Ruins of the Ancient City of Yingchang Road

The Ruins of the Ancient City of Yingchang Road

The ruins of the ancient city of Yingchang Road are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The ruins of the ancient city of Yingchang Road are located by Lake Dalinor in Darhan-Uul Sumu, Hexigten Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Also known as the City of Prince Lu, historical records from the Yuan Dynasty state that Tesumun originally lived in Erguna on the Hulunbuir Grassland and assisted Genghis Khan in rising to power. His daughter was Genghis Khan’s first wife. In 1214, Genghis Khan stayed at Lake Dalinor during the summer and granted the area north of Saihanba and Dalainuoer, south of the Xilamulun River, and extending to the northern part of Weichang to Tesumun’s sons. In 1270, Hongjila clan member Woluochen and his princess consort Nangjiazheng requested permission from the imperial court to build a city by Lake Dalinor for residence, which was granted by Kublai Khan. The city was established as Yingchang Prefecture and later elevated to Yingchang Road. In April 1287, Kublai Khan led an army of 500,000 to campaign against Nayan and made his temporary residence at Yingchang Road. In 1295, Tesumun’s great-grandson Manzitai was ordered to suppress the rebel forces of Hai Du and Duwa, achieving a swift victory. Emperor Chengzong of Yuan then ennobled Manzitai as Prince Lu, governing Jining Road in Shandong. Since then, people have referred to Yingchang Road as the City of Prince Lu.

Officially established in the 22nd year of the Yuan Dynasty (1271 AD), it was a city built by the Hongjila tribe during the Yuan Dynasty. In the Yuan era, it was one of the three great historic cities of the northern frontier, alongside Da’ning Road and Quanning Road. Centered around the ruins of the Yingchang Road city, the western outskirts feature the ruins of the White Pagoda Temple, while the northeastern outskirts contain a cluster of Yuan Dynasty tombs. To the east outside the city lie the ruins of the City God Temple and the Thirteen Obo Sites; to the south are the ruins of Guan Jiao. Southeast of the city, at the foot of Manduo Mountain, the ruins of Longxing Temple and Yingchang County have been discovered, forming a vast site cluster covering a total area of 20 square kilometers, all remarkably well-preserved.

The City of Prince Lu was rectangular in shape, measuring 800 meters from north to south and 650 meters from east to west. Inside the city, there was an inner citadel, square-shaped with sides 230 meters long, initially serving as the residence of the Prince Lu’s mansion and later as the emperor’s palace. In the central-northern part of the city were the foundations of palace buildings, with well-preserved white marble column bases, and gate tower structures on all four sides. The southern part featured a grid-like street layout forming the urban district. Additionally, within the city were sites such as the social altar, Confucian school, Confucius Temple, and Bao’en Temple, with thick white marble bases still clearly visible. Historical relics and artifacts abound. Historically, the City of Prince Lu served as a hub connecting the Yuan Dynasty’s Shangdu and Dadu in the south with Xilinhot, Holin, and Ulaanbaatar in the north. It was also a convergence point for goods transported from southern China to the north and a trading post for merchants traveling to Mongolia. At that time, a white pagoda built on the western mountain of the City of Prince Lu stood as a landmark, guiding the movement of camel caravans and merchant carts.

In 1368 AD, under pressure from the Ming army, Yuan Emperor Toghon Temür retreated from Dadu (present-day Beijing) and headed north to Yingchang, where he held out for two years before passing away in 1370. His son, Ayushiridara, succeeded him in Yingchang Road, adopted the reign title Xuanguang, and is historically known as the Northern Yuan. From then on, Yingchang Road became the capital of the Northern Yuan. In the early Ming Dynasty, it was renamed Yingchang Wei. During Emperor Chengzu of Ming’s northern expeditions, he stayed at Yingchang four times. It was later renamed Qingping Town and was destroyed by fire in the early Qing Dynasty. Yingchang Road, the last imperial capital of the Yuan Dynasty, holds countless treasures. Locals have long heard tales that when Emperor Toghon Temür retreated from Beijing to Yingchang, he carried with him a large amount of treasure. The Ming History records that after the fall of Yingchang, the Ming army seized a large quantity of gold ingots, jade tablets, ceremonial jade tablets, jade belts, and jade axes. There has also long been a local rumor that when Emperor Toghon Temür fled from Yingchang, he sank a vast amount of precious treasures he couldn’t take with him into Lake Dalinor or buried them in the Jingfan Tian Shuiyun Cave on Manduo Mountain.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units