Huifa City Ruins

Huifa City Ruins

The Huifa City Ruins are located on Huifa Mountain, northeast of the Huifa River, about 17 kilometers northeast of Huinan County in Tonghua City, Jilin Province. This area was originally the territory of the Huifa people, located in the northeast of Yan State during the Warring States Period, and was called Huibá City in the Tang Dynasty. The ruins are the site of the city of the Huifa tribe, one of the four tribes of the Hulun confederation of the Jurchens during the Ming Dynasty.

“Huifa” is a Khitan word meaning “no restrictions on passage.” In the History of Liao, it is written as “Huiba,” in Ming and Qing dynasty texts as “Huibu,” and appears as “Huipa” or “Huipai” in other historical records. “Huifa” was originally the name of a Jurchen tribe, meaning “no restrictions on passage.”

The ancient city is situated against a mountain and beside water, featuring a strategically important terrain. It has three layers of earthen and stone rammed walls: inner, middle, and outer. The inner city is an irregular diamond shape, with its southeastern part ingeniously using a cliff as part of the city wall, while the northwestern part follows the mountain’s contour for its fortifications. The inner city wall is 706 meters in circumference, constructed with two layers of river pebbles sandwiching one layer of rammed earth, standing approximately 2 meters high with a top width of about 1.5 meters. There are two gates: one located at the junction of the inner and middle cities at the northeast corner of the inner city, which leads to the middle city; the other is on the northern wall of the inner city and serves as the only exit to the outer city. On the southeastern side of the inner city is an oval-shaped platform built along the mountain slope, believed to be the site of the palace and residential center buildings of that time. At the edge of the cliff in the middle of the platform, there is also a 2.5-meter-high, 4-meter-square pyramidal watchtower, which is the highest point of the entire city.

The middle and outer city walls are 892 meters and 1,884 meters long respectively, with remaining heights ranging from 1 to 3 meters and 2 to 15 meters. Each wall has two gates.

The geographical formation of Huifa City is extremely strategic. The city was carefully chosen and built, surrounded by water on three sides and facing a vast river valley plain on the fourth. The city is divided into three layers—inner, middle, and outer—and the walls follow the contour of the mountain. A wealth of relics have been unearthed within the city, including construction materials such as bricks and tiles, bronze and ironware, and exquisitely crafted porcelain bearing the reign mark of the Wanli era, making it an important site for the study of Ming Dynasty history.

In May 2006, the Huifa City Ruins were announced by the State Council as part of the sixth batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level