Yongning Mountain Ancient Fortress 永宁山古寨

About Yongning Mountain Ancient Fortress

The rock and the position. The Zhidan Civilization Network places Yongning Mountain 28 kilometres south of Zhidan county town, holding Yongning town to its south and facing Santai Mountain to the north, overlooking the Yaozi river and backed by Yingpan Mountain, with the winding Luo river around its flank. It puts the mountain in the Ziwuling range at 1,312 metres above sea level, running east to west for 2.2 kilometres and 1.5 kilometres wide, and says it is red sandstone throughout. A Western Network report gives the same 28-kilometre distance into Yongning town and describes the mountain as 1,244 metres above sea level with a relative height of 113 metres, surrounded by water on three sides with the Luo river running past its foot in an S, a steep peak standing alone and long known as 'the wonder peak on the Luo'; it also describes the mountain standing above the river against red rock cliffs.

The name. The Zhidan page records that before the Song the mountain, being stone and shaped like a tower with a platform cut on top, was named Stone Tower Terrace, and that its position made it permanent contested ground, serving as a Northern Song military strongpoint controlling the old Luo river road. In the wars, the page says, it was never taken, and local people, reading that as 'ever peaceful', called it Yongning Mountain. The Western Network report repeats the gazetteer account and the same reading of the name.

The stockade. The Zhidan page records that the mountain was opened as a defensive stockade as early as the Song, with people lowering ropes down the cliff, cutting cave dwellings, breaking rock for rooms and building plank paths; that in the Chenghua era of the Ming the Yan-Sui regional inspector Yu Zijun ordered frontier households to build rock caves and stockades widely, with more than 800 appearing in the Bao'an area, and that Yongning Mountain was the most favoured of them, cut and built again until the end of the Qing to reach its present extent. The stockade, it says, has three tiers – upper, middle and lower – each independent and reached from outside by drawbridge, with stone steps linking them inside. The upper tier is the jutting summit used for military watching and still has the remains of one watchtower; the middle tier slopes down and is very steep and was the main living level; the lower tier reaches the Luo river for water, with a shaft running straight down to the river bed. It counts 35 cliff caves in all, making a fortress that brings together, among other things, watching, eating, latrines, housing and animal pens.

The inscription and the listing. The Zhidan page records that the county magistrate He Yaobin, struck by the mountain's difficulty, had 'the wonder peak on the Luo' cut into the cliff on its west side in the sixteenth year of the Republic, which the page dates to 1927. The Western Network report records that the site was announced as a provincial cultural relic protection unit on 9 June 2014.

The two accounts differ on the mountain's height. The Zhidan civilization office page gives 1,312 metres above sea level; the Western Network report gives 1,244 metres above sea level with a relative height of 113 metres. The disagreement is not resolved here.

What to look for

• The three tiers of the stockade, each independent and reached from outside by drawbridge, with stone steps linking them inside.
• The remains of the watchtower on the upper tier, the jutting summit used for military watching.
• The middle tier, described as the steep main living level of the stockade.
• The shaft on the lower tier that runs straight down to the bed of the Luo river.
• The 35 cliff caves the Zhidan page counts, cut into the red sandstone.
• The cliff inscription reading 'the wonder peak on the Luo', which the county magistrate He Yaobin had cut on the mountain's west side in 1927.
• The S-bend the Luo river makes past the foot of the mountain, described in the Western Network report.

Location & getting there

Getting to Yongning Mountain Ancient Fortress

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

• Search for 永宁山古寨 with 延安市 and 志丹县.