Shahu Fort

Shahu, or Shahukou, is a pass in Youyu County, in the north-western corner of Shuozhou prefecture, and it is named among the gates along the western end of the Ming wall. The county is large and thinly settled: 1,965 square kilometres, a seat at Xincheng town, and 88,212 residents at the 2020 census. Shahu is known from two quite different records. One is the migration called zou xikou, walking out the western gate, in which it served as the road from central and northern Shanxi into central and western Inner Mongolia. The other is the Qing customs house at the pass, which levied duty chiefly on timber and was run by Manchu officials appointed from 1662.