Tongluo Pass

Tongluo Pass

Located in Caihe Village, Wujiadian Town, Jinzhai County, at an elevation of 727 meters, it borders Luotian County in Hubei Province. To the west lies Huangshi Fort (elevation 971 meters), and to the east is Xianqi Ridge (elevation 1099 meters). The pass is about 100 meters wide and tens of meters long, straddling the border between Hubei and Anhui. It serves as both a vital transportation route and a strategic mountain stronghold.

During the Ming Dynasty, Luotian County in Hubei and Shangcheng County in Henan built two heavily fortified passes at either end of a small mountain flat about 20 meters apart, due to the practice of using copper gongs to communicate while keeping watch from these positions. Hence the name Tongluo Pass (Copper Gong Pass). By the ninth year of the Xianfeng reign in the Qing Dynasty, a gate tower was rebuilt along with over 60 zhang of stone walls and one barracks, collectively named Pinghu Township Tongluo Pass Fengyi Checkpoint. Ruins of the old fortifications remain today.

Tongluo Pass was historically one of the most renowned natural strongholds on the county’s border. Both the Jiajing-era “Luotian County Annals” and the Kangxi-era “Luotian County Annals” of the Ming and Qing Dynasties listed the “Tongluo Cliffs” as one of the Eight Scenic Spots of Luotian. During the Jiajing period, the county instructor Ninghai Shi Bin wrote a poem about it: “Jade-like crags tower sheer from cliffs in space, / Nature’s own chrysanthemum carved with grace. / Through time stands alone—who truly knows? / Unsullied, it shares the world’s great flows.” This verse vividly captures the pass’s towering majesty and rugged beauty.