Our Reports

【Binggou in My Mind】

When I knew that my teacher chose Binggou as our website theme to participate the 2007 Cyber Fair, I was very happy because I had heard of this place long before. In my imagination, Binggou should be a natural deep valley, which was more than 10km long, 10m wide and 10m deep. What’s more, it was a wild military base with eagles flying above. Nowadays, it attracts tourists all over the world.

【The journey to Binggou Tourist Zone】

As a citizen in Taole County, I know a little about the history of Binggou in my hometown. When I was a child, I always hear my grandfather talking about the stories of Binggou. Then, we children played the war game, in which someone pretended to be general and someone to be solider. In history, Binggou used to be a site where “Hunhuaizhang” military base situated, which was a fortress built by Mengtian, a General of Qin Dynasty, 214 B.C, while he commanded his army northwards to fight Xiongnu (one of the nomadic minorities to the north of ancient China). When I was young, I had a dream to visit that mysterious place. As Provincial Highway 203 passes through the zone, the transport is convenient. Now I am a teacher in Taole Secondary School. One month ago, one of my college-Miss Yan guided students to participate 2007 Cyber Fair. I strongly recommended Binggou as the theme of their website. On Jul 25th, 2006, I drove a car with my wife, children and students to have my dream come true.

1.Preparation

Most of our knowledge of Binggou comes from the folk stories. Before the journey, we search some historical book about the place. It’s said that in 200BC, Xiongnu (one of the nomadic minorities to the north of ancient China) invaded Qin Dynasty. In 214BC, the emperor commanded Mengtian, a General of Qin Dynasty, to lead 300,000 soldiers to fight against the enemy. Binggou was used to be a site where “Hunhuaizhang” military base situated. There are hundreds of tombs there, which belong to the soldiers and officials who stayed there to safeguard the motherland frontier of ancient China during late Qin and West Han Dynasty. They are also the biggest among the 12 tombs of Han Dynasty discovered in the Autonomous Region. And now they are the key relics under the protection by Shizuishan authorities. It is by the sand with a unique geographical location, forming a kind of rich resources full of humanity, natural landscape and tourism at Binggou, and is a rare tourist resort in Ningxia.

2.Personal feeling

After the preparation work, we start our journey on Jul 25, 2006. We drove on the provincial highway 203.Although the car speed had reached 90km/h; I still felt slow, which may be due to the eager expectation of destination. In my journey, the war scenes of Qin soldiers and Xiongnu revolved around in my mind.

【Binggou in my eyes】

On Jul 25, we went to Binggou Tourist Zone. In front of our eyes, there was a huge city gate, which is called “Hunhuaizhang” by the guide. As Binggou used to be a site where “Hunhuaizhang” military base situated, built by Mengtian, a General of Qin Dynasty, 214 B.C, while he commanded his army northwards to fight Xiongnu (one of the nomadic minorities to the north of ancient China). Passing through “Hunhuaizhang”, there was a 10-meter high altar, which was rebuilt according to historical image. Walking on, there was a 3-meter wide and 10-meter long subway to the group of ancient tombs. On the left and right side of the subway, there were all kinds of animals and six tomb figures, which were symbols to suppress evils. At the end of subway, we saw four big tombs, in which hundreds of soldiers and officials who stayed there to safeguard the motherland frontier of ancient China during late Qin and West Han Dynasty were buried. It’s said that there were 103 tombs; however, the real number is uncertain even nowadays. This place used to be war field in Qin Dynasty, and turned into tombs in Han Dynasty. It has the history of 2000 years.

【Discoveries】

When we entered Binggou Tourist Zone, we found it a unique geographical location, forming a kind of rich resources full of humanity and natural landscape.

Discovery I

We found Tombs of Han Dynasty. There are hundreds of ones there, which belong to the soldiers and officials who stayed there to safeguard the motherland frontier of ancient China during late Qin and West Han Dynasty. However, a half of a big tomb has been washed away by Huanghe River. I hope some department can pay attention on this serious problem.

Discovery II

Wangwe’s famous poem-“ I arrive at frontier fortress as a messenger”. By receiving an order, I leave the palace of the Emperor. I am to visit the border alone. A travelling mugwort go out of the frontier fortress. Returning wild geese enter foreign sky. In the vast desert, a solitary smoke rises vertically. On the long river, the setting sun is round. I come upon a scouting cavalry at Xiao barrier. He says that the leader is in Yanran, the major fortress of the Huns

Discovery III

	Binggou was used to be a site where “Hunhuaizhang” military base situated, which was a fortress built by Mengtian, a General of Qin Dynasty, 214 B.C. When we walked into Binggou Valley, we found holes on the cliff, where thousands of birds live in. In the lowest hole, I suddenly found two big round eyes contacting with me. I thought it was a wolf and cried out
immediately. In a moment, I ran away. Then we analyzed that it might be a small pig.

Discovery IV
At the bottom of the valley, there is a spring gushes out from Pearl Spring there. The water is clean and cool. When it rains, people should not enter the valley because it may induce landslide.

Discovery V

In the valley, we saw ever-green holly, which is capable of dry climate. It also can be used as medicine. I guessed that the soldiers in Qin Dynasty might use it to cure themselves.

【Searching for Huyang Forest】

We ever heard that Huyang Forest exist in Binggou Area, which was a rare phenomenon in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. In order to prove this matter, we asked help from the forest guard. He proved our puzzle and told us the Huyang Forest exist in dessert far away. We decided to have a look about this rare species. It was quite hard to walk in dessert. A long time later, we saw Huyang Forest, which branch was white. Listenning to the guard’s introduction, we tried to imagine its appearance in winter and summer.

【Bitter and sweet in searching historical material】

	As we chose the category “historical landmarks”, we found it difficult to collect second hand material about Binggou Site. Some websites are served for tourism and the history books contain a little about it. Sometime, we read several books to solve one problem. We searched much information on the internet to make sure that our opinion was
convincing. Although it costed much time, we didn’t know how to write our essay. When we saw the content of each category so little, we felt quite worried.

In this situation, our teacher asked each of us to write his own idea down and combined everyone’s advantages. Mr Liu also encouraged us to try our best. Soon, we found relevant material to each subdivision. Our collection was becoming more and more. How happy we were!