The Liaoshangjing and Huailing Region

The Liaoshangjing and Huailing Region

The Liaoshangjing and Huailing Region is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Liaoshangjing and Huailing Region refers to the present-day Horqin Left Banner and Horqin Right Banner in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. This area not only contains the ancient city site of Liaoshangjing, the capital of the Liao Dynasty, but also three imperial mausoleum complexes: the Liaozuling, Liaohuailing, and Liaoqingling Mausoleums. A total of six emperors of the Liao Dynasty are buried in these mausoleums. On June 21, 1922, a Belgian missionary named Charles Van Slyke unearthed the tomb of Emperor Xingzong of Liao. From the site, he excavated the memorial epitaphs of Emperor Xingzong and Empress Renyi written in Khitan small script, as well as the epitaph of Empress Renyi in Chinese characters. This marked the first reappearance of the Khitan script after it had been lost for centuries, making it a sensational event in the academic world both in China and abroad. Its significance to the study of Liao history is comparable to that of oracle bone script to the study of the Shang Dynasty. Since then, Liao Dynasty steles have been successively unearthed in the Shangjing region.

Liaoshangjing and Huailing, The Liao Dynasty had five capitals, among which Zhongjing was one. Its ruins are located in Daming Township, Ningcheng County, Chifeng City. The city of Zhongjing was grand in scale, with a perimeter of 15 kilometers, consisting of an outer city, an inner city, and an imperial city. The outer city was 4,200 meters long from east to west and 3,500 meters wide from north to south. The remnants of its walls generally stood 4 to 6 meters high, with foundations 11–15 meters wide and earthen layers up to 10–15 centimeters thick. Archaeological findings indicate that the southern part of the outer city was the residential area for the Han people, featuring buildings such as market blocks, temples, residences, government offices, and post stations. To this day, two brick pagodas still stand as surface relics.

The inner city was situated slightly north of the center of the outer city, approximately 2,000 meters long from east to west and 1,500 meters wide from north to south. Its walls were equipped with roofed watchtowers, likely serving as administrative offices or military barracks. The imperial city was located slightly north of the center of the inner city, roughly square in shape. It measured about 1,000 meters in length, though its walls have long since been destroyed. It was the residential area for the Khitan nobility and included palaces and storehouses. Today, faint ruins of the palaces can still be seen. The ruins of the Liao Zhongjing are important historical evidence for studying the survival and development of the ancient Khitan people and hold extremely high archaeological value.