In Guang’an, landscaped park views and an urban riverside greenway meet historic buildings and museum exhibits. The Xixi River runs through the central urban area as a greenway and is an important destination for recreation and leisure for residents. For planning your trip, Guang’an therefore offers a range of different points of interest: riverside scenery, architecture and history, as well as exhibitions about the city and its past.
Park design and the Xixi River
Guang’an Wenbo Park covers 81.07 mu and is located beside the Guang’an Museum on the western slope of the Xixi River. As a themed park, it draws on historical and cultural materials from Guang’an while also using architectural and landscape forms from southern Chinese gardens. Culture and garden design are thus brought together at the park.
The park features ten cultural scenes. Named scenes include “平安广安”, “曲水流觞”, “风云际会”, “风雨廊桥” and “悬壁石铭”. Other scenes incorporate round sculptures, inscriptions, copperplate paintings and rock paintings. Combining named scenes with different artistic forms gives the park more than one thematic point of reference. Visitors interested in the designed side of Guang’an will find local cultural materials and garden forms brought together here in one setting.
The Xixi River complements this landscaped focus with riverside scenery within the city. The Canyon Park section features the landscape sites “长影叠瀑”, “亲水峡谷” and “望江忆故”, showcasing both the river’s natural ecology and its cultural character. The park and riverside section offer different emphases: cultural scenes and garden forms shape the image of Wenbo Park, while scenery and ecology take center stage along the river.
Pagoda and temple: historic buildings
The White Pagoda of Guang’an was built during the Southern Song period and is more than 800 years old. It is included in the seventh group of China’s National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units. Its historical period makes it a specific point of reference for anyone exploring Guang’an’s Song-era history and architectural heritage.
Xingguo Temple is also among Guang’an’s historic buildings. It is the only historic Buddhist building in the urban area that remains intact today. The pagoda and temple thus offer two distinct points of reference within the cultural offerings: the pagoda is distinguished by its long history and national heritage status, while the temple is notable for its surviving historic character. Visitors focusing on cultural history can consider these buildings alongside the museum and park themes, while keeping their distinct profiles in mind.
Museum and digital exhibition
The Guang’an Museum is the city’s first comprehensive museum. It brings together collections, acquisitions, education, exhibitions and research. Its role therefore extends beyond presenting exhibits: collecting, education and scholarly work are also part of the museum’s stated profile.
A digital exhibition presented in 2024 is titled “宋韵广安——走进安丙生活的时代” (“Song-Era Guang’an—Entering the World of An Bing’s Time”). Using digital multimedia tools and dynamic imagery, it illustrated life in the Song period through clothing, food, housing and transportation. This offers a thematic way into the era through different aspects of everyday life, not just buildings. If this exhibition is a deciding factor for your trip, check whether it is being shown before visiting.
Getting around the city
The layout of the city’s nighttime lighting also provides a point of reference in the central urban area. It has been developed in stages over several years. Siyuan Square and Siyuan Avenue form an axis that runs straight to Kuige Peninsula on the opposite side. This urban spatial connection adds an orientation route within Guang’an to the cultural and landscape themes.
When choosing your highlights, you can make use of the differences between the attractions: the park scenes combine local cultural materials with garden forms, the Xixi River represents the greenway and river ecology, and the pagoda, temple and museum each offer their own historical perspective. This makes it easy to shape your stay around whether you would rather focus on designed landscapes, riverside themes or Guang’an’s cultural history.
Discover more destinations: Meishan, Chengdu, Panzhihua, Suining, Ziyang, Dazhou, Zigong, Yibin
For the broader travel overview: Sichuan.
