Ruins of the Yellow River Plank Road

　　The ancient Yellow River plank road is situated on the steep cliffs and precipices along the northern bank, just beside the Yellow River, downstream from the Sanmenxia Dam. There are two such roads in total. One is higher above the river surface, while the other is lower, both carved out next to the impact zones of the rocky cliffs.

　　In ancient China, before the Tang Dynasty, the capital was mostly located in the Guanzhong region. To ensure the supply of grain and provisions to the capital Chang’an and the military garrisons in the northwest, a large amount of grain had to be transported annually via the Yellow River to the Guanzhong area — this was the historically renowned Yellow River grain transport system. However, the treacherous waters of the Sanmenxia section, a necessary passage for this transport route, posed great danger: eight out of ten boats would be swallowed by the river. “The Ghost Gate lies deep, spanning a hundred boat-poles; the Human Gate is cramped, even more perilous than a cage. Boatmen shout at the crossing as blood is spilled, and lives weigh lighter than a feather within arm’s reach.” Starting from the Western Han Dynasty, during every dry season, large amounts of manpower and resources were mobilized to dredge this section of the Yellow River and to carve out plank roads. The so-called plank road refers to narrow stone pathways chiseled out along the sheer cliffs on both banks of the Yellow River. Where the path was interrupted, rows of deep square holes were carved, wooden stakes were inserted, and planks were laid to form a walkway, enabling boatmen to pull ropes and navigate upstream.

　　Today, when visiting the ancient plank road, you can still find numerous square holes and bull-nose-shaped perforations carved one after another along the walls of the road. These square holes are scattered across the stone walls of the entire plank road, numbering about eight to nine hundred. In ancient times, wooden stakes were driven into these holes to assist people in climbing the cliffs. The “bull-nose” holes were used to tie ropes, allowing the boatmen to pull themselves up, and in times of stormy waves, boats could also be secured nearby. The exact time when the plank road was carved remains unknown. The earliest existing stone inscription dates back to the first year of the Pinghe era during the reign of Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty (150 AD). However, this inscription was carved on a repaired section of the plank road, indicating that the original construction must have occurred even earlier. The plank road also features inscriptions from the Wei, Sui, Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties.