Buzi are small forts built along the northern frontier of China. They are prevalent in the Loess Plateau of

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

and

Ningxia Ningxia, officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in Northwestern China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in 1954 but was later separated from Gansu in 1958 and reconstituted as an autonomous ...

provinces, usually square or oval (as hill forts) and built out of

rammed earth Rammed earth is a technique for construction, constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as soil, earth, chalk, Lime (material), lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently ...

walls.

Geography

The forts are built on hilltops, at strategic locations or within villages. They were mainly financed by local notables, and constructed by villagers of the area. A large number of forts are found in

Tianshui Tianshui is a prefecture-level city in Gansu province, China, and is the province's second-largest city (behind the provincial capital Lanzhou). Located in the southeast of the province, the city strides along the upper reaches of the Wei River a ...

(over 500) and

Dingxi Dingxi ( zh, c=定西 , p=Dìngxī), also known as Longyou ( zh, c=陇右, p=Lǒngyòu) is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of Gansu province, People's Republic of China. As of the 2020 census, its population was 2,524,097 inhabitants, of ...

prefectures, totalling over 1400 forts. One of the densest concentration of forts is

Tongwei County Tongwei County is located in the middle of Gansu province, the People's Republic of China, with east longitude between 104°57' and north latitude between 34°55' and 35°29'. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Dingxi. ...

, which has the nickname "thousand forts county" ().

Qin'an County Qin'an County () is a county in the east of Gansu province, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Tianshui. Its postal code is 741600, and in 1999 its population was 567,553 people. As of 2018, the population is 618 ...

is home over 200 forts including three larger castles. In Wushan County over 200 of these forts are estimated to exist, of which 61 are relatively well preserved. Although each fort may not be impressive on its own, the combined defense line of forts has been compared to the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against vario ...

Usage

Some of the forts date back to the

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...

, though many are around 150 years old, dating to the late

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. During the Dungan Revolt, villagers sought refuge from the raiding and fighting in these forts, strengthened and expanded existing forts and even constructed new forts with the same methods. The forts have been used for defensive purposes as late as the Sino-Japanese war. Nowadays, most of the forts lie abandoned, partly due to the difficulty of reaching the hilltops. The courtyards of some forts have filled by farmhouses or

Taoist temple A Daoist temple (), also called a () or (), is a place where the Dao is observed and cultivated. It is a place of worship in Taoism. Taoism is a religion that originated in China, with the belief in immortality, which urges people to become i ...

s. The defenders inside the forts varied, with some larger forts being permanently manned by trained military, smaller ones were just refuge places for nearby villagers.

References

* {{cite web , script-title=zh:《远方的家》长城内外第107集长城脚下成纪故地 20160322, date=22 March 2016, url=http://tv.cctv.com/2016/03/22/VIDE2oprFGUUcK44tKYNHfGX160322.shtml, publisher=

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signa ...

, language=Chinese, English , trans-title="Inside and Outside the Great Wall" Episode 107 Below the Great Wall A legacy 20160322 Fortification lines Chinese architectural history Military history of China Forts in China Buildings and structures in Gansu