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The ancient Xiangyang city on the south bank of Han River is the place where Xiangyang municipal party committee and municipal government organ locate. It is surrounded by water on three sides and by mountains on the fourth side. Therefore, it is not only the regional political, economic and cultural center for the past centuries but also an important military town famous to the world in the ancient and modern times. It is praised as “Iron Xiangyang” because of the extremely strong city wall and deep moat which is quite difficult for enemies to attack. During around 3000 years from the Zhou Dynasty to the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xiangyang has played an important role of battlefield of the war with smoke diffusing over its head continuously, so there left many military sites for us to learn about the history of it.
The ancient moat around Xiangyang city is the most attractive view of this ancient city and well-known as “the First Moat of Huaxia”. It’s at least 180 meters wide and up to more than 250 meters wide. Besides, it is the widest moat preserved as it was in China. Boating or paddling around the high city wall on Han River, you will see that white water is flowing away into the distance and shaded by weeping willows, luxuriantly green shrubs everywhere as if you were placed in the painting.
Xiangyang is in northern part of Hubei Province and close to the central plain regions, so the diet style of its specialty is affected by flavor from the north. People of Ba, Shu, Jing, and Chu area are naturally crazy about chilli for almost all dishes. But different from the fiercely spicy Sichuan Food, extremely hot Hunan Food, Chu Food prefers to the flavor of freshly spicy. Xiangyang food has the characteristics of Chu food but also has its own cooking technique which gives priority to the techniques of steaming, stewing, frying and pouring boiling oil on the dish.
There are three main specialties in Xiangyang that you shouldn’t miss. Firstly, Xiangyang pickled turnip, which is one of the most famous four kinds of pickles in China. According to the records in “Logs of Chinese Customs”, it is named after the sagacious Zhuge Liang with laudatory names of “Zhuge Tsai” or “Kongming Tsai”, because it is he who created this way of eating during his seclusion in Longzhong. It contains rich amino acids, vitamins, fiber, iron, zinc, calcium, phosphorus and other trace elements required in the human body.
Secondly is Xiangyang noodles with beef tallow that has three characteristics, namely hot spicy and fresh. It tastes delicious which you will never be tired of it and often offered with local yellow rice wine, a milky leavening of rice. King Kong shortbread is the third one mainly made from flour, sugar, sesame oil and a small amount of alkali. After fermentation, the mixture will be kneaded into horseshoe-shaped cakes, and then be put into the special big oven for four hours. Finally, it will become blond, crisp and non-stick which make it edible for the olds. So what are you still waiting for?