Site of the Ancient Jingzhou Administration

Site of the Ancient Jingzhou Administration

The Site of the Ancient Jingzhou Administration is located on Jingzhou Street in Xiangyang City, with only ruins and broken walls remaining today. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the seat of the Jingzhou Governor was in Hanyang, Wuling (now part of Hunan), and Xiangyang was merely a county under the jurisdiction of Nanjun, Jingzhou. In the second year of the Chuping era (191 AD), Emperor Xian appointed Liu Biao as the Governor of Jingzhou, relocating the administrative center from Hanyang to Xiangyang. For the first time, Xiangyang—previously a third-tier local government site—rose to become the capital of Jingzhou, overseeing present-day Hubei and Hunan provinces as well as parts of Henan, Guizhou, and Guangdong-Guangxi. It became the political, military, economic, and cultural hub of the region. This change had a far-reaching influence on the social and historical development of the Xiangfan area.

According to the Xiangfan City Place Names Annals, Jingzhou Street is located in the eastern part of Xiangyang City, stretching 1.35 kilometers from North Dabeimen in the north to Sports Field Road in the south, with a width of 5–24 meters. In the Ming Dynasty, an arched gate was built at the northern section (demolished in 1996), with the inscription “Ancient Seat of Jingzhou” on the lintel. It was named Jingzhou Street because the administrative seat of the Jingzhou Governor during the Eastern Han Dynasty was located in Xiangyang. During the Qing Dynasty, the garrison command office was stationed here, and the street was briefly renamed Shoubisi Street. Before the liberation, it housed the Kuomintang’s Xiangyang County Party Committee and County Government. After the liberation, it served as the location of the Xiangyang Prefectural Committee and Prefectural Government of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1983, following the merger of the prefecture and city, it became the site of the Xiangfan Municipal Committee and Municipal Government. In 2006, the Xiangyang Municipal Committee and Government offices were relocated from Jingzhou Ancient Administration Street to Tanxi Road, and the area then became the site of the Xiangfan Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee and the Xiangfan Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The Xiangyang government restored the damaged wall of the ancient arched gate at the Site of the Ancient Jingzhou Administration using traditional construction methods. A new arched gate was also built. An arched gate refers to a side gate used by soldiers to defend the city walls during battles. The newly constructed arched gate stands 5 meters high and 3.95 meters wide. The previously damaged walls on either side of the old arched gate have been preserved in glass display cases, allowing visitors to view the weathered textures of the ancient walls from the outside.