The Ancient City Wall of Sanhe

The Ancient City Wall of Sanhe

The Ancient City Wall of Sanhe is a cultural tourism attraction.

About 200 meters behind the Wanniantai Stage in Sanhe Ancient Town, on GuDong Street, stands an ancient city wall. Though only 60 meters long, the wall still exudes an air of solemnity. On its 8-meter-high structure, the flags of the Taiping Rebellion still flutter, almost making you feel as if you can see the brave Taiping soldiers standing guard back in the day. In 1854, the Taiping Army marched into Sanhe Town. Due to the fertile lands and convenient waterway transportation around Sanhe, it quickly became a major grain supply base for the Taiping Army. Provisions were crucial for military operations, and after choosing Sanhe as an important granary, the Taiping Army built the wall to protect their supplies.

Sanhe Ancient Town is located at the junction of Feixi, Shucheng, and Lujiang counties, where the Fengle River, Hangbu River, and Xiaonan River converge. Renowned for its ancient rivers, old moats, historic bridges, traditional alleys, classic teahouses, heritage residences, ancient temple stages, and historic battlefields, the town is a visual delight. Though not in the Jiangnan region, Sanhe rivals its charm. Compared to Zhouzhuang, the "water town of the Jiangnan," Sanhe’s waters are just as enchanting, but the "millennium-old town" also offers deeper cultural richness and a more thought-provoking historical legacy. As Chairman Xu Zifang said: “Sanhe has advantages over Zhouzhuang in tourism development—not only does it have natural beauty, but also cultural depth.”

There is no shortage of cultural attractions in Sanhe, each like a demurely beautiful woman that captivates and never tires the eye. But most captivating of all is that weathered stretch of ancient city wall. This section is merely a "fragment" of the original Taiping-built wall—less than a hundred meters remain today, along with one preserved ancient gate and a historic cannon emplacement. Historical records indicate that the original Sanhe city wall was designed to be 700 meters long from east to west, 200 meters wide from north to south, 8 meters high, and over 2 meters thick. To construct this wall, the Taiping Army transported materials from surrounding towns, including memorial archways, stone tablets, and stone mortars, while the earthen material was sourced locally. Today, the moat surrounding Sanhe Ancient Town is said to have been dug during the wall’s construction.

During the war years, it was nothing short of miraculous that the Taiping soldiers managed to build such a stronghold in just 33 days. Today, looking at this wall that carries the blood and aspirations of so many heroes, the weathered old bricks and stones stand as striking reminders of a distant past. Most famously, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, who gained renown in the Battle of Sanhe Victory, remain honorably and indelibly linked to this triumph in the history of Sanhe Town.

The year 1858 brought an unforgettable chapter to Sanhe. The rule of the late Qing Dynasty was crumbling under internal and external pressures—facing both the advanced weaponry of Western powers and the opposition of the Taiping peasant regime. In August of that year, the peace of this small Anhui town was shattered by the Xiang Army and the Taiping Army. On November 3, Xiang Army commander Li Xubin led 6,000 elite troops to the outskirts of Sanhe Town. On November 7, they launched attacks on nine enemy strongholds from three directions, leaving the Taiping regime in dire straits. At that moment, Chen Yucheng, who was fighting on the eastern front, rushed to Sanhe overnight. Together with the reinforcements led by Li Xiucheng and the forces of Wu Dinggui stationed in Sanhe, they encircled and annihilated over 6,000 of Li Xubin’s troops, killing both Li Xubin and Zeng Guohua. The Battle of Sanhe dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of the Xiang Army, greatly boosting the morale of the Taiping troops in the later stages of the rebellion, stabilizing the situation, and reviving the Taiping cause from the brink of collapse, sparking a new revolutionary fervor. For Chen Yucheng personally, the “Victory of Sanhe” undoubtedly became the most glorious “chapter” of his short but illustrious life.

The preservation or disappearance of each section of the wall has its own story. The section of the old wall visible between Chaoyang Gate and the artillery tower survived the Cultural Revolution unscathed because a boiler house (where boiled water was sold) stood on the outside, and simple residential buildings were on the inside. The fragmented remains of Sanhe Ancient Town’s city wall—whether vanished or still standing—are all testaments to history.

Sanhe Town: Located in central Anhui, Sanhe Town sits southwest of Hefei, the provincial capital, under its jurisdiction. It borders the cities of Chaohu and Lu’an, stretching to the shores of Chaohu Lake, with the Fengle, Hangbu, and Xiaonan rivers flowing through it. It lies on the golden tourism route between the national 5A-level scenic spots of Huangshan and Jiuhua Mountain. The Hefei–Tongling Highway runs through the town, while the Beijing–Kowloon Railway and the Hefei–Tongling–Huangshan Expressway pass nearby, ensuring excellent transportation links and a prime location. The town covers an area of 70 square kilometers, with 19 villages and 7 neighborhood committees, and a population of 72,000. The Sanhe Ancient Town scenic area alone spans 4.71 square kilometers and has a population of over 30,000. … Sanhe Town detailed information++