Hundred Steps Cliff Rock Carvings

Hundred Steps Cliff Rock Carvings

The Hundred Steps Cliff Rock Carvings are a cultural relic protection unit of Wencheng County.

The Hundred Steps Cliff Rock Carvings are located on the cliffs of Xiangzhu?? Village, Shanxi Town, Wencheng County (due to the submersion of the area by the Shanxi Water Control Project, they have been cut and relocated to the storage facilities of the county cultural relics museum). Originally called Dog-Crawl Cliff, the steep cliffs blocked the path, so local benefactors funded the carving of a passage leading directly into Taishun County. The passage is 88 meters long and 0.8–2 meters wide. Along the roadside cliffs are carved inscriptions, totaling 13 from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, one of which contains as many as 200 characters and measures 1.2 meters × 0.6 meters. The content records donations for road-carving, praying for children through virtuous deeds, and travel experiences through the years. The contributors came from a wide range of places, with discernible origins including Taiping County (now Wenling), Taishun County, Pingyang County, Rui’an County, Qingtian County, and Jingning County. Due to prolonged weathering and erosion by mudflows, the inscriptions are now difficult to fully decipher.

Source: Wenzhou Museum

Shanxi Town: Located in the southwestern part of Wencheng County, Shanxi Town is home to the national key project—the Shanxi Water Control Project. In 1998, it was listed as one of Zhejiang Province’s comprehensive reform pilot towns for small towns and ranks among the 136 key towns in the province. After the completion of the Shanxi Water Control Project, China’s second-highest dam and the largest artificial lake in southern Zhejiang were formed, making the town a central tourism hub in southern Wenzhou. The town has a population of 41,000 and covers an area of 102.5 square kilometers. With a long revolutionary history, abundant hydroelectric resources, tourism resources, and mineral resources, it is a typical resource-strong and old revolutionary base town in Wencheng County.

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