★ Tourist location: Suzhou Changshu City Wall Scenic Area

When I took the bus, I passed the West City Pavilion. I just thought that the city wall was magnificent enough and it was still in the Urban area of Changshu. It seems that after passing this gate, Changshu becomes lively. This gate is called Fucheng Gate, which should be part of the city wall scenic area. However, tickets for the Xicheng Pavilion and the city wall are set tickets. The Xicheng Pavilion itself was also an important part of the Yushan city wall restoration project during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.

The Yushan City Wall Scenic Area is located on the east slope of Yushan Mountain. It was built in the fourth year of Taikang in the Western Jin Dynasty and has been repaired many times in the past. During the Yuan Zhizheng period, Zhang Shicheng built the Tucheng into a brick city, which began to reach a scale. In the thirty-second year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, the county magistrate raised funds for reconstruction in order to resist the Japanese pirates. It was two feet tall and four feet wide and the foundation eight feet wide. It rolled into the city and was majestic and magnificent, so it was called the "Little Great Wall of Jiangnan". The scenic spot consists of Zhenhai Terrace, Yushan Gate Tower, Xicheng Pavilion, Fuchengmen Gate Tower and other scenic spots, with a total length of 1,400 meters.

The pavilion is inside the west gate of the ancient city, adjacent to the city wall and Fucheng Gate. It is one of the famous eighteen scenic spots in Yushan. It was built in the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties. It took 1,500 years to form a large building complex by the end of the Qing Dynasty. Unfortunately, it was later destroyed in the war. Now we see an original forest-style park rebuilt on the original site. Some of the buildings bear the original names, which can be regarded as a way for future generations to remember the past history.

Fucheng Gate looks very new, but the vines are already growing quite luxuriantly. If you come in summer, the scenery here should be more beautiful. The city wall is also very new, and seems to lack the sense of history. The best tourist season for the Xicheng Pavilion Scenic Area is late autumn, when a grand chrysanthemum exhibition will be held.

The Xicheng Pavilion was listed as one of the eighteen scenic spots in Yushan during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It consists of the Tibetan Hall, the Five Mountains Tower, and the Dashi Mountain House. There is a stone carving at the entrance of the scenic spot with the words "West City Pavilion" written on it. On the main gate is the "Yushan Blessed Land", but there is a small door on the sun side where tourists enter and exit.

The building was built along the slope. From Fucheng Tower, we could climb up to the upper city. After thinking about it, we chose to enter the pavilion first. After all, when we reached the Great Wall, we didn't know if we had to come down from the next gate.

The Xicheng Pavilion Memorial Hall has a three-room width and displays the changing history of the pavilion. The hardcover edition of the 18 Scenery of Yushan Mountain allows us to finally understand which of the so-called 18 Scenery are.

The museum displays some paintings, calligraphy and inscriptions, as well as some cultural relics, some of which are incomplete and do not look like replicas. There are a large number of graphic and text introductions on the wall, and a model of the West City Pavilion is displayed in the glass display case. It looks quite large.

Heavy weapons such as cannons are also accompanying products of the city wall. The cannons here are not very big, and there seems to be no famous red-clad cannons from the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Dashi Mountain House, also known as Yan Gong Pavilion, was built in the Ming Dynasty. It got its name because the front of the house was built on a huge rock. It was once the property of Yan Ne, the father of Yan Zheng, the founder of the Yushan Qin School, and the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. But it is not open today, so I don't know what's going on inside.

There is a pavilion in front of the mountain house. The terrain is open and you can climb and see far away. You can have a panoramic view of the entire Fucheng Gate. The city wall on one side is very majestic.

There is a small pool next to it. The water is so shallow that it can only reach your ankles. Probably when there is abundant rainfall in summer, the water surface will rise a little. Cross the small bridge, climb the steps, and go up there is a pavilion, probably Sun Gong Pavilion. The couplets on both sides are ancient. Although they can be recognized, they are still incomplete. People like us who have experienced more than ten years of hard study have really traveled back to ancient times, and we are illiterate.

The Wuyue Tower was built during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. It has a wide surface with seven rooms, a two-story pavilion, and an antique building with double eaves and a top of the mountain. It looks very grand. However, the door was also tightly closed, and she didn't know what it looked like inside. I only know that the plaque on the "Five Mountains Tower" is written by Weng Tonghe, the master of the two dynasties, and it can be regarded as the handwriting of a famous artist.

Looking in through the glass door, there is a wooden hollow screen with tables and chairs placed in the lobby. Judging from the layout, it is clearly a teahouse.

However, this is a good place to climb and take a long view. Because the terrain is already quite high when you reach here, you can have a panoramic view of the high-rise residential buildings in Changshu City. Farther away, there is Shanghu, a famous scenic spot complete with Yushan.

From here, you can lead to the city wall. Changshu is an ancient city with a history of more than 1,700 years, and the city walls built with the city naturally have a long history. The Yushan City Wall is the only city wall built from a mountain in southern Jiangsu, covering an area of 27,000 square meters. There were also several cannons erected on the battlements of the city wall, which were much larger than those displayed in the West City Pavilion.

We walked along the city wall and didn't come down when we passed the Yushan Gate Tower. We were afraid that if we left the gate, we might have to buy tickets again. Yushan itself is "ten miles of green mountains halfway into the city", and the city wall built against the mountain naturally also halfway into the ancient city. Walking and looking all the way, taking advantage of the favorable conditions of high terrain, you can naturally capture the alleys of the ancient city.

Although the city wall you can see at the entrance is very brand new, there are still several sections of the city wall that show signs of vicissitudes halfway through, and the bricks of the city are also broken.

Walking forward to Zhenhai Terrace, the tower here is also equipped with several cannons. Compared with the towers, it is slightly shorter, but it is also quite magnificent. However, it is obvious that this Zhenhai Terrace is also newly built, and at most it will be rebuilt on the original site, so it is quite disinterested.

After walking off Zhenhai Terrace, the tour of the City Wall Scenic Area will be completed.

Poetry to remember:

Climb to the end of Yucheng, and stroll through the western wall with few tired guests.

The wind rolls dark clouds and drives the drizzle, and the sunset on the mountains reflects the afterglow.