Liu'ao Ancient City (also known as Lu'ao City)

Perched on Liu'ao Mountain (formerly Green Mountain), Liu'ao Ancient City lies roughly 60 kilometers from the county seat. Green Mountain rises abruptly, surrounded by wide open beaches and embraced by the vast sea in the distance.

First built in the Yuan Dynasty, Liu'ao Ancient City housed a patrol inspection department, which remained in use in the early Ming Dynasty. In the 20th year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty (1388), Zhou Dexing, Marquis of Jiangxia, expanded it into a fortress against coastal bandits and set up a Battalion Guard Office within. As the city encircled Green Mountain and resembled a giant ao — an ancient marine creature similar to a sea turtle crawling onto land — it was named Lu'ao City. The existing old fortress was reconstructed and garrisoned after the coastal territory restoration policy in the early Qing Dynasty.

The ancient city wall is fully laid with ashlar stones, winding around the mountainside to form an irregular trapezoid with a perimeter of approximately 1,830 meters and a wall thickness ranging from 2 to 3 meters. Crenellations rammed from lime-sand-clay mixture stand atop the stone walls, which now retain a residual height of 5 meters, while most parapets have collapsed. Gate towers were erected above the south and southwest city gates. The north gate serves as the main entrance, 10 meters deep and 4 meters wide, with a barbican constructed outside it; a military training ground sits at the barbican’s base.

Five flood gates were built around the city for drainage and passage of soldiers and civilians during peacetime. Three bastions measuring 4 meters square flank the south gate, housing troop hiding caves, observation platforms and beacon towers inside. The mountain core inside the city features huge boulders and dense woods, while residential houses line the inner side of the city wall along the mountain slope.

Numerous stone stele inscriptions survive inside the ancient city, including "A Panoramic View of Sea and Sky", and a poem: A towering solitary rock stands tall,

Gazing alone at heaven mirrored in water.

Land stretches far to the southeast,

No mountain dares to block its splendor. All were inscribed by garrison generals of the Ming Dynasty.

Two Mazu Temples and one Guan Yu Temple originally stood on Green Mountain, constructed during the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty. More than 300 banyan trees grow both inside and outside the city wall. Their twisting roots cling tightly to the stone ramparts, shrouding the entire ancient city in lush green shade — a spectacular unique sight of the fortress. The feature films The Boundary Between Yin and Yang and Joyful Heroes took this primitive, magical, grand and charming ancient city as their primary outdoor shooting location.

Serving as a military garrison spanning the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, Liu'ao Ancient City guarded the southern cape of Zhangpu against pirates and Japanese wokou raiders. It is a historical relic of ancient coastal maritime defense in Zhangpu, a landmark in Minnan’s history of resisting wokou invasions, and a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the Provincial Level.