The Ghost Gate Pass

The Ghost Gate Pass

The Ghost Gate Pass

The Gui Gate Pass, also known as the Ghost Gate Pass, is located in the Gui Gate Pass Team, Langping Village, Langping Township, Bobai County, Yulin City, about 9 kilometers from downtown Bobai. This pass was first built during the Han Dynasty, with a checkpoint established at the border to inspect travelers. In the fourth year of the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty (1371), Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang decreed that the name “Ghost Gate Pass” be officially changed to “Gui Gate Pass.” The pass features perilous terrain, with towering peaks and layered ridges, mist-shrouded mountain paths and cloud-revealed bird trails. It combines ancient military relics, natural ecological landscapes, and mountain village charm, making it an ancient passageway with over two thousand years of history. It served as an important link between the overland Silk Road and the maritime Silk Road, as well as a cultural crossroads between inland and maritime civilizations. Its fame has long rivaled that of the ends of the earth. This is a beautiful and mystical ancient post road, where sections of stone-paved passes, arched stone bridges, flagstone pathways, and the unique wooden “Yingtai Tree Bridge” spanning the creek still remain. During the Ming Dynasty’s Jiajing era, Jin Lu, a regional official and magistrate of Bobai County, wrote in his poem “Passing Through Baizhou on the Way to Xingye”: “The official road cuts through rugged gorges, the bamboo sedan glides under evening skies. The murmuring waters seem to speak, the winding hills exude deep feeling. Wild birds greet you with their calls, forest blossoms glow in the sun.” To this day, the Gui Gate Pass Team in Langping Village, Langping Township, not only retains the names of the pass, the locality, and the village, but also preserves ancient stone-paved passes, arched stone bridges, stone-flagged pathways, and the world-unique Yingtai Tree Bridge—also called the Bridge of No Return—spanning the creek. It is one of the key sites for studying the culture of the “Ghost Gate Pass” and the Green Pearl culture. According to measurements by authoritative scientific institutions, the area has the highest negative ion concentration in the mountains, reaching up to 210,000 per cubic meter, earning it the title of a natural forest oxygen bar. The Gui Gate Pass leaves an impression of being ancient, serene, elegant, and extraordinary, holding great value for local historical and cultural research as well as tourism development.