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A historic village with more than 600 years of history. Tuanshan preserves traditional residences, village gates, temples and ancestral halls from the late Qing and early Republican periods. The village combines traditional Han Chinese courtyard houses with Yi-style earthen houses and is a nationally recognized traditional village and 4A-rated tourist attraction.
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建水紫陶博物馆
Learn about Jianshui’s traditional purple pottery and try hands-on pottery-making activities. The museum includes exhibition halls, a non-material cultural heritage display, a VR experience area and spaces for pottery-making experiences. Free guided tours are usually offered at 10:00 and 15:00.
双龙桥 Shuanglong qiao
The 17-span bridge, now standing in the middle of a pond, as most of the waters in the Lin'an River has been diverted elsewhere. The tourist train makes a short stop nearby.
永贞门
The northern gate of the former walled city of Lin'an. It formed part of the four-gate layout established when Jianshui's city walls were rebuilt in brick during the Ming dynasty. The original gate tower no longer survives, but the site remains a recognizable landmark.
清远门
The western gate of the former walled city of Lin'an. Together with the eastern Chaoyang Gate, southern Fu'an Gate and northern Yongzhen Gate, it formed part of the traditional four-gate layout of the old city.
文庙 Wen Miao
Billed as "the largest Confucian temple in Southern China", Jianshui's temple was founded in 1285, during the Yuan Dynasty, although the existing buildings date mostly to the late 18th century (and probably have been heavily restored in the late 20th). Unlike its better known namesakes in Qufu or Hanoi, Jianshui's temple includes a large lake, known as Xuehai ("The Sea of Learning"). A pavilion on the island is called Si Le Ting 思乐亭, i.e. the "Joy of Learning Pavilion"; it's also known under the alternative name, "Diao Ao Ting" 钓鳌亭, i.e. "The pavilion for catching Ao"; catching Ao, a legendary giant sea turtle, is a metaphor for scoring best at the traditional civil service examination in the Imperial China. Similar to the Confucian temples elsewhere, Jianshui's temple has a large assortment of ornate gates and halls for honoring Confucius, his ancestors and disciples, and assorted local worthies, in a parklike setting, among cypress trees. If you've been to Qufu or Hanoi, you'll notice one difference, though: in Qufu or Hanoi, most important stone tablets are mounted on top of stone tortoises (bixi), while in Jianshui, there is not a tortoise in sight; on the other hand, elephant motif is prominent in decorating the temple in Jianshui. It's up to you to decide if the temple and its lake are worth the fairly steep entry fee.
学政考棚 Xuezheng kaopeng
Long before Americans started studying for SAT, GRE, and bar exams, a system of local, provincial, and imperial examinations served to select deserving candidates for the government apparatus of imperial China. The Jianshui examination hall is a complex of buildings where, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, young Yunnan scholars would come to take the high-stake exam that could decide the course of their subsequent lives. Although the buildings have few historical artefacts, they have good displays (in Chinese and English) on the imperial examination system as it operated in the region.