Laosicheng, in Yongshun County of western Hunan, is the first UNESCO World Heritage Site in the province and one of the most historically significant archaeological sites in central China. The site was the capital of the Peng clan Tusi — hereditary chieftains who governed the Tujia people under a semi-autonomous arrangement with successive Chinese dynasties — for nearly six centuries from 1135 AD until the system was abolished by the Qing in 1724. Construction under the Southern Song was the beginning; at its height the city covered 25 square kilometres and housed a complex of palaces, temples, streets, markets, and administrative buildings that functioned as a state within a state.
The core zone preserved by the UNESCO designation covers more than 250,000 square metres and shows the full complexity of what a Tusi capital involved. The Tusi Capital Ruins include the Hall of the Patriarch and its associated temple, chieftain tombs of varying periods, city walls with defensive towers, ancient paved streets, memorial arches, and a drainage system sophisticated enough to have functioned for centuries. Bronze bells, stone horses, and carved architectural elements have come out of the ground. The visible ruins sit beside the Lingxi River, a tributary of the You River, in a landscape of cultivated valleys and forested hills that suggests why the Peng clan chose this location.
The Tusi chieftain system, which allowed ethnic minority leaders to maintain local authority while acknowledging nominal imperial sovereignty, is a distinct and underappreciated chapter of Chinese administrative history. Laosicheng is the most complete surviving example of what that system produced architecturally. The other two sites inscribed together with it under the UNESCO "Tusi Sites" designation are in Hubei and Guizhou; Laosicheng is described as the largest, earliest, and best-preserved.
The site is in Yongshun County, accessible from Huaihua or Fenghuang by road. Tourist infrastructure is present but modest; a full visit takes three to four hours. The nearby town of Furong, with its waterfall setting and ancient commercial street, makes a natural companion stop in western Hunan.