Zheng-Han Ancient City Site 郑韩故城遗址

About Zheng-Han Ancient City Site

Zheng-Han Ancient City Site (郑韩故城遗址) is the ruined capital of the states of Zheng (郑国) and Han (韩国) from the Spring and Autumn period through the Warring States. It lies in urban Xinzheng (新郑), Henan, where the Shuangji (双洎河) and Huangshui (黄水河) rivers join.

People's Daily Online (人民网) reported in 2021 that the two states made it their capital in turn for 539 years. The walls enclose an irregular area of more than 16 km², split by an inner wall. The western part was the palace city, with palaces and noble houses; the larger eastern part was the outer city, with Zheng noble cemeteries, workshops, homes and places of sacrifice. Old texts give the Zheng capital 14 gates, and several of the 20 gaps in the surviving wall are probably gate sites; in February 2017 digging at the eastern city's north gate found the site's first gate with a barbican (瓮城). The western city keeps the Dressing Table (梳妆台), a rammed-earth terrace 135 m long, 80 m wide and 8 m high. Bronze, iron, bone, pottery, jade, silk and minting workshops have been traced, mostly in the eastern city.

In 1923 the Lijialou (李家楼) tomb of a Zheng duke yielded bronzes, among them the Lotus and Crane Square Hu (莲鹤方壶); sent to Kaifeng (开封), they founded the collection of what became the Henan Museum (河南博物院). The Houduanwan (后端湾) cemetery of Zheng nobles holds more than 3,000 burials and 23 large and medium chariot pits. Its ducal tomb, opened in August 2003, is 45 m long and shaped like the character 'zhong' (中), with ramps to north and south; the Henan Provincial Administration of Cultural Heritage (河南省文物局) calls it the first two-ramp Spring and Autumn lord's tomb excavated in China. Pit No. 1 held 22 vehicles and more than 40 horses; Pit No. 3, dug from 2017, held 4 vehicles, including a large carriage with a painted mat canopy, and the bones of 122 horses, and was named among China's top ten archaeological discoveries of 2017.

The Han royal tombs, 28 in 11 cemetery areas, lie outside the city, one inside Zhengzhou SIAS University (郑州西亚斯学院). In 1961 the city was among the first Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位); the Han tombs were added in 2006, and in 2017 it joined the third batch of national archaeological site parks. A city wall park occupies the north-east corner, and a boardwalk runs along the top of the north wall. The Zheng Chariot and Horse Pit Site Museum (郑国车马坑遗址博物馆), at the south end of Wenhua Road (文化路), displays the ducal tomb, Pit No. 1, the Pit No. 3 dig and finds from the cemetery.

What to look for

• The ducal tomb shaped like the character 'zhong' (中), 45 m long with north and south ramps
• Chariot Pit No. 1, where 22 vehicles and more than 40 horses were buried
• The excavation area of Chariot Pit No. 3, where 4 vehicles and 122 horses were found
• The exhibition of finds from the Zheng noble cemetery at the Zheng Chariot and Horse Pit Site Museum
• The city wall park at the north-east corner and the boardwalk on top of the north wall
• The Dressing Table (梳妆台), a rammed-earth terrace 8 m high in the western city

Location & getting there

Getting to Zheng-Han Ancient City Site

• Search for 郑韩故城遗址 with 郑州市 and 新郑市.