China Ancient Qiang City 中国古羌城

About China Ancient Qiang City

The site is on the west bank of the Min River between the knolls of Jingui Bao and Yingui Bao, oriented to face east, backed by Shuixi and facing Jiuding Sacred Mountain. A Xinhua dispatch, republished in March 2014, records that the 'Ancient Qiang King City' formally opened on 3 November, at the Qiang New Year, which the dispatch gives as the first day of the tenth lunar month; the dispatch carries no year for that opening, and none is supplied here. The site covers more than 3,000 mu and cost close to 1 billion yuan to build, and the same dispatch described it, in the agency's own words, as the world's largest ancient-Qiang castle building complex to date. Under the Ministry of Culture's plan to establish a Qiang Culture Ecological Protection Experimental Zone, the site was designated a key post-disaster cultural reconstruction project, intended to integrate with the nearby Jiudingshan natural ecological tourism area and the Diexi-Songpinggou earthquake-subsidence theme park into a concentrated display area for Qiang culture. The county government describes it as preserving the Qiang people's architectural style, folk customs and sacrificial rites and embodying the original ecological environment and living characteristics of Qiang culture, combining heritage preservation, leisure experience and sightseeing.

The site is made up of named sections including a city gate, the Qiang king's official residence, a primitive-tribe area, a pastoral area, a hunting area, a temple, a religious sacrificial area and altar, Qiang dwellings, an ethnic-handicraft area, a Qiang-embroidery processing area, an original-ecology reserve area, a Qiang-culture plaza, a performance centre, Silver Turtle Sacred Mountain, Golden Turtle Sacred Mountain, Mubi Tower, a rainbow cloud-ladder, an ancient Qiang mill, an ancient Qiang rope crossing and an ancient Qiang wooden bridge, among other structures. Xinhua's 2014 dispatch recorded that nearly 4,000 Qiang residents lived within the city, maintaining ethnic-characteristic work and daily life there as living inheritors and transmitters of Qiang culture.

What to look for

• The Qiang king's official residence and the city's reconstructed sacrificial platform and altar.
• Golden Turtle Sacred Mountain and Silver Turtle Sacred Mountain, two of the named features on the county government's list of the site's scenic elements.
• The rainbow cloud-ladder and Mubi Tower among the site's named structures.
• The ancient Qiang mill, rope crossing and wooden bridge, three more of the named structures on the same county list.

Location & getting there

Getting to China Ancient Qiang City

Identify the main visitor approach and any separately managed houses, museums or performances. Ask before entering residential spaces or photographing residents.

• Search for 中国古羌城 with 阿坝藏族羌族自治州 and 茂县.