Guangfu Ancient City

National 5A Tourist Attraction; A Ming Walled City Ringed By Wetland, And A Home Of Yang Style Taijiquan · Handan, Hebei

A Ming walled city sitting on an island of dry ground in the middle of a wetland, about twenty kilometres from Handan, and the place where two of the great lineages of taijiquan were born. The walls are the immediate surprise: a complete circuit of about four and a half kilometres, faced in grey brick in 1584 and still standing with its gates and corner towers, ringed not by suburbs but by reed marsh and open water, so the city appears to float. Inside is a quiet grid of low courtyard houses, the prefectural office of Guangping, temples and a scatter of shops. Its fame rests on martial arts: Yang Luchan, who learned Chen-style boxing and founded the Yang style that most of the world now practises in parks, was born here, and so was Wu Yuxiang, founder of the Wu-Hao style. Both their houses are open. Outside the walls, the Hongji Bridge, a single-arch stone span of the Sui or early Tang, is a close cousin of the Zhaozhou Bridge.

Guangfu Town, Yongnian District, Handan, Handan, Hebei, China

The walled city is free and open; the ticketed sites - the prefectural office, the two former residences, the wall and the Hongji Bridge - run daily about 8:30-17:30 year-round, with a combination ticket of about 90 yuan.

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