Shaba Wei

Shaba Wei

Shaba Wei is a cultural heritage site protected by Longnan City.

Shaba Wei is located beside the Longguan Highway, 12.5 kilometers from Longnan County. It is a small walled village within Liren Town of Longnan County, featuring a rigorous structure and beautiful design. Surrounded by no other villages or houses, it stands out prominently and catches the eye. Built during the Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty, the residents are all surnamed Li, with the founding ancestors having migrated from Suyuan in Liren. By 2017, it had reached 14 generations. The scale of the walled village is relatively small, only accommodating about a dozen households with over 100 people.

The structure of the walled village is square. At each of the four corners, there is a three-story watchtower, while the living quarters are all two-story buildings. The overall dimensions are approximately 30 meters in both length and width. To the left of the main gate, one room is used to connect to the basement, tunnels, and watchtowers. On the right side, there are three living rooms and one watchtower room. The left and right wings contain six living rooms each, while the rear wing has five. In the center of the compound, there is only one small central hall. The rest of the space consists of courtyards.

The walled village faces south with its back against green mountains, overlooks Leifeng Mountain to the south, and sits in front of the Lianjiang River. Because of this, during spring floods and periods of rapidly rising water, the elderly, children, and women of Shaba Wei can sit and chat in the open area in front of the main gate while watching the floodwaters. Meanwhile, the men guard the riverbank to see if any firewood, bamboo, or timber floats down the Lianjiang River. According to elders, in the past, they didn’t need to go up the mountain to chop wood—collecting driftwood from the floods was enough to last them a whole year. They could also gather a lot of timber, which provided additional income.

The left side of the main gate is at a lower elevation. When constructing the walled village, the builders adapted to the terrain by making the single-story building on the left into a basement and tunnel. The basement and defensive tunnel on the left are about the height of one floor, level with the inner courtyard and other ground surfaces inside the walled village. The basement walls are dotted with gun ports, serving both defensive purposes and as ventilation openings. The basement also served as the pigsty and cattle pen for the villagers, contributing to better environmental hygiene.

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