Qijiang Ancient Town and Han Cliff Tombs 郪江古镇与汉崖墓群

About Qijiang Ancient Town and Han Cliff Tombs

The Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology divides the tombs into fifty-two sub-groups named after local places and records more than sixteen hundred already exposed. Most are multi-chambered: the chambers were cut along an axis, with side and ear chambers of varying number and purpose opened off them, together with a full range of ancillary fittings. The walls carry relief work reproducing timber-framed wattle or plank construction, with pilasters and wall openings, and bracket sets, columns, coffered ceilings and roofs were carved inside in imitation of buildings above ground; the institute treats this as physical evidence for Han building technique and for reconstructing Eastern Han domestic architecture. Ten tombs in the Bailinpo and Jinzhongshan groups were excavated in 2002 by the institute and the county cultural relics office with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and tombs at Zijingwan, Wujiawan and Songlinzui were surveyed in two further spells, from June 2002 to November 2003 and from March to June 2006.

The town itself was the capital of the Qi kingdom in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, a county seat from the Qin and Han onward and a commandery seat under Shu Han, and the provincial chronicles office records that it also served as Sichuan's provincial seat in the Yuan. Formerly Qianzi commune and then Qianzi township, it was renamed Qijiang township in the 1930s, became a town in 1992 and was named a provincial historic and cultural town in the same year, and a national historic and cultural town in 2019. Its streets are mostly only three or four metres wide, lined with single-storey timber houses under dark tiles whose eaves reach out towards the middle of the street on wooden posts, forming a covered walkway in front of the doors. The Guangdong temple that once adjoined the Dizhu temple on the north has gone, a health centre standing on its site, but the Heishen and Wangye temples remain beyond it.

What to look for

• The Bailinpo and Jinzhongshan tomb groups, where ten cliff tombs were excavated in 2002 by the provincial archaeology institute together with the county cultural relics office.
• The imitation timber architecture carved inside the tomb chambers: pilasters and wall openings in relief, bracket sets, columns, coffered ceilings and roofs.
• Among the carved scenes the chronicles office singles out by name are a dog biting a mouse in Jinzhongshan tomb 1 and a figure pushing a door open to look out in Zijingwan tomb 3.
• The Dizhu temple, which the chronicles office calls the most carefully finished building in the town: a street-facing gateway under a hip-and-gable roof with upturned flying eaves, bow-shaped fire gables rising among the grey tiles, and a permanent stage built on the back of that gateway, with the way into the courtyard passing beneath the stage.
• The Nine Dragon Bridge outside the town, a Qing stone bridge about fifty metres long across the Qi river, named for the stone dragon carved on each of its nine piers.

Location & getting there

Getting to Qijiang Ancient Town and Han Cliff Tombs

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 郪江古镇与汉崖墓群 with 绵阳市 and 三台县.