The most worthwhile ancient architectural site in Shanxi [Pingdinggu Pass]

The most worthwhile ancient building ruins in Shanxi: [Pingding Guguan] 🌼Guguan Great Wall is also known as "having the charm of small Badaling". It is one of the four famous passes in the west of Beijing during the Ming Dynasty (the other three are Juyongguan, Zijingguan, and Daomaguan), and is the "screen of the capital". The Guancheng was first built in the second year of the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty (1437). It was called "Guguan" at that time and is located in Jiuguan Village, Niangziguan Town, Pingding County. 🌼The top of the west city gate is inlaid with the two huge characters "Guguan", which were inscribed by the ancient celebrity Wang Shiqiao (whose courtesy name was Wuya). Outside the city gate, there is a natural screen wall, which is a cliff with thousand-year-old cypress trees on it, lush and verdant. There are inscriptions carved on the cliff, "layered mountains and ridges" and "green mountains beyond the mountains", but the author of the inscriptions is unknown. In the 22nd year of Jiajing (1543), "the enemy invaded Taiyuan and was close to the old pass. Although the pass was strategically located, the old city was not strategic enough." So they moved ten miles west to build a new city, and changed "gu" to "gu" in the meaning of "solid as iron", and later repaired the Great Wall on both sides of the pass. One of the “Nine Barriers of the World” referred to in Lüshi Chunqiu. 🌼From the Guanlou, you can enter the narrow city wall with high walls. It is paved entirely with bluestone. After thousands of years of rolling by wheels, smooth and round stone slabs have naturally formed deep wheel track marks, the deepest of which can reach one foot. This pass was the only main transportation route into Beijing in ancient times, and it is a historical mark left by the vehicles and pedestrians passing through it. 🌼Guguan has experienced many major historical events, and many emperors, generals, and literati have come and gone here. For example, the Qin Shi Huangdi's conquest of Zhao, the return of Qin Shi Huang's corpse to Xianyang, Han Xin's "Battle of the River", Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi's suppression of the "Anshi Rebellion", and Emperor Kangxi's western tour all passed by here. Han Yu, Sima Guang, Han Qi, Yu Chenglong, Kong Shangren and others also left their excellent poems here. 🌼Guguan City has thick and strong walls, towering thousands of feet high. There are many artillery batteries around it. The east and west gates are wrapped with iron plates and nailed. They are opened and closed at dawn and dusk, and there are guards on duty. In ancient times, there was a reputation of "one man guarding the pass is more than ten thousand men can stop him." Today, the Guguan Great Wall has gone through thousands of years of wind and rain, and things and people have changed, but it still stands tall and majestic, telling the long history from ancient times to the present.