Qingchengdun Site

Qingchengdun Site

The Qingchengdun Site is a protected cultural heritage site of Jiangsu Province.

The Qingchengdun Site is located in Zhangcun Village, Henglin Town, approximately 2 km south of the Grand Canal, 20 km from Taihu Lake, 12 km north of the Sidian Site, and 24 km from the Yangtze River. It was discovered in the 1970s and has yielded Liangzhu culture relics such as jade cong and jade rings.

From August 2017 to August 2018, to support construction work, a joint archaeological team comprising the Nanjing Museum, the city’s archaeological research institute, and Fudan University conducted rescue excavations at the Qingchengdun Site, achieving significant results. To preserve the authenticity and integrity of the site, the city revised relevant plans and implemented on-site protection. In March 2019, the site was designated as a protected cultural heritage site of Jiangsu Province.

The Qingchengdun Site mainly consists of Neolithic remains, featuring an inner and outer moat system along with multiple site points encircling a central earthen mound. Together, they form a high-level settlement dating back over 5,000 years (late Songze culture to early–middle Liangzhu culture). The site includes house foundations and tombs, and more than 500 artifacts have been unearthed, spanning the Neolithic period to historical times—these include jade, stone, pottery, gold and silverware, porcelain, and bronze objects.

The Qingchengdun Site is an important part of the Songze–Liangzhu culture settlement cluster around northern Taihu Lake, centered on the Sidian Site. The discovery of large Songze-period houses and tombs, along with double-ring moats and significant relics, makes this one of the highest-ranking sites in the Taihu Lake region dating from 5500 to 5300 years ago. It is a direct source of Liangzhu civilization, holding equal importance with contemporaneous sites such as Niuheliang in Liaoning and Lingjiatan in Anhui, and is a representative site of the lower Yangtze region during the origins of Chinese civilization.

Henglin Town: A town under the jurisdiction of Wujin City. It is a well-known producer of rice and wheat. Established as Henglin Town in 1949, it became a commune in 1958, split into Henglin and Linnan communes in 1966, reverted to town status in 1983, and merged with the surrounding township to form the current Henglin Town in 1985. Located in the central section of the Shanghai–Nanjing Railway, it is 15 km from downtown Changzhou and 30 km from Changzhou Airport. Covering an area of 27 square km with a population of 33,000, the town is traversed east–west by the Shanghai–Nanjing Railway, National Highway 312, and the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal. It borders Taihu Lake to the south and the Yangtze River to the north, and lies close to the Shanghai–Nanjing Expressway. The town administers Yuxiang, Diban, Shunzhuang, Zhangcun, Jiangcun, Zhaojia... More details about Henglin Town++

Further Reading:

· Eighth Batch of Protected Cultural Heritage Sites of Jiangsu Province