Ancient Qinxī Underground Trench Warfare Site

Ancient Qinxī Underground Trench Warfare Site

The Ancient Qinxī Underground Trench Warfare Site is a cultural tourism attraction.

Wangle Village in Qinxī Township is located 14 kilometers west of Xiushan County. The history of trench warfare in China can be traced back to ancient times. In their struggle against oppression, the Miao people of ancient Xiushan employed trench warfare tactics, and the Ancient Qinxī Underground Trench Warfare Site provides evidence of this. In 1976, local residents discovered an intricate network of underground passages—winding and crisscrossing, running roughly east-west for about 1,000 meters, with a height of 1.5 meters and a width of 0.5 meters. Every approximately 10 meters, there were shelters large enough for one person to hide, and the walls featured earthen mounds used to hold lighting tools. The floor of the trench was flat, and the ceiling had an arched structure resembling the Chinese character “人” (person), allowing one person to move through while crouching. Faint traces of soot on the walls could still be discerned. During investigations, iron weapons and digging tools were also found. Preliminary research suggests that this underground trench was a defensive structure built by the Miao people during the Ming Dynasty.