Niangziguan () is a town located in north-east of

Pingding County Pingding County () is a county in the east of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China, bordering Hebei to the east. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Yangquan, occupying its southeast corner. Climate Transporta ...

, Shanxi, near the location of the Niangzi Pass and the border with

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 ...

and situated northeast of the county seat. The pass itself is a famous pass in the

Great Wall The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic groups ...

known as the ninth pass under the heaven. File:Niangziguan(娘子关).jpg

Layout

Niangziguan is made up of Dakou Village (), Xiaokou Village () and Niangziguan Village (). These three villages are located end-to-end in either bank of the 2000-meter-long Mianshui River. The Niangziguan Village is also known as "Weize Village" (), because it is located next to Mianshui River () and the bank of the river is covered with reeds. Most of the villagers are the generations of the soldiers who migrated to guard the pass in Qing Dynasty. There is an old street in the village that begins with the eastern Wenchang Ge () and ends with the western Wuying Ge () and all the street is covered with slabstones. Most of the houses are old here and one of them is conspicuous with stone lions and flagpoles etc. Local people call it Flagpole () and the ancestor is the Xianfeng Emperor's imperial guards and all the things are given by the emperor.

Legend

There are two legends about the background of Niangziguan. The first is that Envy Girls Temple () is built here to commemorate

Jie Zitui Jie Zhitui (centuryBC), also known as Jie Zitui, was a Han aristocrat who served the Jin prince Chong'er during the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history. Chinese legend holds that when Chong'er finally ascended to power as the duke of J ...

's sister. The other is that

Li Shimin Emperor Taizong of Tang (28January 59810July 649), previously Prince of Qin, personal name Li Shimin, was the second emperor of the Tang dynasty of China, ruling from 626 to 649. He is traditionally regarded as a co-founder of the dynasty ...

's sister-the

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 ...

once led Niangzijun to guard the pass, so later generations called it Niangziguan. The latter is accepted by most people and now it has become a conclusion. The vicinity of Niangziguan now also remains some legends and cites about Princess Pingyang.

Customs

Because the village is located alongside the bank of Mianshui River, the levigation is flourished there. The function of the levigation is to make fragrant but it does great harm to the environment so the levigation is banned by the government. It will disappear in the history. Niangziguan is the key point to Shanxi so there is a special custom called Horse Race (). On 16 January every year, local people take their horses, asses and mules to gather in Dongzhai Village () to circle in a 400-meter-long alley. There is no saddle on the horse and the man who rides the horse raises his hands over his head with his legs clamp the horse. People put a lot of ashes on the street to avoid slipping as well as make the atmosphere active. The aim of the activity is to avoid disease and disaster as well as best wishes for the future.

References

{{reflist Township-level divisions of Shanxi Yangquan