Gulongzhong Scenic Area, Hubei province

Gulongzhong Scenic Area, Hubei province
（古隆中景区gǔ lóng zhōng jǐng qū）

Address: 461-1 Longzhong Dadao, Xiangcheng district, Xiangyang city, Hubei province
Websites:www.lzfjq.com/index/index/l/zh-cn (Cn)
www.lzfjq.com/index/index/l/en-us(En)
Scenic Spot Level: AAAAA
Opening Hours: 8:30-17:30
Ticket Price: 120 yuan ($17.02)/person

Note:
A discount is applied to visitors booking online.

The Gulongzhong Scenic Area is surrounded by the West Mountains and lies 13 kilometers to the west of Xiangyang, a historic city in Hubei province. It was established based on the history and cultural relics of China's Three Kingdoms period (220-280), into which China was divided at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220). It is where the outstanding statesman Zhuge Liang (181-234) lived a reclusive life for ten years from his late teens to his late twenties, before becoming a devoted and key adviser to the Shu Kingdom (221-263).

The most well-known historical anecdote which took place here is Liu Bei's relentless visits to Zhuge at his thatched cottages in Gulongzhong, and the sincerity he showed when seeking him out as an adviser. With Zhuge's insightful analysis, Liu expanded his territory and founded the Shu Kingdom in 221. People thus credit the wild retreat at Gulongzhong as the start of the strategic tripartite division of China in history.

In Chinese novelist Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yanyi) written in the 14th century, the legendary area is described as being "with mountains not high but sophisticated, with waters not deep but clear, with groves not vast but of vigorous plants, with land not extensive but even. Monkeys and cranes cohabit; pines and bamboos grow verdantly": this remains a true depiction of the Gulongzhong Scenic Area.