Government administrative reforms in 1983 left Shangrao’s territory pinched into two separate lobes joined only by a narrow strip of land, a shape so unusual that Chinese commentators now describe the city’s silhouette on a map as a bowtie, or sometimes a dumbbell.
一九八三年的行政区划调整,让上饶的辖境被挤压成两个各自独立的部分,仅靠一条狭窄地带相连;这一形状之奇特,以至于中国的评论者们,如今常将其地图轮廓形容为一只蝴蝶结,又或是一副哑铃。
Before that year, Shangrao’s territory had a far more regular shape, administering some 18 county-level divisions. In January 1983, Yingtan was elevated to its own prefecture-level city and took Yingtan county, Yujiang county and Guixi county with it; that October, Leping county and part of Poyang county were transferred to Jingdezhen instead. What remained was reorganised into just 12 county-level divisions, split across two lobes connected by little more than a corridor.
在此之前,上饶的辖境形状要规整得多,下辖十八个县级行政区。一九八三年一月,鹰潭升格为地级市,随之带走了鹰潭市、余江县与贵溪县;同年十月,乐平县及波阳县(鄱阳县)的部分区域,又被划入景德镇市。剩下的区域,重新整合为十二个县级行政区,被拆分成两个部分,中间仅靠一条狭长走廊相连。
According to an account published by The Paper, Shangrao is now regarded as the strangest-shaped prefecture-level city in Jiangxi province, its scale and the coordination required between it, Jingdezhen and Yingtan remaining a recurring subject of local debate.
据澎湃新闻发布的一篇报道显示,上饶如今被视为江西省内形状最为奇特的地级市,其体量规模,以及与景德镇、鹰潭之间协调发展所面临的挑战,至今仍是当地持续讨论的话题。
Three Peaks Named after Taoist Immortals
三座以道教仙人命名的山峰
Mount Sanqing, straddling the border of Yushan county and Dexing city within Shangrao’s eastern lobe, takes its name from three granite peaks, Yujing, Yuxu and Yuhua, said to resemble the Three Pure Ones seated together in Taoist cosmology; UNESCO added the mountain to its World Heritage List in 2008, citing its unusually well-preserved granite landform scenery.
三清山横跨上饶东部辖区内的玉山县与德兴市交界处,山名源自三座花岗岩主峰——玉京、玉虚、玉华,相传其形貌宛如道教”三清”并坐山巅;二零零八年,联合国教科文组织将其列入世界遗产名录,理由是这里保存异常完好的花岗岩地貌景观。
Yujing Peak, the highest of the three at 1,816.9 metres, also marks one of the sources of the Xin River, the waterway that runs the length of Shangrao’s eastern lobe before draining into Poyang Lake.
三座山峰中最高的玉京峰,海拔一千八百一十六点九米,同时也是信江的源头之一;这条河流贯穿上饶东部辖区,最终注入鄱阳湖。
A Terraced Village that Turned Rapeseed Flowers into a National Attraction
一座把油菜花变成全国旅游名片的梯田村落
Huangling, a terraced village in Wuyuan county on the far side of Shangrao’s narrow waist, was granted national 5A scenic status in 2024, tying Jiangxi for third place nationally by number of 5A-rated sites; the village’s stacked stone houses and surrounding rapeseed fields have made it one of the most photographed rural landscapes in the country each spring.
篁岭,是位于上饶狭窄”腰身”另一侧、婺源县境内的一座梯田村落,于二零二四年被评为国家5A级旅游景区,使江西在全国5A景区数量上并列第三;村中层叠而建的石屋与周围的油菜花田,让这里成为每年春季全国拍摄率最高的乡村景观之一。
According to the city’s own 2024 economic communiqué, Shangrao received 230 million visitor trips that year, generating ¥241.8 billion in tourism revenue.
据该市自身发布的二零二四年经济统计公报显示,当年上饶全年接待游客二点三亿人次,实现旅游综合收入二千四百一十八亿元。
An Economy Split across the Same Two Halves
一个同样被分割成两部分的经济体
According to the same communiqué, Shangrao’s GDP reached ¥372.1 billion in 2024, up 5.7 percent, with permanent population standing at 6.351 million across the prefecture’s two disconnected lobes.
据同一份公报显示,当年上饶市GDP达三千七百二十点九亿元,同比增长百分之五点七;常住人口为六百三十五点一万人,分布在这两片互不相连的辖境之中。
Getting between the two halves of Shangrao usually means passing through Yingtan, the very city whose 1983 promotion created the divide in the first place, or taking the longer route around it by expressway or rail; Shangrao’s own high-speed rail links connect the eastern lobe to Hangzhou in under two hours and the western lobe to Nanchang in around one.
从上饶的一半前往另一半,通常需要途经鹰潭——正是这座城市一九八三年的升格,造成了如今的分割;也可选择绕道而行的高速公路或铁路。上饶自身的高铁线路,可在两小时内连接东部辖区与杭州,一小时左右连接西部辖区与南昌。
Sanqingshan Airport, which opened in the eastern lobe in 2017, received a US$50 million loan from the World Bank in 2013, the first Chinese airport project ever to secure World Bank funding; its terminal building was designed to green-building standards from the outset, and in January 2019 it became the first airport terminal in China to receive EDGE green building certification, cutting energy use by 24 percent and water use by 42 percent against a conventional design.
东部辖区内于二零一七年通航的上饶三清山机场,曾于二零一三年获得世界银行五千万美元贷款,是中国首个获得世界银行资金支持的机场项目;其航站楼自设计之初便按绿色建筑标准建造,二零一九年一月,更成为中国首座获得EDGE绿色建筑认证的机场航站楼,相较传统设计节能百分之二十四,节水百分之四十二。
A driver crossing from Shangrao’s eastern lobe to its western one today still passes, for a few kilometres, through the very city that was carved out of the middle of it in 1983.
如今,一名司机若要从上饶的东部辖区驶往西部辖区,途中仍需穿行数公里,经过那座正是于一九八三年从其腹地中被划走而成立的城市。
