Beitaishang Site

Beitaishang Site

The Beitaishang Site is a cultural heritage protection unit of Shandong Province.

The Beitaishang Site is situated near the Datai area west of Beitaishang Village, Yangzhuang Town, Tengzhou City, stretching about half a kilometer in length. Artifacts collected from the site include cone-shaped and “ghost-face” tripod leg fragments, brown pottery gui shards, jar rims, and li vessel rims. Most of the pottery is sand-tempered brown ware, some decorated with cord marks. One antler tool was also found, showing clear signs of use. This site is rich in content, encompassing several historical periods including the Longshan, Yin, Western Zhou, and Han dynasties. It was designated as a municipal-level key cultural heritage protection unit in 1980.

To the west of the village lies an earthen platform, referred to in Huang’s poem as the “platform,” locally known as “Zhang Gelao’s Forest-Watching Platform.” It bears a protection marker for the “Beitaishang Site,” which is a municipal-level cultural heritage site, though today it has become a vegetable garden. To the west of the platform flows the Xue River. Over years of erosion, the riverbanks have formed near-vertical cliffs over ten meters high. The exposed soil layers contain traces of human activity spanning from the 7,000-year-old Beixin Culture, the 4,000-year-old Longshan Culture, the 3,000-year-old Yueshi Culture, through the Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang, and Song dynasties, up to modern times—like a thick history book of strata, with each dynasty represented by a layer of earth, stacked upon each other, each “page” representing a thousand years...

The Forest-Watching Platform, also called the “Gelao Platform,” was built in the early Northern Song Dynasty by Gelao Zhang Xiaochun. Legend has it that Zhang Gelao built his own tomb in the Zhang family woodland across the river from the village. Fearing it might be seized by others, he constructed a three-tiered earthen platform over six zhang tall, from which he climbed daily to keep watch. Though centuries of wind and rain have eroded its original grandeur, the platform has left behind the present-day Beitaishang Site, seemingly whispering the stories of its past.

In 2013, the Beitaishang Site was designated as part of the fourth batch of provincial-level cultural heritage protection units by the People’s Government of Shandong Province.

Yangzhuang Town: Located in the southeastern part of Tengzhou City, Yangzhuang Town got its name “Yangzhuang” (Sheep Village) from the legend that Fan Li, a statesman from the Warring States period, once herded sheep here. Covering an area of 128 square kilometers, it has a population of 81,000. In 2003, the town’s GDP reached 550 million yuan, with fixed asset investment at 70 million yuan, local fiscal revenue at 13.91 million yuan, including 7.1 million yuan in district-level revenue.

Yangzhuang Town enjoys a strategic location, situated at the junction of Tengzhou, Shanting, and Xuecheng districts. The Jizao Highway and Zaomu Expressway run east-west, while the Shanjue Highway extends north-south, forming a comprehensive “three vertical and three horizontal” transportation network within the town. … Yangzhuang Town detailed information++

Further reading:

· Fourth Batch of Shandong Provincial Cultural Heritage Protection Units