China Yellow River Altar

　　The China Yellow River Altar is situated on the west bank of the Yellow River in the Jinshawan Ecological Agriculture Pilot Zone, Qingtongxia City. It backs onto the Helan Mountain Range, with the Niushou Mountain standing across the river, nestled by the sweeping bend of the mighty Yellow River on the left and leaning against the mouth of the Qingtong Gorge on the right. Looking down from the Altar, the Yellow River and its floodplains form a perfect Taiji (Yin-Yang) symbol.

　　The estimated investment for the China Yellow River Altar is 1

　　The China Yellow River Altar innovatively uses bronze to cast the Meditation Gratitude Archway, the Gratitude Archway, and the Ritual Gratitude Archway, expressing the Chinese nation’s sentiment of remembering one’s roots, gratitude, reverence, and praises for the Mother Yellow River.

　　In its construction, the China Yellow River Altar has filled multiple historical gaps and created several firsts in Chinese cultural history: it is the first time the “Four Instruments”—the Armillary Sphere, the Seismograph, the Compass, and the Sundial—have been displayed together; it is the first time the 60 deities of the Chinese zodiac have been researched and unearthed; and it is the first time stele-bearing turtle sculptures have been cast in bronze...

　　Every artwork within the altar can be regarded as a masterpiece of art, interpreting and reproducing from various perspectives the eternal mysteries and cultural threads left by the Yellow River.

　　The three bronze memorial archways also represent an unprecedented innovation. In ancient China, there were wooden and stone archways, but never bronze ones. The construction of bronze archways marks the first in Chinese history, and they incorporate architectural styles and cultural elements of the Han, Western Xia, and Hui ethnic groups, filling a gap in the history of Chinese architecture. On the Yellow River Altar, these towering and majestic bronze archways showcase the vicissitudes and profundity of Yellow River culture.

　　Twenty-Four Solar Terms Pillars, standing nine meters tall with a diameter of 1.2 meters, are erected on the Farming Culture Avenue, narrating the origins of the twenty-four solar terms. From ancient times to the present, introductions to the solar terms existed only in text, not in imagery. The China Yellow River Altar invited experts to research and compile 24 vivid illustrations that depict the specific content of the solar terms in both image and text, filling a gap in the history of farming culture.

　　In the center of the Farming Culture Avenue stand 18 massive stone drums. Drum script is the earliest form of Chinese stone-engraved writing, also known as the “ancestor of stone engravings.” The Yellow River Altar adopts this ancient artistic form to record the agricultural policies throughout history, from ancient times through the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, the Republic of China, up to January 1, 2006, when agricultural taxes were abolished.

　　Along both sides of the Cultural Avenue are 18 giant bronze bamboo slips. These house China’s ancient cultural classics—the Four Books and Five Classics, the Quran, the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, Sun Tzu’s Art of War, the Tao Te Ching, the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, and four agricultural texts—featuring their most essential content carved into the slips to inspire future generations.

　　The casting of the three grand artifacts—the Yellow River Tripod, the Yellow River Bell, and the Yellow River Drum—each showcases the unique temperament of Yellow River culture. The Yellow River Tripod, also called the Mother River Tripod, symbolizes the historical origin of the Chinese nation’s “casting of nine tripods to establish the nine regions,” weighing 8.9 tons and hailed as the “Yellow River’s Greatest Tripod.” The Yellow River Bell is adorned with auspicious motifs of Yellow River culture such as the “Taiji,” “Bagua,” “River Chart,” “Luo Book,” “Azure Dragon,” “White Tiger,” “Vermilion Bird,” “Black Tortoise,” and Helan Mountain rock paintings, and is acclaimed as the Yellow River’s First Bell. Weighing 6 tons, the Yellow River Drum is currently the largest bronze drum in China.

　　Source: Yichuan County Government Website