| |
 Located about 55 kilometers from the city center in east Shenzhen's Longgang District, Ancient Dapeng Fortress was built in 1394 by the early government of the Ming Dynasty for the purpose of fighting against the invaders, called 'Da Peng Suo Cheng', for which Shenzhen is called 'Peng City'. It has been listed as one of the Shenzhen's top eight scenic spots due to its great contributions of discovering the city's history.
Ancient Dapeng Fortress occupies an area of 110 thousand square meters with a rectangular plan. It has and overall length of 1090 meters, with wall base width of 5 meters and wall height of 6 meters. On it there are 654 town castles and 16 alarm rooms with horse passages. The whole town has four gates including east, west, south, and north gates. There is a protection ditch of 1200 meters long, 3 meters deep and 5 meters wide on each gate. There are three streets inside the town.
On September 4, 1839, five British naval vessels launched a surprise attack on the maritime forces of Dapeng Fortress in the waters off Kowloon. Chinese troops in fishing boats, led by General Lai, defeated the better-equipped enemy. The Kowloon naval battle is now widely considered the start of the Opium Wars.
Not long after the battle, Lai was promoted to commander of the Guangdong navy. In 1844, the emperor allocated a large sum to build a 2,500-square-meter mansion and inscribed 'Zhenwei General Mansion' on the board above the gate. The stately Lai Mansions then became one of the biggest attractions in the fortress. The fortress survived natural and civilian disasters over 600 years. Three gates of the fortress, General Lai and his clan's mansions, General Liu Qilong's mansions, Tianhou Palace, Houwang Temple and Zhaogong Temple are all still in good condition. You can see the high level of architecture typical of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
In 1996, the Dapeng Fortress Museum was set up to manage and research historical relics as well as to boost tourism. Later in 2001, the site was taken under state protection and now it attracts international attention. In June 2004, a group of World Bank experts began researching the fortress with the aim of helping with protection. Shenzhen is expected to obtain special loans from the World Bank for the protection of cultural relics if a report on the fortress is adopted in about two months.
|
