Ancient City of Maiqiu

Ancient City of Maiqiu

The Ancient City of Maiqiu is a cultural heritage site protected by Shandong Province.

Ruins of the Ancient City Village at Maiqiu:

The ruins of the ancient city from the Warring States period are located 1 kilometer north of Gucheng Village in Huairen Town, Shanghe County. It was the Maiqiu settlement of the Qi State during the Spring and Autumn period and the site of the Li City during the Han Dynasty. According to the "Han Shi Waizhuan" and "Xin Xu. Zashi," Duke Huan of Qi once went hunting at Maiqiu. The site covers an area of approximately 90,000 square meters. Today, the city walls, courtyards, and remains of large buildings are still clearly distinguishable. The central part of the city is slightly lower, with walls on the east and west sides rising about 2 meters above the ground, extending over a hundred meters in length, standing 2.7 meters high, and reaching a maximum width of over 10 meters. To the west, there is a north-south thoroughfare, traditionally known as the horse-running path. To the south, there is a 2.7-meter-high drilling platform. Around the site, pottery basins, stone mills, stone rammers, pottery jars, pottery tiles, pottery dou (food vessels), and pottery li (tripod cauldrons) fragments have been frequently discovered. A relatively well-preserved wall was also unearthed, buried 0.5 meters underground. The wall was constructed with blue bricks and white lime. The bricks measure 0.5 meters in length and 0.3 meters in width. Nearby elderly farmers still use old names such as Chenghaizi (City Lake), Chengdong (East of the City), Chengnan (South of the City), and Shachang (Killing Ground) to distinguish surrounding plots of land.

The 1982 edition of the "Historical Atlas of China" indicates that the Maiqiu settlement was also located at this site, showing that from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, through the Eastern Han to the Northern Song Dynasty, this area had continuously been an urban settlement. According to expert research, the ancient city ruins date back to the Warring States period and have been designated as a county-level key cultural heritage protection unit.

Huairen Town: "Huairen Town is a municipal-level pilot town for small-town construction and a county-level economic experimental zone. It is located in the northwest of Shanghe County, Jinan City, at the junction of two cities and three counties, covering a total area of 59 square kilometers, with 53,000 mu of arable land, and governing 58 administrative villages, with a total population of 31,000. It was the first town in the county to achieve asphalt roads, cable TV, and running water in every village, and was also the county’s first telephone town. In 2005, the town's GDP reached 572.4 million yuan, local fiscal revenue totaled 2.53 million yuan, and the per capita net income was 4,159 yuan."

Small-town construction is now... More details about Huairen Town++

Further reading:

· Fourth Batch of Shandong Provincial Cultural Heritage Protection Units