Shixi Rock Etchings (After Orchid Pavilion Scenic Spot)

As a natural and humanistic tourist attraction, Shixi is one of the cultural relics protection units of Guangdong Province. Scattered along both sides of a hillside stream are 40 calligraphic rock etchings of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). 

Zhuhai native Bao Jun (1797-1851), a renowned calligrapher and poet of Lingnan in the Qing dynasty, had been chief of the Shanxi Department of the Imperial Ministry of Justice. (It was in Shanyin in today’s Zhejiang Province that renowned calligrapher Wang Xizhi (307–365 ce) and many talented acquaintances met at his Orchid Pavilion in 353 to celebrate the Spring Festival of Purification with drinks and etchings of poetry.) 

After resigning from his post and returning to Zhuhai, Bao Jun had a replica pavilion, After Orchid Pavilion, built at Shixi near Shanchang Village. By imitating the ancient Orchid Pavilion's elegant gatherings, he invited talented men of letters there to create and etch poems on the hillside rocks, leaving behind more than 30 incredible rock etchings. 

Address: At the foot of Songbai Mt, North Shanchang (Shanchang Bei), West Meihua Road (Meihua Xilu), Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai    

Buses: 13, 16, 17, 55