Xikou

Xikou Town, in Fenghua, Zhejiang Province, is located 40 kilometers southwest of Ningbo City and has beautiful natural scenery such as Xuedou Mountain and Shanxi River. Xikou is the hometown of Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo, the existing Fenghao House, Little House and Wenchang Villa are where the Chiang family once lived.

Chiang’s Hometown

Both Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo, father and son, were born in the town of Xikou. They had returned to their hometown several times during their careers, and for a time Chiang Kai-shek used Xikou as a command center of the Kuomintang government. Mao Fumei, mother of Chiang Ching-kuo, was killed in a Japanese air raid in Xikou in 1939. Chiang Ching-kuo wrote down “blood to wash away blood” in a stone monument in deep grief. It is now preserved in the Little House not far from Fenghao House.

Maitreya’s Sacred Place – Xuedou Mountain

The scenery of Xuedou Mountain at Xikou is beautiful, with the Qianzhang Rock and Miaogao Terrace. According to the legend, Fenghua was Maitreya bodhisattva’s hometown, he used to transform into a Budai monk to help the people, so the descendants built the Xuedou Temple at the top of Xuedou Mountain. A 33-meter-high open-air statue of Maitreya bodhisattva inside the temple is the largest in China.