The Provincial-level Historic and Cultural Town, Lizhuang Ancient Town, is located where the Minjiang River meets the Jinsha River about 19km away from Yibin’s suburbs. It got its present name from a natural big stone pole called “Lizhuang”in the town.
Lizhuang has many cultural relics, historic sites, and many man-made landscape. Among the ancient construction compound called “Nine Palaces and Eighteen Temples” originally, Huiguang Temple, Dongyue Temple, Xuanluo Hall of Min Dynasty, Yuwang Palace, Wenchang Palace, Nanhua Palace, Tianshang Palace, Zhangjia Temple of Qing Dynasty, etc, are preserved comparatively complete till today.
The ancient construction compound is large in scale and well distributed, which reflects the characteristics of the temples and palaces construction in southern Sichuan during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The woodcarving and stone carving of the ancient constructions are delicate and vivid with a high value in art.
There is a Xizi Street in the town which was built at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. There are two-story wooden buildings with Chuan-Dou Timber Structure along the two sides of the sixty-meter long street. The wooden suspended buildings with eaves give the old street a style of simplicity and quietness. It shows the folk customs of towns in southern Sichuan during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Xuanluo Hall built in the Ming Dynasty is 2.5 kilom away from Lizhuang. This 25 meter high building with a shape of an octagon has three layers of eaves. The hall was constructed skillfully with no single nail used at all, which can absolutely be called a masterpiece of human work. The Yufo Temple in the west of the town and the Lifeng Mountain Villa which is five kilom away from the southwest of the town are also worth a visit.
Lizhuang was one of the cultural centers in the rear area in China during the Anti-Japanese War. In 1939, Tongji State University, Central Academy, Central Naturalistic College, Central Yingzao Study Union, The Land Measure Bureau of China, The Art Study Bureau of Jinlin University and other famous universities and organizations gradually moved to Lizhuang from Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and other places until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1947 when they began to move back to their original places.