Jingzhou

With a history of some 3, 000 years, the ancient city Jingzhou, 荆州 in Chinese, is next to the surging Yangtze River. It is situated in Jiangling County, so it is also named Jiangling. Jingzhou became an important strategic city of south China after the Spring and Autumn Period(770-476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). In later successive dynasties, it was the capital of seven dynasties. Now this city is known far and wide for archaeological relics unearthed from numerous ancient tombs. In the famous Chinese classic novel Romance of Three Kingdoms, Jingzhou is mentioned in many chapters, a dozen chapters tell a story about how the Three Kingdoms fought with one another over the city.

Jingzhou City is well preserved. According to history, Jingzhou City was built and destroyed on severa locations. The present city wall was rebuilt in 1646 and it consists of brick and earthen city walls and moats. It has6 city gate buildings, 3 army cave shelters, 24 watch towers and turrets and 4, 567 battlements. It is 3. 75 kilometers long from east to West and 1. 2 kilometers wide from north to south,10. 54 kilometers in circumference, and it surrounds an area of 4. 5 square kilometers. The city wall is 8-9 meters high, 10 meters wide at the bottom, and 3-5 meters wide on top, the moat is30-100 meters wide and averages 3 meters deep. The walls were built with rectangular stone slabs at the foot, large bricks on the outside, yellow earth on the inside and large bricks on the top.

In 1961, Jinan City was listed by the State Council as one of the China's most important archaeological sites under the state protection.