The site of Yanchi City in Haiyuan, Ningxia

The site of Yanchi City is located in the old city village of Yanchi, 45 kilometers west of the county seat of Haiyuan County, Ningxia. It was built around the fifth year of Xianping in the Song Dynasty (1002) and was occupied by the Western Xia. It was an important military base on the border and an important commercial city. The 'Inscription on the Salt Pond' written by Yang Ding, the Minister of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, praised the city as 'majestic and superior to all other cities on the border...'. Both the Song and Xia Dynasties set up shrines, inspection courts, warehouses, drum towers, yamen, huts, etc. in the city, all of which were well managed, showing the grandeur of the time. The site is rectangular in shape, 1400 meters long, 600 meters wide, 7 meters thick at the base, 0.5-2 meters wide at the top, and 4-6 meters high. It has two gates, east and west, and is surrounded by city walls. The Haiyuan earthquake in 1920 during the Republic of China caused the city to collapse. Inside Yanchi City is the former site of the Red Army headquarters, located in the middle of the north wall of the ancient city, originally the Li family's shop. On October 30, 1936, the 'Hai Battle Plan' deployed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission was unable to be implemented due to major changes in the enemy situation. Zhu De, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and Zhang Guotao, the political commissar, led the Red Army headquarters and the main force of the 31st Army of the Red Fourth Front to move east from Dalachi. They camped at Ganyanchi that night, and the Red Army headquarters was set up in the Li family's shop in the ancient city of Ganyanchi. The Red Army did not enter the homes of farmers or disturb the people, and camped in the open air inside and outside the ancient city in the severe cold. The next day, the Red Army headquarters moved east to Guanqiaobao via Jiwoshan and Machunbao. The site of Yanchi City is now a key cultural relic protection unit at the district level in Ningxia.