Hecang City Ruins

There is a poem in Tang Dynasty poet Wang Changling's "Joining the Army" which says: "The long clouds from Qinghai darken the snow-capped mountains, and the lonely city looks far away at Yumen Pass. I have worn my golden armor through hundreds of battles in the yellow sand, and I will never return until I have conquered Loulan."

Hecang City is the granary storage place of Yumen Pass, commonly known as Dafangpan City. It was built in the Western Han Dynasty. It is located in a depression beside the Shule River 13 kilometers northeast of Yumen Pass. Next to it is a large lake, as flat as a mirror, blue and transparent. Reeds, red willows, licorice and other vegetation grow on the shore, and there is a large swamp to the east.

Hecang City was built on a platform more than 3 meters above the riverbed. It was called Hecang City because it was near the Shule River. The city was surrounded by a large Gobi Desert several meters higher than the castle in the north and south, making Hecang City extremely hidden. It is difficult to find this warehouse city unless you come to it. It can be seen that the ancients chose this place to build a military warehouse after careful investigation and design.

Most of the four walls of Hecang City have collapsed, and only the north wall is relatively intact. The triangular holes on the upper and lower walls are for good ventilation of the warehouse to prevent the grain from getting moldy.

Hecang City was the largest and most important national granary in the Hexi region during the Western Han Dynasty. It was huge in scale. It was built from south to north and was built with rammed earth in a rectangular shape. It was about 132 meters long from east to west and about 17 meters wide from north to south. A full storage could provide food for 400,000 people for half a year.

When the Han Dynasty sent envoys to the Western Regions, they believed that the biggest difficulty was "lack of food". In order to ensure the supply of food, the Western Han government implemented the military farming system. The garrisons stationed along the Great Wall reclaimed wasteland and planted crops in the river valleys and stored food "to provide food for the Han envoys." There was no large area of ​​land suitable for planting to the west of Hecang City, while the banks of the Shule River to the east were more suitable for planting grain and raising livestock. The harvest from planting and raising was concentrated and stored in Hecang City. The shortage was supplemented by Dunhuang County. The grain and grass of Hecang City were first supplied to the officers and soldiers stationed at Yumen Pass; second, they were supplied to the officials and soldiers going to the Western Regions; third, they were supplied to the princes, officials, and envoys of the Western Regions entering the pass; fourth, they provided military supplies for the army's westward advance. The entry and exit of grain and grass were recorded in the Han bamboo slips of Yumen Pass. Ancient grains such as barley, millet, and broomcorn millet were unearthed in Hecang City, and there were also bamboo slips recording the large-scale harvest and exit of alfalfa and wild rice.

Hecang City is protected by three defensive buildings: the outer wall, the inner wall and the corner piers. There are warning beacons built on the outer commanding heights, which shows the importance of Hecang City.