Deqing County, Zhejiang

Moganshan (Mogan Mountain), near the eponymous town in the western part of Deqing County

 Deqing  (德清县, pinyin: Déqīng xiàn) is a county in the prefecture-level city of Huzhou.

Geography

Located in the middle of the plain between the Hangzhou Bay and the Taihu, most of Deqing County is flat, criss-crossed by numerous canals. The western end of the county is mountainous. There, the popular tourist areas of Moganshan is located. Moganshan is a scenic mountain, an hour from Hangzhou, with many pre-WWII villas built by foreigners, along with one of Chiang Kai-shek's Guomindang compounds.

Zisiqiao (子思桥) Village, located within Deqing County's Xinshi Town, is renowned as a center of snake farming. The locals have been raising snakes since the 1980s; currently, about 800 people in Zisiqiao work in snake farming industry, raising some 3 million snakes a year. Live snakes are supplied to specialty restaurants; dried or preserved in alcohol, they are sold to manufacturers of traditional Chinese medicines; snake-infused wine is made as well. ^[1][2] The village is nicknamed "Snake Village" by the media, and Deqing Snake Culture Museum is a local tourist attraction.^[1][3]

Transportation

Deqing has a station (Deqing West) on the Xuancheng–Hangzhou Railway, with fairly frequent, although not particularly fast, passenger service to Hangzhou and Hefei.^[4]

Notes

1. China's 'Snake Village' seeks New Year riches, AFP, 2013-02-10
2. 世界第一蛇村：800人与300万条蛇的神奇生活 ("World's No. 1 Snake Village: mysterious life of 800 people and over 3 million snakes"), travel.sina.com.cn, 2010-10-21
3. 蛇文化博物馆可以让你看得“头皮发麻” (Snake Culture Museum will make your hair stand on end), 2012-05-07
4. Deqing West schedule (Chinese)

Coordinates: 30°33′N 120°04′E / 30.550°N 120.067°E