Qingzhou Ancient City

National Historic And Cultural City; Free Entry Ming And Qing Old Town With A Living Hui Quarter, And The Museum Holding The Only Surviving Ming Palace Examination Paper · Qingzhou, Shandong

Qingzhou was one of the nine provinces of the earliest Chinese geography and was a prefectural capital for most of two thousand years, and unlike the famous old towns of the south it has never been ticketed at the gate - you simply walk in, past people going to work, and the streets are free. Zhaode Street runs through the old Hui Muslim quarter, where families have lived since the Yuan dynasty and the mosque is still in use; Ouyang Xiu and Fan Zhongyan both governed here and are remembered at the Fan Gong Pavilion. The museum inside the old city is small, free and holds two things of national importance: the only surviving original palace examination paper from the Ming dynasty, written by the top scorer Zhao Bingzhong in 1598 in a hand that does not waver, and the Longxing Temple hoard, some four hundred Buddhist statues from the sixth century found by accident in 1996 with their paint and gilding still on them.

Zhaode Street and Ouyuan area, Qingzhou, Weifang, Qingzhou, Shandong, China

The old city streets are OPEN AT ALL HOURS AND FREE - there is no gate and no ticket, which is unusual for a Chinese old town. Shops and food stalls run roughly 8:00-21:00, with the Hui quarter on Zhaode Street liveliest from late afternoon. QINGZHOU MUSEUM, inside the old city and also free, keeps its own hours of roughly 9:00-16:30 and is USUALLY CLOSED MONDAYS, with ID required at the door - bring a passport. Yunmen Mountain outside the town is ticketed separately.

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