However, the deluges have failed to destroy the traditional Anhui-style structures, including the city's historically famous residences.

The grandest of these manors is the Old Supermarket, a Republic-era department store that was also home to the then-vice chairman of the local chamber of commerce.

The city's wealthiest man used the three-building complex as a residence for his family and servants, as well as a commerce center containing a bank, food market, salt storage facility, jewelry shop and Buddhist temple.

It was also the antiquated nautical equivalent of the town's drive-thru bank, as businessmen would ride boats on the canal to the farthest building to receive financial services.

Sanhe also hosts the former residence of physicist C.N. Yang, who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for his work on statistical mechanics and symmetry principles.

The exhibitions showcasing the life of the first Chinese to earn the honor is complemented with an optical illusions display room, a place where visitors won't - and shouldn't - believe their eyes.

The city also contains the former residence of Kuomintang general Sun Liren, also known as the "Rommel of the East" for defeating the invading Japanese forces in every battle.

But while Sanhe hosts several antiquated buildings of interest, its most magnificent structure is the seven-story National Treasures Museum, constructed in 2001 by a local businessman and his brother.

The establishment houses an extensive collection of relics - furniture, statues and books - spanning the country's history from its early dynasties. Its top floor balcony offers a panorama of the ceramic shingle-plated rooftops that crown the city's ancient dwellings.

Hefei's tourism bureau says these clusters of homes in Sanhe and the remnants of Grand Castle are luring growing numbers of travelers to Anhui's provincial capital. Last year's headcount grew by more than 50 percent year-on-year to 12.12 million.

These figures suggest that the two ancient cities, built when the local cartography was dramatically different, are today helping put their modern successor, Hefei, on the map.

By Erik Nilsson (China Daily)

                                                    (China Daily 07/30/2010 page19)