Departing from Jiangjin district, Chongqing city , travelling along the highway surrounded in by scenic mountain views for about 50km, before cutting into another road for 3km, you eventually come into view of the ancient town of Zhongshan in the distance; lying beside the Sunxi riverbank with its back against mountains from all sides and linked westwards with the ancient Sichuan town of Xiantan.

Zhongshan is also known as the 'three-fold ground' and there is historical record of its existence dating 850 or so years back to the Song dynasty.

The streets of the original town had 453 side stores with a total length of 1500m. Only 307 of them are left today, and the total length has been reduced to 1132m with a residence of 1300 households. The ancient streets ran alongside the Sunxi riverbank, from south to north, with a width of 3-5m, it had a total area of 18450 m2, completely laid down with bluestone. The houses on both sides of the streets are constructed from wood with a combination of two architectural styles; their beams and rafters are ornamented and eaves pointing to heaven. Especially street of the earlier times, which had houses with corridor-like tiled roofs that meanders above the street. There is an old rhyme which goes like this, "how long is street? As long as the houses. Sunny days no sun, rainy days no rain", there is a saying "rainy days do not cloth wet." Although devastated by floods and fires, a large section of this style of street is still persevered.

There is a wooden gate for guarding at both ends of the town, from the south towards the north; the ancient street is divided into eight sections: Jiangjia Matou, Guanyin Ge, Bodhisattva's loft), Wanshou Gong, Shui Xiangzi, Yiren Xiang, Juanqiao Dong , Yan Diantou and Yueliang Ba. On the river side of the town, several lonesome houses delicately glide across the riverfront, under the cover of green bamboos and banana trees, accompanied by the Sunxi River rushing in from all sides, the scenery appears serene and tranquil, a shadow of its former prospering days. According to the Jiangjin Province official records, ever since King Kangxi's visit to the region in 1694, Zhongshan has always been the site of imperial administrative organ, furthermore, it's also a relatively large inland port town in the East Zhongshan region, close to major towns like Guizhou, Hejiang and Qijiang, all varieties of produce and other commercial goods concentrate heavily on transportation via waterways, thus making Zhongshan one of the most prosperous and commercially active towns at that time. Today, strolling through the town, you can still find many ancient handcraft manufacturers, such as wok-makers, ploughshare-makers, pawnshops, blacksmiths and house builders. You can also find inns, taverns, and small restaurants for travelling merchants.

Nothing escapes from the vicissitudes of time. Although the economic prosperity of the past has vanished like thin smoke, it does leave the town of Zhongshan with numerous historical rarities and treasures. The ancient of town of Zhongshan still has nine remaining ancient manors, in which the Zaozi Ping and the Long Tang manors are the most famous. The ancient manor of 'Dragon Pond' is located in the east and faces west; it has a total land area of 10,000 km2 and structure area of 3500 km2. The manor is complete with courtyards, fish ponds, gardens, enclosing walls and pavilions. 'Date Park' on the other hand faces east and is located in the west, it has a total land area of 4000 m2, and a structure area of 1700 m2; flower ornamented doors, courtyards, fish ponds and flower gardens are all perfectly preserved. Their halls, guest rooms, bedrooms, wing rooms, courtyard ramps, gardens and hallways are built strict in accordance with traditional fengshui, and all of the wooden windows and round days are built with intricacy and decorated with exquisite engravings.

The town's once prosperity has also left it with four stone arc bridges, which the Juandong Bridge, and the Banzhutan Youduhe Bridge at the river crossing are the most renowned. The 'Curling Bridge' runs south to north, connecting the ancient streets from either side of the river. The stone and materials used for this bridge are very unique, across the whole bridge there is not an inch of gap, each stone block is cut precisely to fit, two layers of arc, extraordinarily firm, even after 800 years not a single split or movement has appeared. While the 'Bamboo Beach Bridge' is the second longest stone arc bridge in China, a ship lock is built under the bridge's arc. During the 1960s the original wooden lock was rebuilt with stone and was used for ships travelling to and fro the 'dock district'.

Something worth mentioning is the strong collector's desire present amongst the local residence; the Min family living at number 41 is one of the exceptional cases. The Min household has not only collected ancient coins unearthed in the region, but also around ten wood carved beds from the Ming and Qing dynasties, including one wood carved bed that could be called the 'king of all kings'. It is 3m long, 2.9m wide, 2.6m high and has seven layers of engraved wooden boarding. It is exhibited at the North Yumin Traditional Museum and holds the awing title of being the 'Number one bed in China'. According to legends, the intricate engravings on this bed took four years and six months and were completed by ten of the most prominent builders at that time, the surface of the bed alone costed 300g of gold. The Zhongshan of the past and today also has undated temples, grave stones, carved scriptures from the Tang and Song dynasties. The town's residence waits for the rest of the world to discover, to protect and to restore, in additional to all other kinds enjoyment and attractions just waiting for us to discover and savour.