Off-the-beaten-path attraction recommendation | Xin'an Hangu Pass

|Xin'an Hangu Pass. 🌟 Highlights:
Xin'an Hangu Pass is one of the military passes built during the Western Han Dynasty to strengthen the rule of the Central Plains. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was the most important of the eight passes in Luoyang and one of the most important pieces of evidence of the ancient road between Luoyang and Xi'an, with outstanding historical and cultural value. At the same time, the design of Xin'an Hangu Pass reflects the scientific design concept of military defense facilities by the builders of the Han Dynasty and the superb skills of the craftsmen, which is an important physical material for the study of the history of ancient Chinese defense engineering.

The site of Xin'an Han Hangu Pass is a small city with an inner and outer city structure. The inner city is "H" shaped, with the pass city as the center, extending north to the Yellow River and south to the Luo River, forming a large-scale military defense system with connected passes. Inside the pass, there are military facilities such as the Great Wall, fortresses, warehouses, and kilns, as well as related auxiliary functions, which completely controlled the east-west traffic in the canyon. It was the defensive capital of the Han Empire in the Central Plains from the 2nd century BC to the 3rd century AD and an important pass on the Silk Road when Luoyang was the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The existing site of Xin'an Han Hangu Pass mainly includes the pass building, rammed earth pass wall, que platform ruins, and long wall ruins.

👍 Most recommended:
The pass building site is the main building of Han Hangu Pass, which was rebuilt in 1923. The pass building is divided into three levels: upper, middle, and lower. The middle level is a cross-symmetrical cave with four sides connected, four doors open, a cross seam on the top, and four rooms connected, each with two "wordless steles" embedded. The floor is paved with gray pottery square bricks, and there is a platform outside the room, with couplets on all four doors.

The couplet on the east door is written by Gong Shijie: "Four sides of green mountains and three sides of water, one layer of purple air and ten thousand layers of smoke", with the horizontal plaque "Purple Air Comes from the East". The couplet on the west door is written by Zhang Fang: "Between the imperial stream, expand our Han capital", with the horizontal plaque "Looking West to Qiling". The couplet on the south door is written by Lu Guangyu: "The purple air still exists for the virtuous minister, the green ox crosses the ancient Hangu Pass again", with the horizontal plaque "Central Plains Screen". The couplet on the north door is written by Xu Wentian: "Majestic as the hundred and two dangers, brilliant as the reconstruction of a ball of mud", with the horizontal plaque "Dawn Moon Tower".

📍 Detailed address:
Chengguan Town, Xin'an County, Luoyang City

💰 Average cost:
CNY 20
Xin'an Hangu Pass Site (Western Han Dynasty)

Post by Phoenix_Blackwooden/38 | Jan 19, 2025