Remains of Ancient Xiagucheng

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Xiagucheng(Lower Gu City) is an ancient city in ruins, located at the foot of the Daochang Mountain in the Daochang Township of Wuxing District. It has a favourable location with the river and mountains around.

Jingai Mountain is to its north, Heshang Mountain to its northwest, and thenorthern Tiaoxi River passes by its southeast. Xiagucheng was built during the period of Spring and Autumn and the Warring States belonging to the fief of Huang Xie,a monarch titled Chun Shen in Chu State. It acquired the name of “Gu”as the marshes here were overgrown with a water plant of Gu.

At that time, the city was quite prosperous surrounded by the continuous sky-line of the city walls. There was an account of the layout for the ancient city in some historic document, that is, governmental offices located ahead, and residences and streets at the rear. The constructions of Xiagucheng were just conformable to such an arrangement. Xiagucheng is one of the earliest ancient cities in southeast China, and the ruins of the city are best preserved.

Xiagucheng is divided into two circles, and has the outer city wall and the inner city wall. The outer encloses an area of 200,000 square meters. The inner encloses 80,000 square meters, which is located at the southeast site within the outer circle. Without any brickkiln for making bricks at that time, both of the outer and inner city walls were built with no bricks, but rammed up with loess. The whole wall in a ladder-shaped cross section is about 9 meters in height, its top was 5-6 metres, and the bottom was about 30 metres wide.

Tourists may find that there are still many earthen platforms in the ruins of the inner city. Those platforms were the foundations of ancient houses. There is a gap just right at the south of the ancient city wall, and some ponds in front of it, which seems like a city moat. Going southward about 200 metres from the gap, Tiaoxi River comes into view. Judging from that, the gap was probably the southern gate of Xiagucheng.A thirty-meter-wide ditch at the outside of the ancient walls, and many openings in the remains can be still visible to tourists.

A granite memorial wall is newly-built at the original gate of inner city, measuring eighteen meters in length and three meters in height, on which the description of its history is carved. The ancient Xiagucheng is the most telling witness of Huzhou with the history of more than 2,300 years.

Particularly, it is a valuable place to archaeologists in doing textual research as well as to tourists.