(Chinese: 德清县; pinyin: Déqīng Xiàn) is a county in the prefecture-level city of Huzhou, in the northwest of Zhejiang province. As of 2020 census, its population was 548,568 all living in the built-up (or metro) area. Deqing is very close to Hangzhou and Shaoxing, so it is becoming de facto a suburb of the two cities. It is being conurbated soon and even a Metro Line is planned in the middle term to link both cities.[1]
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 (莫干山) is located. Moganshan is a scenic mountain, an hour from Hangzhou, with many pre-World War II 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 three 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.[2][3] The village is nicknamed "Snake Village" by the media, and Deqing Snake Culture Museum is a local tourist attraction.[2][4]
Towns:[5]
Yunxiu Temple is a Buddhist temple in Xiazhuhu Subdistrict.
Deqing has two railway stations, normal trains serve through Deqing West railway station, which located on the Xuancheng–Hangzhou railway, with fairly frequent, although not particularly fast, passenger service to Hangzhou and Hefei.[8] High speed trains serve Deqing railway station, on the Nanjing-Hangzhou high-speed railway.
The county houses many ancient bridges, such as Sengjia Bridge and Qinghe Bridge.