Iron Coin Vault

Opening Hours: Open all day Ticket Price: 4 yuan for the Ancient Cangzhou City scenic area Location: Inside the ancient city of Dongguan Town, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province

Best Time to Visit: Cangzhou lies on the coast of Bohai Bay in southeastern Hebei Province. It features a typical warm temperate semi-humid continental monsoon climate with cold winters, hot summers and four distinct seasons. The annual average temperature is about 12℃, and autumn is the best time for a visit.

Complaint Hotline: 0317-2080122

Transportation Guide: Cangzhou enjoys convenient transportation. The Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Kowloon railways run through the region, and National Highways 104, 106, 205 and 307 crisscross the area.

Officially known as the Coin Vault, it is locally called the Iron Coin Vault. The main pile of iron coins is buried 3 meters underground. Records show that the coins were unearthed during the Great Steel-Making Campaign in 1958. However, limited by the smelting technology at that time, people failed to melt them and reburied the pile. Locals also refer to these iron coins as the "Iron Donkey", from which an interesting folk legend derives.

Long ago, it was said a huge iron donkey was buried underground, and only eight blood brothers could dig it out. There once lived seven brothers in the ancient city. Eager to have a try, they invited their brother-in-law to make up a group of eight men and started digging. When the donkey’s legs came into view, they divided into four pairs to lift the four legs respectively. Yet the leg held by the pair including the brother-in-law would not budge. The third brother shouted anxiously, "Brother-in-law, put in more effort!" The moment the words were spoken, the entire iron donkey sank back into the ground with a heavy thud.

The site was excavated again in 1997. The unearthed pile of ancient coins is irregular in shape, with an average thickness of 80 centimeters and a total weight of around 48 tons. After centuries of erosion, the iron coins have rusted into solid clumps. These round coins with square holes are generally 4 millimeters thick. Characters on a small number of coins can still be vaguely identified. Among them, Dahe Tongbao was minted during the reign of Emperor Wenzong of the Tang Dynasty (827–835), while Daguan Tongbao and Zhenghe Tongbao date back to the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Some experts speculate that this place might have been an ancient national mint, hence the name "Iron Coin Vault". Nevertheless, no conclusive historical documents have been found to verify this assumption so far.