Fenghuang Old Town is located in the south end of Xiangxi and rewarded as “The Most Beautiful Small City in China”. It was once “an uncivilized place for the Miaos at Five Streams” within the boundary of the Chu Kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
The city of Fenghuang is divided into the New District and Old District. The Old District is built at the foot of a hill, with the limpid Tuojiang River running across the whole city. The red sandstone city walls erecting beside the river, the Diaojiao Wooden Houses built against the hillside, the ancient bluestone paths of the old streets, and the seductive snacks on the roadside and the eyeful of folk costumes, all these may enchant the tourists and make them think they are wandering in a fairyland in stead of the present world.
Here is the hometown of the literary master Shen Congwen, he described Feng Huang's plain and attracting lifestyle in his famous work of Remote Town.