Huangzeguan Pass
This pass is located on Mount Huangzeling, west of Pangencun Village, Wu’an City. It was first built in the Yuan Dynasty. A pass town was constructed in the Jiajing reign period (1522-1566) of the Ming Dynasty. It was a vital point on the passage between Shanxi and Hebei provinces. Mount Huangzeling is also known as “Eighteen-Bend Mountain” for the rugged, winding path has many twists and turns.
There are two passes: The one halfway up the mountain, on the boundary line between Hebei and Shanxi provinces, was built in the Yuan Dynasty; the other one, on the mountaintop and belonging to Zuoquan County, Shanxi Province, was built in the Ming Dynasty. The gate, wall, soldiers’ barracks, parapet wall, and battle platform of the Yuan pass are all built of stone slabs. The gate is set up in the middle of the ridge, facing south. The eastern wall, on its right, is 93 m long, and the western wall, on its left, is 110 m long. Both stretches are about 2.5 m high. On the eastern side inside the gate are located the ruins of an oblong house facing south. This served as the soldiers’ barracks. Further up the ridge from the gate is a crescent-moon-shaped parapet wall made of stone. Further ahead still is a round, hollow battle platform. To the southeast of the gate there used to be another defense line of Huangzeguan Pass with a gateway, but this structure no longer exists.
The gate of the Ming pass built on the mountaintop was dismantled during the “cultural revolution” (1966-1976). The pass town, several hundred m to the west of the gate, is built in the shape of a gourd and enclosed by a rammed-clay wall. It has two gates, on the northern and southern sides, respectively. The southern gate has an arched brick doorway, while the northern gate is a brick-wood structure. On the lintel of the latter is a stone slab with an inscription meaning “Climb swiftly up to the clouds.” The gate towers – both dilapidated-have up-turned eaves. The stone path linking the north and south gates is still there. In recent years, eight broken stone tablets and a stone mortar for husking rice have been found in the town. Among these, the most valuable is a stone tablet recording the construction of the new pass and charting its surroundings.
Not far from the pass is the tomb of General Zuo Quan, deputy chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army, who died fighting the Japanese aggressors in 1942. Guyi Village in Wu’an City is well known for its Nuoxi, a local opera performed to drive away ghosts that bring diseases.
