- Niangziguan
Niangziguan (or Niangzi Pass, also called Ladies Pass) is a
mountain pass west ofShijiazhuang , capital ofHebei province inChina . One of the major passages from Shanxi province to Hebei province across the Taihang Mountains, is 55 kilometres west of Shijiazhuang, provincial capital of Hebei, at the point where the Shijiazhuang--Taiyuan (capital of Shanxi) Railway crosses the border between the two provinces, on the 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 pass is flanked by hills more than l,000 metres high. A river, the Taohe, 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, women soldiers under the command of Princess Pingyang, daughter of the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty, once garrisoned here. Hence the name "Ladies Pass."
Its defense played an important part in the
Battle of Xinkou between the Chinese Nationalists and the Japanese.
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