Engjiang Ancient Town Scenic Area

Engjiang Ancient Town Scenic Area

Engjiang Ancient Town Scenic Area is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction and a cultural heritage site protected by Jiangxi Province.

Engjiang Ancient Town Site (including Ming Dynasty city walls, East Gate, ruins of the Ming-era County Magistrate’s Office, and ruins of the Shangshu Mansion)

The Engjiang Ancient Town Site is located in the old town area of Engjiang Town, Yongfeng County. It stretches from Xujia Village in Tianbao Community to the east, reaches the eastern bank of the Gexi River to the west, extends to the confluence of the Gexi River and the Engjiang River to the south, and borders the southern edge of Niejia Village to the north, forming a gourd-shaped area oriented from northeast to southwest. The straight-line distance from north to south is 1,050 meters, and from east to west it is 940 meters, with a total area of about 550,000 square meters.

The existing city wall starts from the southern edge of Niejia Village, runs from west to east to the East Gate of Xujia Village, then follows the Engjiang Riverbank southwestward to the confluence of the Gexi River and the Engjiang River, and continues along the Gexi River from south to north to the Liuyi Bridge, totaling over 2,500 meters in length. The wall is built with bricks on both sides and rammed earth in the middle, with a base width of 5.0 meters, and the surviving upper width averages 3.8 meters. The remaining height ranges from 3–4 meters in the northern and northeastern sections, 2–3 meters along the southern and southeastern river sections, and 1–2 meters on the western side. The overall structure and layout of the wall remain largely intact.

The establishment of Yongfeng County dates back to the Song Dynasty. In the first year of the Hehe era (1054), five townships of Jishui were carved out to form Yongfeng County, which initially had no city walls. In the seventh year of the Shaoxing era, County Magistrate Li E built official offices south of Yanchan Temple and constructed an earthen wall, stretching one thousand zhang in length and four xun in height, with two gates to the north and south. This wall was later abolished during the Yuan Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, Magistrate Che Liang rebuilt the city walls on the original site, establishing four gates: East, South, West, and North. By the third year of the Jiajing era (1523), Magistrate Shang Dajie carried out large-scale renovations, rebuilding the walls with bricks and increasing the number of gates to six. In the fortieth year of Jiajing (1560), Grand Secretary of War Nie Bao advocated for expanding the city’s scale, bringing the number of gates to eight: the East Gate (Taian Gate), the West Gate (Xingxian Gate), the South Gate (Cheng’en Gate), the North Gate (Yongding Gate), the Small East Gate (Yongqing Gate), the New North Gate (Guanglian Gate), and two unnamed small west and south gates. During the Qing Dynasty, the walls underwent multiple repairs during the Qianlong, Daoguang, and Xianfeng reigns.

The Engjiang Ancient Town Site is currently the most completely preserved and largest-scale ancient Ming Dynasty city site discovered in Jiangxi Province. Its layout is clear, the wall structure remains intact, and it holds significant architectural and historical information from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as well as exceptional cultural heritage value. It is of great academic importance for the study of urban development in the Ming Dynasty. In 2003, the ancient city wall was designated as a county-level cultural relics protection unit by the Yongfeng County People's Government.

Further Reading:

· Fourth Batch of Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units