Hongshan District 红山区

Setting and landscape

Red Mountain rises in the northeast of the urban area as a group of nine peaks, the highest at 746 metres. The district government explains its ochre colour by the granite, formed in the Yanshan orogeny, in which potassium feldspar makes up more than half the rock. Hongshan Park (红山公园) was closed and rebuilt in 2018 and 2019, and Red Mountain looks out over the whole city.

History

The Japanese anthropologist Torii Ryūzō (鸟居龙藏) found prehistoric remains behind Red Mountain in 1908, Liang Siyong (梁思永) surveyed them in 1930, and in 1954 Yin Da (尹达) named the Hongshan culture after the site. The culture dates from about 6,500 to 5,000 years ago and was based mainly on farming. The Hongshan site group (红山遗址群) became a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 2006, and in 2012 it entered China's tentative World Heritage list together with Weijiawopu and Niuheliang (牛河梁).

What to see

The Hongshan Culture Museum (红山文化博物馆), at the foot of Red Mountain where Hongshan Road meets Hongqi Road, opened on 29 September 2019 with seven sections tracing the culture. Erdaojingzi (二道井子遗址), eight kilometres from the city centre in Wenzhong (文钟镇), is a walled Bronze Age settlement of the Lower Xiajiadian culture (夏家店下层文化) from about 4,000 years ago, where houses are stacked up to seven layers deep; the district government calls it the largest and best preserved Bronze Age site found in China. A site museum built over its core opened in December 2018. Also in Wenzhong, Weijiawopu (魏家窝铺遗址) is a ditch-enclosed Hongshan village of about 6,000 years ago, found in 2008, where excavators uncovered 114 houses.

In town, the Great North Mosque (赤峰清真北大寺), north of the pedestrian street, was founded in 1739 and has two courtyards; it has been a national protected site since 2013. The Catholic church on Erdao Street (二道街) is a twin-towered Gothic building begun in the late Qing and later renovated by the Belgian Scheut missionaries.

Highlights

• Hongshan Culture Museum 红山文化博物馆: Opened in 2019 at the foot of Red Mountain.
• Erdaojingzi site and museum 二道井子遗址: Walled Lower Xiajiadian settlement of about 4,000 years ago; site museum opened in 2018.
• Weijiawopu site 魏家窝铺遗址: Ditch-enclosed Hongshan village found in 2008.
• Great North Mosque 赤峰清真北大寺: Mosque founded in 1739; national protected site since 2013.
• Red Mountain 红山: Nine-peaked granite hill, 746 m; the Hongshan culture was first identified behind it.