Xianxia Pass 仙霞关

About Xianxia Pass

Xianxia Pass (仙霞关) is a fortified gateway on the Xianxia Ancient Road (仙霞古道) in the south of Bao'an Township (保安乡), Jiangshan (江山), where the old road between Zhejiang and Fujian crosses Xianxia Ridge (仙霞岭).

The ancient road ran for about 120 kilometres from Jiangshan to Pucheng (浦城) in Fujian, linking the Qiantang River basin with the Min River basin. Once motor roads arrived in the early Republican era, most of it was taken over by the highway or abandoned. The stretch still in good condition runs from Bao'an to Xiaoganling (小竿岭), around the pass itself, where four gateways and about five kilometres of road paved with granite blocks remain. The pass guarded the meeting point of Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi, and carries the old epithet "lock of the southeast, throat of Fujian" (东南锁钥，八闽咽喉).

Tradition credits the road to the rebel army of Huang Chao (黄巢) at the end of the Tang dynasty. A 2024 travel column in the Macao Daily (澳門日報) notes that Huang became the rebels' leader in 878 and cut a way through the ridge into Fujian, and that four barriers were later built along the route, the first being Xianxia Pass. The same column dates the granite paving to the Shaoxing years of the Southern Song and the founding of the pass to the Qiandao years. With the nearby Anmin (安民关), Erdu (二渡关), Mucheng (木城关), Huangwu (黄坞关) and Liushi (六石关) passes it made up the Six Xianxia Passes. Troops of the Southern Ming Longwu (隆武) court defended it against Qing forces pushing into Fujian. In May 1942 the Chinese 105th Division concentrated its defences at the pass's northern mouth and, after ten days of fighting, kept Japanese troops from crossing the ridge.

Zhejiang's provincial listing dates from March 1963, under the name Xianxia Ridge Huang Chao Uprising Site; in 2011 it was merged with the old road and renamed Xianxia Ancient Road. The area is a national 4A tourist attraction and a national forest park. From the entrance a stone path climbs the valley floor to the first gate: a wall of dressed stone about 40 metres long, more than five metres high and some four metres thick, topped with crenellations and pierced by three doorways, with the road running through the middle one. Along the road today are a Song-dynasty inscription recording the road's construction, a broken stele carved with "lock of the southeast" and a later statue of Huang Chao, with bamboo on the slopes and dawn redwoods beside the path.

What to look for

• The first gate of Xianxia Pass, a crenellated stone wall about 40 m long with three doorways
• About 5 km of granite-block ancient road and the four surviving gateways
• A Song-dynasty inscription on the building of the road
• The broken "lock of the southeast" (东南锁钥) stele
• A statue of the rebel leader Huang Chao (黄巢) beside the road
• The "Luoma Bridge" (落馬橋) carving, marking where a Japanese column commander was killed and fell from his horse in 1942

Location & getting there

Getting to Xianxia Pass

• Search for 仙霞关 with 衢州市 and 江山市.