Longwan National Archaeological Park 龙湾国家考古遗址公园

About Longwan National Archaeological Park

The Longwan site was found in spring 1984 during China's second national survey of cultural relics. The protected area covers 100.9 square kilometres in two parts: an eastern zone centred on the Fangyingtai palace foundation group at Longwan Town, where 22 rammed-earth platforms have been identified, and a western zone centred on the Huangluogang Chu walled-town site at Zhangjin Town. Its earliest layers are Neolithic, more than 5,000 years old, while the core remains are Eastern Zhou and are read as a Chu royal garden-palace complex, described by the municipality as the largest such Chu site found so far. Between 1985 and 2022 there were five surveys and nine excavation seasons, opening 7,626 square metres in total. The site was named one of China's Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries of 2000, listed by the State Council in 2001 as a national key cultural heritage site in the fifth batch, and included in the fourth batch of National Archaeological Site Parks announced at the start of 2023.

Interpretation centres on the Zhanghua Terrace foundation exhibition hall, begun in 2011 and completed and opened in 2013 with an investment of about 15 million yuan. It shows the excavated terrace on two levels: above, an open-air model reproducing the foundation at 1:1 exactly as it was revealed in the 2000 excavation, and below, the remains that could be conserved in place, among them a shell-paved road, underground drainage pipes, the south wall of the three-tier terrace and its east gate. Features of this kind — a three-tier terraced palace foundation, a shell-paved road, a complete underground drainage system and large mortise-and-tenon post holes combining earth and timber — were recorded here for the first time among Eastern Zhou sites in China. A site museum holds a themed exhibition, 'The First Terrace Under Heaven: Zhanghua Terrace', arranged in four parts.

What to look for

• The 1:1 open-air model of the Zhanghua Terrace foundation, reproducing the plan exposed by the 2000 excavation
• The conserved remains on the lower level of the exhibition hall, including the shell-paved road and the underground drainage pipes
• The south wall of the three-tier terrace and its east gate, displayed as excavated fabric
• The Fangyingtai group of 22 rammed-earth platforms that forms the eastern zone of the protected site
• The site museum's four-part exhibition 'The First Terrace Under Heaven: Zhanghua Terrace'

Location & getting there

Getting to Longwan National Archaeological Park

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

• Search for 龙湾国家考古遗址公园 with 潜江市（省直管县级市） and 市域.