The Site of Daiwangcheng

The Site of Daiwangcheng

The Site of Daiwangcheng is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Site of Daiwangcheng is located around the site of the Daiwangcheng Town government office, approximately 20 li east of Yu County in Hebei Province. It is a heritage site dating from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Han Dynasty.

Forty li south of the ancient city lies a spur of the Hengshan Mountain Range, characterized by its rugged terrain. The site has an oval layout, stretching 3,400 meters from east to west, 2,200 meters from north to south, with a perimeter of 9,265 meters. The city walls are 3 to 12 meters high, with 11 horse-face battlements on the southern wall, and the remains of nine city gates can still be faintly discerned. The southeastern part of the city was the palace area, which is quite expansive, where large-scale rammed earth foundations from the Han Dynasty have been discovered. Outside the city are numerous earthen burial mounds from the Han Dynasty, with 63 surviving mounds that were the tombs of royalty and nobility at the time.

The oval layout of the Daiwangcheng site is extremely rare among Han Dynasty city ruins and provides important physical evidence for the study of Han Dynasty urban planning and the history of Chinese city construction. Its northern location also makes it highly significant for research on cultural exchanges between China’s northern ethnic minorities and the Han people. (National Cultural Heritage Administration)

Further Reading:

· Second Batch of Hebei Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units