Zhiguoling pass
In the mountains 3.5 km southwest of Yingfangtai Village, Jiangshui Township, Xingtai County, stands Zhiguoling Pass, which was built in 1542, in the Ming Dynasty. The three mountains around the pass stand like three huge rocks supporting a frying pan, hence the pass’s name.
The Annals of Shunde Prefecture records that the Zhiguoling pass town used to have walls; iron gates embrasures watchtowers, a government office and a barracks. The pass fortifications are located on a narrow and level place with steep cliffs in the west and abysses in the south and east. The Great Wall starts at the top of the cliffs in the northwest, stretching 13 m to reach the northwest corner, the highest point of the town. In a series of nine steps, the wall bends to the east and then to the southeast, and terminates at overhanging cliffs facing an abyss.lt is 150 m long, three-five m high, three m wide at the base and 2.5 m wide at the top. Along the top of the wall are battlements with embrasures for discharging arrows. The whole wall is built of stone slabs pointed with lime.
The gate of the pass, a six-m-wide gray stone arched doorway in the middle of the wall, faces northeast. On the lintel is a stone slab inscribed with characters meaning “Zhiguoling Strategic Pass.” The gate tower is still imposing, despite some deterioration.
At the left and right inner sides of the gate are two houses constructed of irregular stone slabs. They housed both the soldiers and the civilians who guarded the pass. The area had been uninhabited, but later a village called Yingfangtai (Barrack Terrace) grew up there. Jiangshui Township, to which Zhiguoling Pass belongs, is an ancient town. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945), Commander-in-Chief of the Eight Route Army Zhu De, General Liu Bocheng and other high-ranking officers worked and lived there. The sites of the Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese Military and Political College and the border area government offices can be found there.
