Yanmen Pass: A Gate in the Frontier Wall
The pass in the Yanmen mountains north of Dai County: the corridor it controls, the Ming fort town of 1374 that stands there now, its three gatehouses, and the morning in 1937 that the gap was fought over.
Xinzhou.
Xinzhou is a prefecture-level city in the north-central part of Shanxi, known in older usage as Xiurong, bordering Hebei to the east, Shaanxi to the west and Inner Mongolia to the north-west. It covers 25,152 square kilometres and held 2,689,668 residents at the 2020 census; the prefecture is divided into one district, twelve counties and one county-level city. The land runs in three bands: the Guancen and Luya spurs of the Lüliang range in the west, the Yunzhong mountains and the Xinding basin in the middle, and the Hengshan, Wutai and Taihang mountains in the east. The Hutuo rises on Mount Wutai and leaves to the south-east; the Fen crosses the middle of the prefecture.
Xinzhou
The Tower over Daixian Old Town
The drum tower at the crossing of Dai County's old streets: its fire and rebuilding in the 1470s, the size of the present frame, and what the placard about the three passes was claiming.
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An Ice Cave in the Luya Mountains
A cave that keeps ice in a semi-arid prefecture: where it sits in the Luya range, what the surrounding scenic area holds, and the simple physics that lets old ice survive underground.
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Wutai Shan: A Mountain Built Over Centuries
Five flat-topped peaks, a foundation date in 68 AD, 47 surviving monasteries and two Buddhist traditions sharing one mountain: what the Wutai landscape holds, and what pilgrims do in it.
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Xiantong Temple and Its Bronze Hall
The oldest monastery on Wutai, rebuilt under the Tang, holds two experiments in material: a brick hall built without a beam, and a hall cast in bronze with ten thousand small Buddhas on its walls.
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Pusading, the Yellow Temple on the Hill
A Gelug monastery on the ridge above Taihuai: a Northern Wei foundation turned lama temple in 1656, yellow glazed tiles from 1683, 108 steps up, and two emperors' inscriptions still in place.
ReadTayuan Temple and Its White Pagoda
A Tibetan-style stupa of 1302 standing inside a Chinese temple court: brick under white lime, 75.3 metres high, with a Ming hall in front of it and a revolving library of scripture behind.
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Shuxiang Temple: The Figures in a Side Hall
A smaller Wutai temple with a long rebuild history, chosen for one room: a painted clay Manjushri 9.87 metres high, riding a suanni, with five hundred arhats painted across the walls.
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A Ruler's House Beside the River at Dingxiang
A family compound at Hebian in Dingxiang County, built by Yan Xishan in the 1920s and read through two listing dates: provincial protection in 1986, national in 2013.
ReadPlaces
Yanmen Pass
The pass in the Yanmen mountains north of Dai County: a Ming fort town of 1374 with three gatehouses, a rampart ten metres high and about a kilometre round, counted among the outer three passes.
Bianjing Tower
The drum tower at the crossing of Dai County's old streets: first raised in 1374, burned in 1471, rebuilt by 1476 to a height of forty metres, and used as the command post of the three-pass defence.
Wannian Ice Cave
A cave that keeps its ice outside the permafrost zone, in the Luya Mountain scenic area of Ningwu County, formed in the Quaternary about three million years ago where the Fen and Sanggan rise.
Mount Wutai
Five flat-topped peaks ring a Buddhist mountain in north-eastern Wutai County, 2,837 square kilometres of slope and valley holding 47 monasteries, the home of Manjushri and a World Heritage site since 2009.
Xiantong Temple
The largest and oldest monastery in Taihuai, founded in 68 AD and rebuilt under the Tang, with seven halls on its axis, a brick hall without beams and a hall cast in bronze in 1610.
Pusading
A Gelug monastery on Lingjiu Peak above Taihuai, converted to Tibetan Buddhism in 1656 and given yellow glazed roof tiles in 1683, reached by a stairway of 108 stone steps.
Tayuan Temple
A temple formed around a Yuan-dynasty stupa: the Great White Pagoda of 1302, 75.3 metres of brick under white lime, in a compound of more than 130 halls and houses.
Shuxiang Temple
A temple in south-western Taihuai, first built in the early Eastern Jin and rebuilt three times, holding a 9.87-metre Manjushri on a lion-like suanni, the tallest such figure on the mountain.
Yan Xishan Former Residence
The Yan family compound at Hebian in Dingxiang County, built by Yan Xishan in the 1920s and listed twice: a provincial protection unit in 1986, a national one in 2013.
Photo credits and rights
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The stone gate and wall of Yanmen Pass with visitors on the causeway.N509FZ / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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The same tower from the wall walk, showing the gate below it.aisccd / CC BY 3.0 · CC BY 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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The ice passage and timber stair of the Wannian Ice Cave.Underbar dk / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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Taihuai town in its valley on Mount Wutai, seen from above.663highland / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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The white brick hall with arched openings at Xiantong Temple.Brookqi / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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Pushading's yellow-tiled hall on Mount Wutai.Brookqi / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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The Great Manjushri Hall of Shuxiang Temple with its visitors.Yumeto / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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The main courtyard and hall of Yan Xishan's family residence at Hebian village, Dingxiang.Zhangzhugang / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
