Yongtai Ancient (Turtle) City.

Yongtai Ancient City, also known as Yongtai Turtle City, is located in Yongtai Village, Sitan Township, Jingyuan County, Baiyin City, Gansu Province. It is an ancient city with a history of more than 400 years. It was built in the 36th year of the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty (1608) and was a military fortress built by the Ming government to defend against the invasion of northern minorities. The city wall of the ancient city is rammed with loess, with a circumference of 1717 meters, a wall height of 12 meters, and a city base thickness of 6 meters. The entire city is elliptical in plan, and there are three closed semi-circular moon cities on the east, west, and north sides of the city wall. There are urn cities and moats under the city, and beacon towers extending for tens of miles are built in the direction of Lanzhou and the Great Wall on the south and north sides of the city. There are many ancient sites in Yongtai Ancient City, including city gates, city walls, several ancient houses, Ganlu Pond, Wuyan Spring, and Yongtai Primary School, a Gothic building combining Chinese and Western styles. In addition, there are many architectural relics that were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, such as turrets, beacon towers, Dianjiangtai, schoolyard, General Liwen Mansion, Taiji Round Pond (Jihai, Laochi), Dafosi, Zhushen Pavilion, Longwang Temple, Laojun Pavilion, Xingguan Temple, Sanguan Temple, Yuhuang Pavilion, Chenghuang Temple, warehouse, yamen, enemy building, archway, theater building, etc. The moat of the ancient city is about 6 meters wide and about 1~2.5 meters deep, with a total length of 2003 meters. Archaeological discoveries in 2017 show that Yongtai City did not have a closed moat that completely surrounded it. There were only protective "flood control ditches" on the east and west sides, and the south and north ends were empty. A triangular area without a moat. Yongtai Primary School is the best-preserved public building in the ancient city and one of the three well-preserved primary school cities in the Republic of China. It is an important witness to China's modern primary education. The tourist information of Yongtai Ancient City is as follows: Address: Yongtai Village, Sitan Township, 27 kilometers southwest of Jingyuan County, Baiyin City. Transportation: Self-driving is the most convenient. Public transportation: You can take a bus to Jingyuan at the bus station in Lanzhou or Baiyin. It takes about 3 hours to depart from Lanzhou, and the fare is 46 yuan. It takes about 2 hours to depart from Baiyin, and the fare is 25 yuan. After arriving in Jingyuan, you need to charter a car to Yongtai Ancient City, which is about 100 yuan round trip. Tickets: Free and open all day. Due to its unique historical value and architectural style, Yongtai Ancient City attracts many tourists and photography enthusiasts to visit, and has also become the shooting location for many film and television works.