Fuxi Platform

Fuxi Platform

Fuxi Platform is a national AAA-level tourist attraction and a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.

Fuxi Platform is located 2 kilometers north of Xinle City, to the east of Hejiazhuang Village and north of Wujiazhuang Village, at longitude 114°43′40″ east and latitude 38°23′30″ north, with an elevation ranging from 103.5 meters to 51.8 meters. The site area centers around Fuxi Platform, extending east to the west of Tongyizhuang, south to the north of Gangtou Village, west to the east of Huangjiazhuang, and north to the south of Zhongtong Village. The total area of the site is 16 million square meters.

Fuxi Platform was built by stacking three layers of high-quality local sandy soil, with a total height of 9.206 meters. The lowest first layer is 2.898 meters high, 102.58 meters long from north to south, and 87.42 meters wide from east to west; the second layer is 2.118 meters high, 89.43 meters long from north to south, and 64.6 meters wide from east to west; the top third layer is 4.19 meters high, 53.68 meters long from north to south, 23.8 meters wide at its broadest point and 17.9 meters at its narrowest, forming an irregular octagon known as the Bagua Platform, also called the Fuxi Trigram Platform.

The ancient Fuxi Platform site has abundant cultural relics, representing three cultural strata: Neolithic, Shang-Zhou, and Warring States–Han. In 1994, during the restoration of the Dragon Master Hall and the Sleeping Palace, three temple foundation remains were discovered beneath their bases. Research confirmed that they date back to the Han, Tang, and Ming dynasties respectively.

In the early 1950s, there was still a man-made rammed earth city wall surrounding Fuxi Platform, standing 4 meters high, 3 meters wide at the top, and 8 meters wide at the base, stretching 1200 meters in length. To the south of the wall stood a screen wall 4 meters high, 1.5 meters thick at the top, 4 meters thick at the base, and 15 meters long. To this day, traces of the rammed earth layers can still be found on the northern side of Fuxi Platform.

Within a shallow surface layer of over one meter around the platform base and adjacent areas of Fuxi Platform, numerous architectural components and fragments of early pottery utensils have been found, including gray pottery, sandy gray pottery, coarse and fine rope-patterned, cloud-patterned, and meander-patterned tiles from the Shang-Zhou, Warring States, and early Han periods, as well as ceramic fragments of daily utensils from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

In 1985, during a cultural relics survey conducted by the Relics Office, a Neolithic stone axe was collected from Hulu Head at Fuxi Platform, along with six pottery artifacts from the Shang-Zhou and Warring States periods. Additionally, two bronze artifacts—a tripod and a food vessel—were unearthed 300 meters south of Zhongtong Village.

In 1980 and 1985, two archaeological excavations were carried out 1400 meters northwest of Fuxi Platform in Zhongtong Village, unearthing three tombs dating to the early Warring States period. A total of 54 bronze artifacts and 4 pottery items were recovered. In 1980, 30 bronze artifacts were excavated and are now housed in the provincial museum. In 1985, 28 artifacts were found, including 24 bronze items and 4 pottery pieces. Among the bronze artifacts, there were two first-grade relics: two bronze pots with red copper inlay and bird-animal patterns, each with a mouth diameter of 12.8 cm, a height of 40 cm, and a base diameter of 15 cm. There were also three second-grade relics: one coiled-line patterned bronze vessel (mouth diameter 36.3 cm, height 44.5 cm, base diameter 36.5 cm), one gold-inlaid cloud-patterned belt hook (length 6.3 cm), and one gold-inlaid cloud-patterned round-hilt sword (total length 35.9 cm, blade length 21.8 cm, width 3 cm). There were eleven third-grade relics, including plain-handled tall-stemmed bronze beans, plain flat-based vessels, flat-shaft swords, handle-equipped double-wing arrowheads, and triple-ringed halberds. These discoveries indicate that although the Zhongshan State in the early Warring States period was heavily influenced by Central Plains Huaxia culture, it still retained characteristics of northern nomadic cultures, reflecting mutual integration and cultural exchange among ethnic groups.

In 1995 and 2001, to support the construction and landscaping of the Fuxi Cultural City, the Xinle City Relics Office conducted two large-scale archaeological excavations, uncovering 5 Neolithic stone tools: one stone knife (willow-leaf shaped, fully polished, with blades on both sides and slightly curved), one stone adze (coarse texture, fully polished, rectangular, with a flat blade and slight tilt), one stone wheel (fully polished, 5.2 cm in diameter, 0.8 cm thick), and one stone shovel (fully polished, 16.7 cm long, 7.7 cm wide, 1.9 cm thick), as well as one bone tool (rectangular, 18 cm long, 2.3 cm wide, 0.2 cm thick). All six stone and bone tools exhibit typical Neolithic features. Among pottery fragments, 73 could be identified by shape, while over 500 could not. Most were gray pottery, sandy gray pottery, and architectural components such as coarse and fine rope-patterned tube tiles, slab tiles, square bricks, and large bricks from the Shang-Zhou, Warring States, and early Han periods. There were also early pottery and sandy gray pottery, red pottery, and utilitarian objects with coarse and fine rope patterns or wheel patterns—including jars, tripods, beans, urns, basins, and water-percolating well pipes—from those periods. From the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, 10 identifiable porcelain fragments included white, brown, celadon, and black-glazed plates, bowls, wine cups, and jars. Representative artifacts from these two excavations—such as tiles, ridge decorations, trapezoidal bricks, and square bricks—reflect the architectural characteristics of Fuxi Platform across different eras and further confirm its historical development and evolution.

Through years of artifact collection and several archaeological excavations, a total of 170 artifacts have been unearthed around Fuxi Platform, including 17 first-, second-, and third-grade relics, with the rest being general artifacts.

Address: Located 2 kilometers north of Xinle City, to the east of Hejiazhuang Village and north of Wujiazhuang Village.

Transportation: By car, take the Beijing–Shenzhen Expressway, exit at Xinle, head west to East Ring Road, then north, pass the Beijing–Guangzhou Railway and Wujiazhuang Village, and go north along Fuxi Road to reach the site. Directional signs to Fuxi Platform are available within Xinle City.