat’s millennium-old lane line, paved in bluestone (青石板路) and hung with the county’s landmarks: the Queen of Heaven Palace (天后宫), the Bagua Well (八卦井), the old city gate tower (城门楼), and the lantern-culture street (花灯风情街) that carries the county’s intangible-heritage identity. The Xiu-shan Museum (秀山博物馆) completes the quarter.
Xiushan’s intangible heritage is its lantern culture — the 秀山花灯 (Xiushan lantern) tradition, a national-level non-heritage item — and Xijie is its street: the lane line where the lantern shops, the performance spaces and the craft displays concentrate. The street’s other furniture is the usual Fujian-west guild-and-well pattern of an old commercial quarter: the Queen of Heaven Palace for the sea-trade guild’s goddess, the Bagua well for the neighbourhood’s water, the gate tower for the town’s edge.
The street is the county seat’s evening room — the lantern displays come into their own after dark, and the correct visit is late afternoon into the evening. The Bagua well and the gate tower are the two stops on the walk; the museum is the indoor half for a hot or wet afternoon. The free access means the street is a living quarter, and its mornings are the residents'.
flowcloud would say that the county’s heritage is a lantern and its street is where the lantern hangs — and that the Bagua well has been watering the same lanes for a thousand years.
Practicalities
- Rating: 4A (graded February 2018)
- Tickets: free
- Address: Zhonghe Street, the county seat
- Getting there: in-town; walkable from the seat’s centre (checked October 2026, subject to change)
- Time needed: 1.5–2 hours; evening for the lanterns
Words and Names
西街 Xījiē — the West Street, the old lane line · 天后宫 Tiānhòu Gōng — the Queen of Heaven Palace · 八卦井 Bāguà Jǐng — the Bagua Well · 城门楼 Chéngmén Lóu — the old city gate tower · 花灯 huādēng — the lantern, the county’s non-heritage craft · 秀山花灯 Xiùshān Huādēng — the Xiushan lantern tradition, the national-level non-heritage item