Yan’an, An Ancient City 1937 / photographed by Helen Foster
Yan'an is located at 109 degrees 28 minutes east longitude and 36 degrees 35 minutes north latitude, with an altitude of 1,105 - 1,167.4 meters.
The Yanhe River flows through Yan'an from the northwest and flows into the Yellow River (with a total length of 195 kilometers) at Tianjintou Village of Yanchang County. At the lower part of Yan'an Jialing Mountain, the South River is injected, forming a topography of two waters separating three mountains. City Contour is under Fenghuang Mountain, across the Yanhe River is Taihe Qingliang Mountain, and across the South River is Jialing Baota Mountain.
Yan'an was a part of Yongzhou in the Xia Dynasty， belonged to the Guifang in the Shang Dynasty, and was the territories of the northern minorities, the Injun and the long-snout tribe, inthe Western Zhou Dynasty. Yan'an was built in the Warring States and called Gao Han. In 554 A.D, Yan'an was established as "Yanzhou" (the third year of the abolition of the Western Wei Dynasty) and was changed to "Yan'an County" in 607 A.D. (the third year of Daye of the Sui Dynasty).Later, the county, state, and government changed. In 1935, Yan'an County was established.
Located in the border area of the plateau, the ancient city Yan'an is a key place for soldiers to fight for. In the past, Fan Zhongyan, Di Qing and generals of the Yang family have left a lot of stories for guarding this ancient city.
The American journalist Helen Foster, when helping Edgar Snow to develop the film of the Soviet area in northern Shaanxi, saw that there was no photo of Yan'an City, and ventured to Yan'an alone to get this photo. She was the first person to take a photo of the ancient city of Yan'an. At that time, Helen sent Mao a photo of him at Security. Helen interviewed in Yan'an for nearly four months and wrote the book Continuing the Journey to the West after she went back.
In the picture, the walls of the Yan'an City contour are well intact, there are city gate towers at the Big East Gate and Little East Gate. There are people fetching water and crossing the river in the Yanhe River. The background (from left) is Baota Mountain, Dongshan Mountain, Fayuan Hill, Xinmin Village, Longwan, Baijiaping...
Yan'an Jialing Mountain and Pagoda
Jialing Mountain is in the southeast of Yan'an City across the Nanhe River. There is a pagoda, beacon towers, watchtowers, study halls, ancient city walls and other buildings on the mountain, and cliff carvings at the bottom of the mountain, all of which are the historical heritage gems of Yan'an group sites.
Pagoda was called Ling Shan Temple Pagoda, is an octagonal nine-story 44-meter-high pagoda brick tower with 2.17-meter-thick walls. It was built in the Dali period of Tang Dynasty (766-779 AD), rebuilt in Song Dynasty, and repaired in Jin and Ming Dynasties.
Legend goes that the materials used to build the tower were carried by sheep, which is the same method used to build the Great Wall.
There are two doors at the bottom, the south door is entitled "Pagoda towering, high into the clouds" and the north door is entitled "overlooking the mundane world". Stone steps are inside the North Gate for climbing the pagoda. More than two layers of wooden ladders are connected to wooden board compartments
Due to the thick and strong walls of the tower, it will not collapse easily. After the Japanese bombed Yan'an for many times, the pagoda was still intact. Not only is the pagoda itself solid, but also the updraft around mountain and the tower have already pushed the bomb far away in the air. So it is useless to make any more efforts.
There are 14 windows on the east, south, west and north sides of the pagoda (on the 2nd and 9th floors in the east; the 3rd, 4th, 7th and 9th floors in the south; the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 9th floors in the west; and the 4th, 5th, 8th and 9th floors in the north).
There is an iron bell next to the tower which was cast in 1628 AD, the first year of Chongzhen of Ming Dynasty, and was used for chimes and alarms during the Yan'an period. When the Japanese attacked Yan'an, the pagoda was used as a marker. So some people suggested demolishing it, but this was very impractical. Later, people used ropes tied to branches and artemisia, hanging up to cover the pagoda, when the Japanese planes came to bomb Yan'an again, they could not find Yan'an. Being not satisfied, they bombed Fuxian and Yanchang.
In 1944, after Chen Yi came to Yan'an from Huainan, Mao Zedong, accompanied by Guo Moruo and Ye Jianying, climbed Baota Mountain in Yan'an on foot. On the path of the hill, Mao Zedong walked the fastest, and he said, "It's much easier to climb than the snowy mountains and meadows. Climbing is like conquering difficulties. "When Mao Zedong was told about the pagoda, the beacon, the watchtower, the academy, the ancient city wall and other buildings, he pointed to the mountains and said. "This is the site of a remarkable group of historical heritage gems, we should protect..."
