The other incredible ancient castles of china
By: George

Hailongtun Castle

The Hailongtun Castle, located in Zunyi, Guizhou Province, is rated as the only well-preserved military castle in China from the middle ages.

Amid the three towns of Gaoping, Longkeng and Shawan, Hailongtun covers an area of about 1.5 square km. The castle is surrounded by hills and faces numerous dangerous passes on its four sides.

The ruins of the old and new imperial palaces built respectively in the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties are still well preserved, along with the lady's bedchamber, gunpowder pond and water dungeon.

Compared with similar castles from the middle-ages in Western countries, the Hailongtun Castle is much older.

Kamba Castle

An ancient earth/brick castle, it is located to the northeast of Kamba County seat and was a defensive point of the Kamba tribe.

It is 400 kilometers from Lhasa to Kamba via Nagarze, kangma. Today it is a frontier camp. Tourists should obtain the permission for a visit.

http://www.heytibet.com

Shanhaiguan Castle

Shanhaiguan is a small, sleepy town and port of the northern section of the Bohai gulf, holding the access between northeast China and north China. Shanhaiguan Pass, 15 kilometers from the tourist city of Qinhuangdao, got its name from being situated between the Yanshan Mountains and the Bohai Sea.

Built in 583, it was renovated throughout various dynasties until it was transformed into a formidable military stronghold during the Ming Dynasty.

Shanhaiguan Pass consists of a main castle, two supporting castles one in the north and one in the south, and two semicircular protective walls in front of the main castle, the town of Weiyuan and the town of Ninghai.

Today most of these structures are still well preserved, while others, such as the wall of Ninghai, the Calm Sea Tower built on the town wall and the Laolongtou Great Wall, where the Great Wall meets the sea, have been restored. The brick wall of the pass, stuffed with earth, is 14 meters high, seven meters wide and four kilometers in circumference. It is connected with the Great Wall which stretches onto the rolling Yanshan Mountains in the north and into the Bohai Sea in the south with parts and battlements that form a strong and powerful defense system.

http://www.visitourchina.com/

Qiang Castle

Chinese archaeologists have recently inspected a well-preserved and still inhabited ancient castle in the Aba Tibet and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province.

There are 98 families of Qiang ethnicity living in this "mysterious orient castle", a name given by domestic and foreign experts. The castle, which was built in BC111 by the Qiang people, one of China's oldest ethnic groups, stands in very good condition even though it went through wars and disasters in more than two thousand years. It is located on the side of a mountain highway linking Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, with Jiuzhaigou, a famous natural resort.

With its excellent architectural design, the castle is the only well-preserved ancient castle of the Qiang people in the world, the experts agreed.

The castle was used by the Qiang villagers to defend their homes during times of war, an expert said. Now, the Qiang people want more outside visitors to view their unique life-style and their stone fortification. The castle has eight gates located in its surrounding walls，indicating the Eight Diagrams formerly used in divination during ancient time. Two 30-meter-high blockhouses located on two corners of the castle overlook the sturdy five-story residential houses, which were made of mud and stone slates 2,000 years ago.

http://www.china.org.cn