Hongshilazi Site

Hongshilazi Site

The Hongshilazi Site is a cultural relic protection unit of Jilin Province.

The Hongshilazi Site in Qianguo County offers a unique experience. With their distinctive approach, archaeologists have painted it with the mysterious hues of "Han Tomb Culture." Thus, it emerges with a new face, drawing attention and captivating countless scholars and tourists. If you wish to visit, you can take a bus from Qianguo County and drive about 20 kilometers southeast to Dongdenglouku Village in Jilatu Township, then walk another 3 kilometers southeast to reach the Hongshilazi Site.

The site is situated on a rolling hillside by the river, on the south bank of the Songhua River. To the north and south lie undulating hills, accompanied by the quietly flowing Songhua River that stretches for miles. To the west stands a verdant windbreak forest belt, resembling an ancient section of the Great Wall standing guard here. The scenery is serene and picturesque, making it a delightful place to visit. If you stroll up the hillside, you will find numerous pottery fragments beneath your feet. The unearthed pottery pieces exposed on the surface are diverse and colorful—there are pointed and ring-footed fragments of tripod vessels, exquisite spindle whorls, red-coated pottery shards, plain yellowish-brown pottery pieces, and triangular brown pottery fragments decorated with sieve-dot patterns, all lovely and aesthetically pleasing. The collected specimens include tripods, ding vessels, bowls, jars, and dou vessels. Though fragmented, these pieces are considered treasures by archaeologists. Don’t let their broken state fool you—they shine brilliantly in the eyes of experts. "The Hongshilazi Site is truly one of a kind," is the conclusion drawn by archaeologists after investigation. Experts believe that "the cultural features of the Hongshilazi Site are of the same type as the Baipinbao-type culture and Wanghaitun-type culture found in Zhaoyuan County, Heilongjiang Province, and the Han Tomb culture found in Da’an County." Someone once asked, what exactly is "Han Tomb Culture"? Let’s look at what the archaeologists’ actual investigation reveals: In 1974, the archaeological team of the Jilin Provincial Museum and students from the Archaeology Department of Jilin University’s History Faculty excavated a primitive cultural site near Yuanyangpao (on a raised loess cliff on the southern bank of the pond) in today’s Da’an City. Based on the stratigraphic distribution, the site was divided into two distinct cultural layers—the lower layer was named the "First Phase of Han Tomb Culture," and the upper layer the "Second Phase of Han Tomb Culture." Carbon-14 dating indicated that the "First Phase of Han Tomb Culture" dates back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, while the "Second Phase of Han Tomb Culture" corresponds to the Warring States period through the Han Dynasty. Therefore, the dating of the Hongshilazi Site is determined as follows: its earliest origins go back to the early Western Zhou Dynasty, and it extends to the Western Han Dynasty. "It is mainly distributed along the Nenjiang River and the first and second reaches of the Songhua River. This Han Tomb culture belongs to the Fuyu culture, indicating that the autonomous county was once part of the ancient territory of Fuyu."

The discovery of the Hongshilazi Site allows people to step back into the 11th century BC to examine the lives, customs, and social conditions of ethnic minorities in the areas around the Nenjiang and Songhua Rivers during the Western Zhou period. It provides important material for studying the development history of ethnic minorities in the Songyuan region. As a result, in 1981, the Hongshilazi Site was designated as a key cultural relic protection unit of Jilin Province.

Jilatu Township: Jilatu Township borders Wangfu Town to the south, is adjacent to Dashan Township and Xinli Township to the west, faces Fuyu County across the river to the northeast, and connects to Qianguo Town to the north. It covers a total area of 13,170 hectares, including 7,100 hectares of land, 375 hectares of woodland, and 3,700 hectares of water area. Of the land area, the total cultivated land spans 5,000 hectares, with equal portions of 2,500 hectares for both paddy and dry fields. Jilatu Township is a suburban township of Songyuan City and a major agricultural area primarily focused on crop farming. It boasts abundant resources, convenient transportation, and fast communication. Jilatu... More details about Jilatu Township++