Yan'an Qingliang Mountain
Qingliang Mountain is on the east hill across the Yanhe River from the old city of Yan'an, and there are also Taihe Mountain and Taoist temples on the back of the mountain.
Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Qingliang Mountain cut a cave to build a temple, set up a temple for worship, with a large number of cultural relics and monuments, scattered over a wide area. It is a tourist attraction, which has been repaired for generations, and has a strong incense and a good tradition. The civil and military officials and poets, all have great works known to everyone and many of them are handed down to later generations.
The cliff caves, which is very cool and quiet, have been built over the ages.
Due to the war, many buildings were destroyed and later have been restored and reconstructed to show the past.
During the Yan'an period, Qingliang Mountain was the location of the Xinhua News Agency's Liberation Daily, known as the News Mountain.
The outline of the city between the three mountains of Yan'an is under the foothills of Fenghuang Mountain (in the upper left corner of the picture)
Fenghuang Mountain is in the upper left corner of the picture, Qingliang Mountain is in the upper right corner of the picture, and Baota Mountain is at the bottom of the picture.
Fenghuang Mountain, located on the West Mountain of Yan'an City, is the highest mountain in Yan'an (with an altitude of 1,167.4 meters). It confronts with Qingliang Mountain and Pagoda Mountain. The three mountains confront each other and surrounded by two rivers. There are famous spots on Fenghuang Mountain, such as the earthen city wall, the ancient mountain fortress, the cave of turning soldiers and the Wenchang Pavilion.
Bell and Drum Tower in Yan'an City (1937)
The Bell and Drum Tower is the tallest building in the city and is divided into three floors.
The first floor is a stone arch volume cave, two feet high and two feet wide. The north and south caves are more than four feet long, and there are four words on the entrance of the south cave “Zhai Bei Yan Hou,” which means it is a dangerous traffic route of the north fortress. And the north and south streets are connected and passed through this cave, with stone steps on the east side for climbing.
The second floor is an adobe knot gutter with four corner hooked eaves wind chimes. The south gate is entitled "the area originally governed by Han Fan", and there are wooden shrine and mud god of wealth in the interior, and stone monuments with inscriptions by famous travelers and scholars stand on both sides. Outdoors, a bell hangs in the east and a drum is set up in the west, which are used for chiming.
On the third floor, there is a "One Star of Kui" enshrined indoors and a plaque of "Upstream of Guanzhong" hung at the top of the door. The door of the ladder is always locked, so the common people have no chance to climb up to the top. Every year, under the Bell and Drum Tower is a lively place for people to enjoy lanterns and dances during the Lantern Festival.
North Street in Yan'an City (1937)
The Northwest Hotel on North Street was one of the larger hotels in Yan'an. After the Yan'an Film Troupe was established, it was located here until it was destroyed by a Japanese air raid.
South Street under the Bell and Drum Tower
Merchants' stores were spread throughout the streets, and clothes, food, fruits and vegetables were supplied to the cities and villages.
Craftsman builds, pawn transfers. In front of the inn and the department store, a constant stream of carts and horses came and went
The Streetscape under Bell and Drum Tower (provided by Chen Guoping)
Dadongmen "Dongshengmen" (Daohui Gate) (Photo by Wu Yinhan)
Yan'an was destroyed by floods several times, and the wall of the city was built repeatedly and shrank gradually. The last construction of the city wall was in 1787 (the 52nd year of the Qianlong reign of Qing Dynasty) when a serious flood of the Yanhe River pushed away half of Yan'an City. After the disaster, construction work was done to build the city wall, not only to raise the walls inside, but also to build the walls in stone. There is a castle tower on the Dadong Gate, and a barbican entrance to the city was added and built outside the Dadong Gate for military needs in the late Qing Dynasty.
North Gate of Yan'an City (An Ding Gate)
At the north gate of Yan'an city, there is a barbican entrance to the city, and outside the gate, there is a single-hole overflow bridge. Yan'an has the East Pass, the South Pass and the North Pass, but there is no West Pass. All three of them are equipped with exits, and only the west ditch has no exit，so it is called ditch. But Yan'an has four gates, south and north walls adjacent to the Fenghuang Mountain. In the north barbican gate at the west corner of the repair arch volume hole through the west ditch called the small west gate. In the past, once people died in the city were sent out from the small west gate. So a habit has been formed for a long time: The dead walk through little west gate, while the living dare not.