Yumuzhai Village 鱼木寨

About Yumuzhai Village

Yumuzhai Village (鱼木寨) is a fortified Tujia (土家族) settlement on a cliff-ringed hilltop in Moudao Town (谋道镇), Lichuan (利川市), in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (恩施土家族苗族自治州), Hubei.

A Tujia tusi (土司), or hereditary chief, of the Ma (马) family founded the stronghold in the Hongwu reign at the start of the Ming dynasty. Cliffs surround the summit on every side and the stronghold has four gates; the position made it easy to hold and hard to take. Chinese Wikipedia calls it the best-preserved Tujia fortress still standing. It is also a living village: more than a hundred households, most of them Tujia, occupy the hilltop. The area formerly belonged to Daxing Township (大兴乡) before becoming part of Moudao.

What survives from earlier centuries is one Qing-dynasty stockade tower (寨楼), over thirty old tombs, and a number of stone carvings and inscribed stelae. Hubei made Yumuzhai a provincial protected monument in its third batch on 16 December 1992. The State Council raised it to a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位) on 25 May 2006, listing it among ancient buildings and dating it from the Ming to the Qing.

The protected zone, set by the Hubei provincial government in 2015, treats all the relic points as one site. It drops to 730 m above sea level beyond the Sanyang Pass gate (三阳关卡门) on the north and climbs to 1,200 m beyond the gate on the south, and it reaches past the east courtyard wall at Xinwan (新湾) and the Duozipian (垛子片) stretch of stockade wall on the west. The wider control zone reaches north to where National Road 318 meets the west bank of the Diaoyutan River (钓鱼滩河).

What to look for

• The four stockade gates of the cliff-ringed hilltop
• The single surviving Qing-dynasty stockade tower (寨楼)
• Sanyang Pass gate (三阳关卡门) on the northern approach
• The Duozipian (垛子片) section of the stockade wall
• Over thirty old tombs, with stone carvings and inscribed stelae

Location & getting there

Getting to Yumuzhai Village

• Search for 鱼木寨 with 恩施土家族苗族自治州 and 利川市.