Wan'an Qianhu Garrison Town

Wan'an Qianhu Garrison Town

Wan'an Qianhu Garrison Town is a cultural heritage site protected by Luoyuan County.

The walls of Wan'an Qianhu Garrison Town were constructed from granite square stones. The wall is 1,773 meters in circumference, 5.30 meters high, and features 827 crenels, 13 guard posts, 18 watchtowers, as well as three gates on the east, west, and south sides, each topped with a gate tower. The town is surrounded by sea on three sides, small yet strategically solid, with a harbor beneath the west gate capable of mooring ships. Today, only three sections of the ruined wall, one gate base, and one artillery battery remain.

Stone-paved streets within the town follow the contours of the mountain and stretch from north to south. Due to its geography—narrower in the southwest and broader in the northeast, resembling a gourd—it was historically called "Gourd Town." Historical records indicate that in the past, the stone-paved streets were lined with neat rows of houses, bustling with a population of over a thousand households. The town housed temples such as Zhusheng Temple, Guansheng Hall, Tianhou Palace, Wenchang Shrine, Guanyin Pavilion, and Haichao Hermitage. Most of these structures no longer exist, except for the Zhusheng Pagoda, which has survived wars and weathering.

The beacon tower has a mound-like structure built with block stones. Its top is rectangular in shape. The smoke signal mound of the beacon tower stands 5.0 meters high, with each side of the base measuring approximately 12 meters, and each side of the top opening about 8 meters. The hearth pit used for lighting the fire is 2.30 meters long, 0.65 meters wide, and 0.50 meters deep. Only a small portion of the stone blocks on the east and west sides of the beacon mound have collapsed, while the main structure—including the adjacent hearth pit—remains intact. Even parts of the walls of the barracks and hayloft attached to the beacon mound are still preserved.

According to the *Bamin Tongzhi* (Comprehensive Gazetteer of Eight Provinces) and the *Fuzhou Prefecture Gazetteer* from the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty: In the 20th year of the Hongwu reign during the Ming Dynasty (1387 AD), Wan'an Ancient Town was built over ten years by artisans summoned by Marquis of Jiangxia Zhou Dexing from the four prefectures of Fu (Fuzhou), Xing (Xinghua), Zhang (Zhangzhou), and Quan (Quanzhou). Ye Xianggao once remarked: "Zhendong is solid and strong, while Wan'an is small yet perilous—thus hard to conquer."

Qing dynasty's Tu Zhiyao wrote in *Records of Hometown Scenery*: "Wan'an Town is bounded by the sea on one side and mountains on the other. Therefore, even when pirate fleets under Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong numbered in the tens of thousands, with weapons gleaming in the sun, they repeatedly attacked Wan'an but never succeeded in taking it."

In September 1661 (the 18th year of the Shunzhi reign during the Qing Dynasty), as part of the "Coastal Evacuation" policy, all residents within the town were forcibly relocated inland, leaving Wan'an Ancient Town an empty city.

During the Qing Dynasty, due to its important coastal defense position, Wan'an Ancient Town was garrisoned by over a thousand flag soldiers.

On February 25, 1981, the remaining sections of Wan'an Ancient Town’s walls were listed among the first batch of key cultural heritage protection sites in Fuqing County.