Fuxi is the first of the legendary sovereigns of Chinese mythology, credited with inventing the eight trigrams of the Book of Changes, fishing nets and marriage customs. Tradition places his birth at Chengji in Tianshui, which has held rites in his honour for centuries.

What is special about Maijishan?

Its caves are cut into the face of a sheer 142-metre rock, reached by stairways and galleries on the cliff. Because the local stone is soft, most of its thousands of figures are modelled in clay rather than carved, and they are particularly fine from the Northern Wei and Northern Zhou periods.

Historic city · Cultural centre · Gansu

Tianshui

天水 (Tiānshuǐ)

Fuxi's city and the Maijishan grottoes

Tianshui is a prefecture-level city in the upper Wei River valley of south-eastern Gansu, revered in tradition as the birthplace of Fuxi, the mythical first sovereign. The early Qin rose in its hills, and the Maijishan Grottoes, a Buddhist cave complex on a sheer rock pillar, are part of the Silk Roads World Heritage site.

ProvinceGansu

Key facts

Province: Gansu
Administrative level: Prefecture-level city
Area: about 14,300 km²[1]
Resident population: 2.98 million(as of 2020 census)[2]
UNESCO World Heritage: Maijishan Grottoes (Silk Roads, 2014)[3]

Overview

Tianshui sits in a green valley on the Wei River, closer in landscape and climate to Shaanxi than to the dry west of Gansu. It lies on the route from Chang'an to the Hexi Corridor, and Buddhist monks, soldiers and poets passed through: Du Fu stayed here in 759 and wrote a cycle of poems on Qinzhou.

The city is known for its Fuxi Temple, its Ming and Qing courtyard houses, its apples and cherries, and the grottoes of Maijishan in the forested hills to the south-east.

Names and nicknames

羲皇故里 (Xīhuáng gùlǐ)
“home of Emperor Fuxi”
The city's cultural epithet, based on legends placing Fuxi's birth in Chengji.
秦州 (Qínzhōu)
The name of the prefecture from the Western Jin to the Qing.
陇上江南 (Lǒngshàng Jiāngnán)
“Jiangnan of Gansu”
For its comparatively mild, green climate.

History

The Dadiwan site near Qin'an shows farming villages here some eight thousand years ago. The ancestors of the Qin bred horses for the Zhou in this area and received their first fief at Qin, in the hills north-east of the city. In the Three Kingdoms period the region was a battleground between Shu and Wei; the defeat at Jieting in 228 ended Zhuge Liang's first northern campaign. Maijishan's caves were cut and painted from the late fourth century onwards.

c. 5800 BCE
Dadiwan culture
Early farming village with some of China's oldest painted pottery.
9th century BCE
Qin fief granted
The Zhou king granted Feizi land at Qin for breeding horses, the origin of the Qin state and dynasty.
228
Battle of Jieting
Ma Su's defeat forced Zhuge Liang to withdraw from his first campaign north.
late 4th century
Maijishan grottoes begun
Cave-cutting started under the Later Qin and continued for some 1,500 years.
759
Du Fu in Qinzhou
The poet spent some months here on his way to Chengdu.

Landmarks

Temple or shrine
Maijishan Grottoes
麦积山石窟 (Màijī Shān Shíkū)
Caves and clay sculptures on the face of a haystack-shaped rock, linked by cliff walkways; a Silk Roads World Heritage component.
Temple or shrine
Fuxi Temple
伏羲庙 (Fúxī Miào)
Ming temple in the old city, with the hall of Fuxi and the eight trigrams on its ceiling.
Temple or shrine
Yuquan Temple
玉泉观 (Yùquán Guàn)
Daoist temple on the hillside north of the city.
Historic site
Hu family residence
胡氏民居 (Hú shì mínjū)
Ming courtyard houses of an official family in the old city.

Neighbourhoods

Qinzhou
秦州区 (Qínzhōu Qū)
The old city with the Fuxi Temple and courtyard houses.
Maiji
麦积区 (Màijī Qū)
The eastern district around the railway station, on the way to the grottoes.

Food

Guagua
呱呱 (guāgua)
Chunks of buckwheat or chickpea starch jelly in chilli oil and sesame paste, a breakfast snack.
Jiangshui noodles
浆水面 (jiāngshuǐ miàn)
Noodles in a sour fermented-vegetable broth, eaten in summer.
Tianshui malatang
天水麻辣烫 (Tiānshuǐ málàtàng)
Vegetables and meat simmered in broth and dressed with local chilli and Sichuan pepper oil, with hand-made potato starch noodles.

Culture

Tianshui is a centre of the Fuxi cult: public ceremonies are held at the Fuxi Temple, and the eight trigrams said to have been devised by Fuxi appear across the city. It is also known for carved lacquerware and for its orchards on the loess slopes.

Getting around

Tianshui South is on the Xi'an–Lanzhou high-speed line; Tianshui station in Maiji district serves conventional trains.
Maijishan lies south-east of the city and is reached by bus or car.

Day trips

Dadiwan site
大地湾遗址 (Dàdìwān Yízhǐ)
Neolithic site in Qin'an county with a museum and a reconstructed great house.
Daxiang Shan
大像山 (Dàxiàng Shān)
Cliff with a colossal Buddha above Gangu county.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Tianshui Municipal People's Government — Tianshui Municipal People's Government (retrieved 27 September 2026)
Seventh National Population Census communiqués — National Bureau of Statistics of China (retrieved 27 September 2026)
Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor — UNESCO World Heritage Centre (retrieved 27 September 2026)
Tianshui — Encyclopaedia Britannica (retrieved 27 September 2026)

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