Hedou Fort

Hedou Fort

Hedou Fort is located on Menzui Mountain to the west of Hedou Village, south of Dahu Town in Shantou City. Hedou, also known as Hedoukou or Hedoumen, is the seaport of Dahu and a docking site for merchant ships. It is also a strategic coastal defense location. In the 56th year of the Kangxi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1717), Yang Lin, the Viceroy of Liangguang, petitioned and was granted permission to build a fort here. The fort faces southeast by south. It is entirely constructed with lime consolidated from shells, and its architectural structure remains well-preserved to this day. The walls, crenellated tops, as well as the walkways and platforms atop the crenellations, still retain their original appearance. The wall rises 3.8 meters from ground level to the top of the crenellations, with a thickness of 1.8 meters. The crenellation walls are 1.2 meters high and 0.5 meters thick. The gate of the fort is made of granite. The gate is 1.9 meters high and 1.2 meters wide. Atop the fort, there is also a turret that is 4.1 meters high, 9.6 meters long, and 10.6 meters wide. On the inner western side of the fort, there is a stone staircase built against the wall, consisting of 11 steps that lead directly up to the crenellation top. Outside the fort, there remains a stele titled “Inscription in Praise of the Construction of the Three-Tiered Hedou Sallou Fort”; the fort stele. The stele is 2.68 meters high and 1.10 meters wide. The title is inscribed in seal script, recessed, while the main text is in regular script, also recessed. Due to exposure on the mountain, the inscriptions have become somewhat faded.

According to records, this fort originally belonged to the Nan’ao Dahu Battalion. It had 12 barracks, six cannons, one specially assigned deputy officer, and 32 soldiers. It was equipped with two offshore warships, one pontoon boat, and one fast oared boat. It is one of the more intact early Qing Dynasty forts remaining within the Shantou area to date.

Dahu Subdistrict: Dahu Subdistrict is located in the central part of the - District, bordering Guang’ao Subdistrict to the east, extending to the Dahu section of the Shenshan Expressway to the west, facing the - to the south, and connecting to the Shantou Bay Bridge to the north. It covers a total area of 20.2 square kilometers. Established in early 1987, it governs 10 residential committees including HaoBin, Dahu, Dabu, Chigang, Chilong, Qinglan, Qinglin, Qingyan, Gezhou, and Xidui, as well as three fishing economic cooperatives: Baofan, Fangdiao, and Chihao, with a total population of over 73,000 and nearly 30,000 overseas Chinese and compatriots from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. It is the seat of the District 0 government and serves as the political, economic, and cultural center of the entire district.

The industrial foundation is relatively solid... More detailed information about Dahu Subdistrict++