Former Site of Beiwu County (Dingling Commandery)

Former Site of Beiwu County (Dingling Commandery)

The former site of Beiwu County (Dingling Commandery) is located at the confluence of the Shahe and Huihe rivers in Wuyang County. Originally consisting of two towns — one to the south and one to the north — the southern town was situated in what is now Beiwudu Fort, while the northern town was in the area around Yanliu Village on Hebei Street. After Murong Nong of the Later Yan destroyed the Dingling City, the two counties of Wuyang and Dingling were merged into one, named Beiwu County, with its seat established here. From the Wei Dynasty to the early Sui Dynasty, Dingling Commandery was also located here. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, a patrol and inspection office known as the Beiwu Town Patrol Inspectorate was set up here, which was later renamed Beiwu Ferry Town during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Numerous cultural relics and historic sites can be found in the area. Nearby are ruins from the Yangshao and Longshan cultures, and within the town, China’s second-largest Shang Dynasty li (a type of ancient cooking vessel) has been discovered, exquisitely crafted. The southern town marks the site of the Sui Dynasty’s Beiwu County. Along a roughly 2.5-kilometer stretch of the riverbank, a wealth of pottery and porcelain fragments has been unearthed, with the thickest cultural layer reaching approximately four meters.