Songpan Ancient City

Songpan Ancient City, or Songpan Ancient Town, known as Songzhou Town in ancient times, was the famous military base on the cutting edge of the frontier from the time of the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907) in history due to its advantageous situation geographically, which was considered the "west portal of Sichuan". It is the closest big town to the Huanglong National Park and the Jiu-Huang Airport, which also services Jiuzhaigou Valley National Park.

Songpan Ancient City was built during Tang Dynasty and it was later rebuilt during Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). Songpan was an important military post. It was also an important economic and trading center for horse and tea exchange between Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Tibet. In August 1935, led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, the retreating Chinese Communist Army marched through the marshes on the plateau of Songpan to advance to the north western province.

The town as a whole consists of both an inner city and an outer city. There are five city gates in the inner city, facing north, south, east, west and southwest. There are also two city gates in the outer city. Each gate was built from vast flagstones, with its ceiling shaped in a semi circle. Stones at the base of the gates are embellished with delicate engravings.

Constructed from giant blue bricks, each of which is twenty inches long, ten inches wide and five inches thick, the city wall is approximately four miles long and over 33 feet high, covering an area of nine square miles. The bricks were made of sticky rice, lime and Chinese wood oil and each weighs 30 kilograms, guaranteeing the strength of the city wall.

Standing on the city wall, visitors can feast their eyes on a spectacular vista of the entire ancient town. From this viewpoint, visitors can admire the surrounding mountainous landscape and the swift flowing Min River that passes through the town. As they do so, they may wish to savor one of the legendary historical stories that are associated with the area.

While Songpan can be a charming city in its own right, the countryside surrounding the city offers a variety of tourist attractions. The hills surrounding the city are visual delights of Tibetan cattle herders leading their livestock over rolling grasses, endless valleys, and generally beautiful landscape. All of this can be seen through affordable horseback riding outlets on the outskirts of the city.

As well the history and scenery of Songpan the cultural diversity is one of the most fascinating in China. Because of its location, four ethnic groups are resident in the ancient town of Songpan, including Tibetan, Qiang, Hui (Muslim) and Han (Mandarin). This contributes to the unique cultural style of this ancient town. Kangba Culture, a kind of multi-cultural medley of the four different cultural elements in this ancient historical town makes it a rare if not unique example of cultural history in China.

Walking along the roads here, visitors will find some exquisite objects and ornaments for sale in the old stores, such as silver bracelets, silver rings, ethnic costumes and horn combs. In addition, unusual and tempting regional products are plentiful including braised male duck with aweto, fritillaria chicken, crispy yam and Jiuzhai mineral water.

If visitors come to Songpan Ancient Town on lunar January 5th, they will coincide with the local temple fair of Zharu Temple. Also worthy of note is the grand religious ceremony, the Mazi Fair, held here annually in May.

 


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