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Chinese Name: 皇城相府
English Name: House of the Huangcheng Chancellor; Huangcheng Xiangfu
Location: Jincheng, Shanxi
Type: Ancient culture and art
Rating Level: AAAAA (5A)
Website: http://www.hcxfjq.com/index.asp
Brief Introduction
The House of the Huangcheng Chancellor is located in Beiliu Town 北留镇, Yangcheng County 阳城县, Jincheng City 晋城市, Shanxi Province 山西省. The Imperial City Prime Minister’s Mansion (also known as Wu Ting Mountain Village 五亭山村), with a total area of 36000 square meters, is the former residence of Chen Tingjing 陈廷敬, a senior scholar in the Wenyuan Pavilion of the Qing Dynasty and minister of the Ministry of Officials, the chief reader of the Kangxi Dictionary 康熙字典, and the lecturer of the Emperor Kangxi‘s 35-year feast.
The House of the Huangcheng Chancellor is composed of the inner city, the outer city, the Ziyunqian 紫芸阡, and other parts. The Imperial Library 御书楼 is magnificent, the Zhongdaozhuang 中道庄 is towering and magnificent, the Douzhuju 斗筑居 courtyards are continuous, the river and mountain buildings are magnificent and precipitous, and the Cang Bing caves 藏兵洞 are stacked strangely. It is a rare castle-style official residence complex of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and is praised by experts as “the residence of the first cultural giant in northern China”.
At the 2018 China Yellow River Tourism Conference, the House of the Huangcheng Chancellor was rated as the “50 Sceneries of the Yellow River in China”.
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Architectures
The House of the Huangcheng Chancellor complex is divided into the inner city and outer city, with 16 courtyards, 640 houses, and a total area of 36580 square meters. The navigation map city of Neiwuting Villa was built in the fifth year of Chongzhen’s 崇祯 reign of the Ming Dynasty 明朝 (1632 AD), with eight large courtyards. The outer city was completed in the 42nd year of Kangxi (A.D. 1703), with the front hall and back bedroom, the left and right inner houses, the academy, the garden, the boudoir, the butler’s yard, and the Wanghe Pavilion 望河亭.
The inner city “Douzhuju” was built by Chen Changyan 陈昌言, uncle of Chen Tingjing, in the sixth year of Chongzhen (1633) of the Ming Dynasty, to avoid war. The inner city of Douzhuju is 71.5 meters from east to west and 161.75 meters from south to north. It has five gates, buttresses at the top of the wall, castles at important parts, and Spring and Autumn Pavilions 春秋阁 and Wenchang Pavilions 文昌阁 at the commanding heights in the northeast and southeast corners.
The Heshan Tower 河山楼 was built in 1632, but the project has not been completed yet. The bandits came unexpectedly, and more than 800 people from the Chen family and nearby villagers came into the building to take refuge. The roving bandits could not attack for a long time. They threatened to block an attack by fire day and night.
The villagers in the building poured well water from the roof to show that they were fully prepared and were not afraid of the siege. The roving bandits retreated in the face of difficulties and withdrew their troops. In the following ten months, the roving bandits invaded three times successively, and thousands of villagers escaped the war by relying on the protection of the buildings in the rivers and mountains.
The Tun Bing Cave 屯兵洞 is a tunnel for soldiers to hide during the war, with a total of 125 tunnels on five floors. The caves are either open or closed, or three or five are connected. There are tunnels connecting the floors, which can directly reach the city head. The highest floor is built inside the city wall, with gun holes facing outside the city. It can not only fire firearms but also observe the enemy’s situation.
Featured delicious food
The main ingredient for fried liver 烧肝 is fresh pig liver, chopped with garlic, mixed with ginger foam, eggs, and corn starch, and then wrapped with lard oil, and fried before steaming. Before serving, cut it into 5mm back pieces, deep fry it in a frying pan, put it on a plate, and sprinkle it with shredded onions.
When people in the north talk about pancakes, they can think of the spread of soft yellow pancakes. The pancakes in Yangcheng are different. They are something like doughnuts of special molds. The temperature difference between day and night in Yangcheng County is large. The local people also have a habit that when the pancakes are about to mature, they put eggs on them, sprinkling scallions on them, or putting brown sugar on them, and then adding a bowl of chop.
