Bozhou Ancient Tunnels

Major National Historical And Cultural Site; The Han Era Underground Passages Of Bozhou Attributed To Cao Cao, And The Huaxi Lou Guild Opera Stage Of 1656 · Bozhou, Anhui

Bozhou was Cao Cao's home town, and in 1969, when workers were digging air-raid shelters under the streets, they broke into something he is supposed to have built: a network of brick passages running under the old town, on more than one level, with ventilation shafts, lamp niches, message holes and dead-end traps. Some kilometres of it have been surveyed and several hundred metres are open, and the standard explanation is that a general short of men marched the same troops out of the city gate and back underground, again and again, to make his army look larger than it was. It is low. You stoop for most of it. Above ground, the other reason to stop here is the Huaxi Lou, a guild-hall opera stage of 1656 whose brick facade carries so many carved figures that counting them is a local pastime, flanked by two free-standing iron flagpoles cast in 1776 weighing twelve tonnes apiece.

Qiaocheng District, Bozhou, Bozhou, Anhui, China

Both sites are open daily, generally around 8:00-17:30 in summer and roughly 8:30-17:00 in winter, with modest separate tickets and combination tickets sometimes available. ASK HOW MUCH OF THE TUNNEL IS OPEN ON THE DAY - sections close for water ingress and repair. THE TUNNELS ARE LOW AND NARROW, requiring stooping for long stretches, with no alternative route and no quick exit; they are not suitable for claustrophobic visitors. The Chinese medicine market keeps its own much earlier hours and is at its best before about 9:00.

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