Jingzhou Ancient City, located  in the south of Hubei Province and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, is an ancient cultural city with a long history of over 2,000 years. As the city represents so much importance in Chinese history the city has been acknowledged by the State Department in China to be one of the best of 24 famous historical and cultural ancient cities. Its cultural relics and advantageous location has drawn the attention of many visitors' from both home and abroad.

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History
Jingzhou Anicent City was originally one of the birth places of the culture of Chu State in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC) and Warring State Period (476 BC-220 BC), which left extremely valuable cultural relics from their 400 plus years' reign equally comparable with the ancient Greek and Roman culture. In the Three Kingdom Period (220-589), the city was the focus of many disputes and wars. Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), the city had been established as the capital by 11 emperors in all, making it the political centre in China for more than 100 years.

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What to see?
Jingzhou Ancient City is divided into three parts from outside to inside - Water City, Brick City and Earth City originally mainly designed for the military function. The moat outside is the first line of protection for the city. There are two city gates as you enter the city, and the space between is called 'Urn City', which was used to catch the enemy inside.

There were six ancient city gates in the wall, originally each had a tower. Now the most popular are the Binyang Tower (Binyang Lou) on the Eastern Gate, the Qujiang Tower (Qujiang Lou) on the Southern Gate, and Chaozong Tower (Chaozong Lou) on the Large Northern Gate.
Eastern Gate was for welcoming the guests and ambassadors in ancient times, so the tower is very grandiose and the Urn City is also the biggest. On the Qujiang Tower, all the splendor of the Yangtze River comes into view. The Large North Gate was the fortress leading to Beijing and the central area, and people used to see their friends off from here and broke a willow branch to send their greetings, hence the gate was also called 'Willow Gate'. Climbing onto the towers, you gain a magnificent panoramic view of this beautiful city.
Jingzhou Ancient Brick City
The Brick City that can be seen by us now was rebuilt during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It is one of the most complete and solidest constructions that remain. The wall was mainly built with bricks and stripped stones at the bottom, the gaps between the bricks were filled with a sticky rice substance that hardened with time and provided a substancially firm substitute to the cement that we are now so familiar with.

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Jingzhou City, one of the noted historic and cultural cities in China also called Jiangling City, covers an area of 4.5 k㎡. There are well-protected ancient walls here. The length of Jingzhou city from east to west is 3.75 kilometers, and from north to south, 1.2 kilometers. The city walls, 8.83 meters high, has a perimeter of 11,281 meter. There are six groups of city gate buildings, originally with each gate a tower built.
Jingzhou City originally was divided into three parts from outside to inside: Water City, Brick City and Earth City. It is said that when Guan Yu guarded the city, he met nine fairies flying down to the city who said that they were commanded by the Empress of Heaven to take the city back because there were too many battles. Not willing to lose the city, Guan thought hard and then came to an idea. So he said to them, “Let’s compete. The winner will be the owner of the City. We separately build a city of 5,000 steps in circumference. The one who completes first is the winner. You build it in the northwest and I build it in the southeast. We start when night falls and stop at the crow of roosters.
The fairies agreed. They got earth with their robes to build the city, while Guan Yu built the city with reeds. When Guan completed his city, the fairies had not. But time was not up. So Guan shook the chicken coop and then roosters crowed. The nine fairies went back ashamedly. This is the legendary of the Nine Fairies Statue in the outer of the north gateway of Jinzhou. It is also said that Zhang Fei also shouldered earth to help his brother, but he was late. So he poured the earth outside of the east gateway, hence the Mound is also called 'Zhang Fei's load of Earth'.

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Travel Tips
Add: Jingzhou City,Hubei Province
Opening Hours: 08:00-18:00
Entrance Fee:
East Gate (Binyang Tower): CNY 27
Big North Gate (Chaozong Tower): CNY 14
Small North Gate (Yuan'an Gate): CNY 7
West Gate: CNY 5
Old South Gate: CNY 5

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