Jingzhou Ancient City

Among the best-preserved brick city walls of southern China, Jingzhou's ramparts feature barbicans, soldier-hiding tunnels and secret passages, a stronghold fiercely contested in the Three Kingdoms.

Standing where Guan Yu kept his headquarters during ten years defending Jingzhou, this temple first built in the early Ming is an ancestral centre of Guan Yu worship.

Founded by imperial order in Tang Xuanzong's Kaiyuan era, the Taoist temple keeps well-preserved Yuan and Ming timber halls dedicated to the Patriarch and the Thunder God.

The former home of Ming grand secretary Zhang Juzheng presents his Single Whip tax reform and Wanli-era policies alongside the grandeur of a grand tutor's mansion.

Part of Jingzhou Ancient City's history: Three Kingdoms Divide. Cao Wei general and regent who held off Zhuge Liang's northern campaigns and seized power in the Gaopingling coup of 249, laying the ground for his grandson's Jin dynasty

Part of Jingzhou Ancient City's history: Three Kingdoms Divide. Shu Han chancellor who planned the alliance with Sun Quan, governed for Liu Bei's heir, and led repeated northern campaigns against Wei

Part of Jingzhou Ancient City's history: Three Kingdoms Divide. Founder of the state of Wu who took over his brother's command in the lower Yangzi, allied with Liu Bei at Red Cliff, seized Jing province and later proclaimed himself emperor

Part of Jingzhou Ancient City's history: Three Kingdoms Divide. Founder of Shu Han, a distant Han kinsman who won Zhuge Liang's service, took Yizhou and proclaimed himself emperor at Chengdu in 221

Part of Jingzhou Ancient City's history: Three Kingdoms Divide. First emperor of Cao Wei, who accepted the Han abdication in 220, adopted the nine-rank system and wrote the critical essay Discourse on Literature

From 211 to 219, Guan Yu commanded Jingzhou, expanded Jiangling's city, and attacked Xiangfan in 219.

Three Kingdoms Divide

Cao Pi founded Wei, Liu Bei founded Shu Han, and Sun Quan ruled Wu as three courts contested Jingzhou, Hanzhong, and the frontier.

After becoming grand secretary in 1572, Zhang Juzheng pursued administrative assessment, land surveys, and the Single-Whip tax reform during the early Wanli reign.