Qijia Mountain Fortress

Qijia Mountain Fortress

Qijia Mountain Fortress

From Jinqi Mountain heading southward and crossing Shaxie Ridge in the valley, you will arrive at Qijia Mountain. Standing less than 50 meters high, Qijia Mountain lies quietly on the earth, embraced by surrounding pines and cypresses, offering an elegant and tranquil environment. In the past, it served as an important garrison for the Qing army, and today, it is an outstanding tourist destination.

Qijia Mountain was historically known as “Qijia Mountain,” being the last of seven peaks in the area. Ouyang Lijian, the Governor of Zhejiang, encouraged his soldiers to fight as bravely as Qi Jiguang’s renowned Qi Family Army in resisting the French invasion, and thus renamed “Qijia Mountain” from “Qijia Mountain.”

Originally overgrown with weeds, Qijia Mountain featured extremely strategic terrain — with Jinqi Mountain shielding it in the front, vast plains and hills behind, and a view of the mountain-sea landscape from the side. It was both concealed and secure. During wartime, it allowed for rapid ambushes and timely troop deployment, making it a naturally gifted stronghold. Before battle, Ouyang Lijian personally directed soldiers to level the land, cut paths, and chisel stones at the mountaintop. It took nearly half a year, with over a thousand soldiers turning the mountaintop into a flat expanse even larger than a soccer field. The excavated rocks were used on-site to build dozens of barracks and fortifications around the summit. Preliminary measurements show that this fortress (i.e., the fortress) is 150 meters long from north to south, 50 meters wide from east to west, with a perimeter of over 400 meters, walls 2–2.5 meters high, and over 1 meter thick. The ramparts feature observation and gun holes every few meters. From afar, the fortress is covered in lush greenery; up close, it resembles an impregnable wall. Inside, there is a training ground covering over 3,000 square meters.

There are two fortress gates on the northern and southern sides of the fortress, each with a small path leading directly to the soldier camps. During the Sino-French War, Madam Le, a patriotic figure from Xiaogang, noticed that the paths were uneven, narrow, and steep, causing inconvenience for soldiers. She voluntarily funded the construction of two flat stone roads.

Today, the area around the “Qijia Mountain Hotel” within the Qijia Mountain Fortress has seen enhanced surroundings, bringing tremendous changes to Qijia Mountain's landscape. Various service facilities have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. Below the mountain, buildings stand like a forest of peaks, while broad roads twist like silver snakes. Ningbo Economic and Technological Development Zone United Development (Group) Company invested in building a stone staircase road from the main gate of the southern fortress down the mountain to protect this coastal defense relic. They also erected a bluestone memorial archway at the entrance inscribed with the characters “Qijia Mountain.” The renovated Qijia Mountain now boasts an even more magnificent environment, and the coastal defense ruins appear solemn and majestic.

Attraction Location

Beilun District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province (on the top of Qijia Mountain, south of Shaxie Ridge)