Zhejiang Taishun Introduction

In Chinese, Taishun (泰顺) means "peaceful country with people feel security and the citizens to be loyal to the state". The name was obtained in 1452. It was also the year that Taishun County established. At the time the Ming Dynasty dispatched forces to crackdown a peasants' uprising on the border between Zhejiang and Fujian. After this successful action, the government collectively administrated the villages in the area and become the Taishun County. This rural county is at the southernmost of Wenzhou in southern Zhejiang Province, Fujian Province is just across the border. It is also known as "The State's Ecological Model Area", "China's Corridor Bridge Village" and "Home of Chinese Tea".

Taishun's Wuyanling Mountain National Nature Reserve Zone (乌岩岭国家级自然保护区) has been honored as "The Vault of Origins of Species" and "Green Ecological Museum". And Chengtian Provincial Radon Spring Nature Reserve Zone (承天氡泉省级自然保护区) as "Treasure Land of Heavenly Water" and "The First Radon Spring on Earth". The county has about 30 ancient wooden corridor bridges from Tang, Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties, to which are good designed and well-preserved. They make Taishun is a paradise of bridges.

In recent years, Taishun's local government has made use the good natural scenery as tourism resources, set up a strategy of "developing environmental friendly industry and building a big ecological county", which is the aim that will promote economic and agricultural development with strong environmental awareness. In tourism, plans for new eco-tour have been made, for which tourists can travel to the radon spring, the mountain routes that were trekked by Chinese Red Army (People's Liberation Army) and Wuyanling Mountain Animal Mystery.

By upgrading the county's rural economy, political administration, and systematic urbanization, to build a modern town and develop industrial zones. The "five-two-one" traffic project means just five hours of travel time to Hangzhou, to downtown Wenzhou takes two hours and only one hour to various small towns and villages in neighboring areas.

This county takes up an area of 1761.5 square kilometers, it makes up of 36 villages, 2 of which are ethnic minorities. The total population is about 350,000. The geographical feature of the county is mountainous. There are 179 peaks stand here of height over 1,000 meters above sea level. The average altitude of the area is about 490 meters. Forest covers about 75 per cent of the total land area and over a hundred streams are flowing here, to which 400,000 kilowatts of water power can be produced. The weather is a little bit cooler than urban Wenzhou. The annual average temperature is about 16 degrees Celsius with abundant rainfall.

Taishun style puppet show is said to have its origin in the late Song Dynasty about 700 years ago. At that time, local culture was at its peak in the county. Meanwhile the war between Han Chinese Southern Song Dynasty and Mongol Yuan had badly affected Hangzhou, the then capital of China, so many litterateurs and artists went southwards to Taishun as refugees, and some brought their puppet art here.

Taishun's "Hundred-family Banquet" (百家宴) began in the Song Dynasty too. This banquet has also been historically known as "Blessing Making" (做福) and became very popular during Ming and Qing Dynasties. Locals regarded this as a great event for family gathering, discussing family affairs, ask for blessing from heaven and pray for long term peace. In 2007, Hundred-family Banquet was list in UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage, honored it as "traditional festival protection base".