Nantou Ancient City

When you are planning to visit the Nantou Ancient City, be prepared to make a journey beyond time and space. The Jiujie Village in Nanshan is where the Ancient City of Nantou is located. It has a history that can be traced back as far as the 4th century AD - c. 331, during the period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty between 317 and 420 AD, when the Dongguan Prefecture was built.

Right from the reign of the Northern and Southern dynasties (between 386 and 589 AD) to the Tang Dynasty (between 618 and 907 AD), Nantou was the administrative center of both the Dongguan Prefecture as well as the Bao’an County, which is one of the seven counties under the jurisdiction of Dongguan. In the period of the early Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), Nantou was Dongguan’s defensive castle or fortress and accommodated 1000 soldiers.

Today, Nantou Ancient City, spanning 0.49 sq. kilometers, is a crowded village, that is home to above 30,000 people, most of whom are temporary residents. The languages that are spoken in this area are Cantonese and Mandarin respectively. The Nantou Ancient City wall sculptures and inscriptions and the Ningnan Gate are the remains of the castle that was built in 1394, on the 27th year of the reign of the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang.