Niangzi Pass (), also called the Ladies' Pass, is a
mountain pass west of
Shijiazhuang, capital of
Hebei
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...
Province in
North China. One of the major passages from
Shanxi Province to Hebei Province across the
Taihang Mountains
The Taihang Mountains () are a Chinese mountain range running down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, Henan and Hebei provinces. The range extends over from north to south and has an average elevation of . The principal peak is ...
, it is west of Shijiazhuang, at the point where the
Shitai Railway
Shitai County () is a county in the south of Anhui Province, People's Republic of China, under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Chizhou. It has population of and an area of . The government of Shitai County is located in Qili Tow ...
(Shijiazhuang--
Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi) crosses the border between the two provinces on its way to Taiyuan.
Surrounded by a maze of hills and valleys, Niangziguan Pass was famed as "the Ninth Pass on the Great wall". The extant pass was built in 1542 during the
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...
. The pass is flanked by hills more than 1,000 metres high. A river, the
Tao River
Tao River () is a right tributary of China's Yellow River. It starts in Xiqing Mountains () near the Gansu–Qinghai border, flows eastward across Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and then northward more or less along the border between ...
, twists its way through the valleys below. In ancient times this provided a narrow passage for men and horses.
Legend goes that during the
Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
, the army under the command of
Princess Pingyang
Princess Pingyang (, formally Princess Zhao of Pingyang (, 590s–623) was the daughter of Li Yuan (later enthroned as Emperor Gaozu), the founding emperor of the Tang dynasty. She helped him to seize power and eventually take over the throne f ...
, daughter of
Li Yuan
Emperor Gaozu of Tang (7 April 566 – 25 June 635, born Li Yuan, courtesy name Shude) was the founding emperor of the Tang dynasty of China, reigning from 618 to 626. Under the Sui dynasty, Li Yuan was the governor in the area of modern-da ...
, the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty, once garrisoned here. Hence the name "Ladies Pass."
Its defence played an important part in the
Battle of Xinkou
The Battle of Xinkou () was a decisive engagement of the Taiyuan Campaign, the second of the 22 major engagements between the National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Prelude
After battles at Na ...
between the Chinese Nationalists and the Japanese.
Mountain passes of China
Great Wall of China
Landforms of Hebei
Landforms of Shanxi
{{Hebei-geo-stub