Category:Site of Yuanling, Archaeological heritage site in Xinzheng, China

Yuanling is a walled city site whose rammed-earth walls form a rectangle about 2,300 m east-west and 1,700 m north-south, with a perimeter of 4,000 m. The east wall stands 16 m high with a 32 m base, the north wall 9 m with a 13 m base, and four horse-face bastions project from the north and east walls. Inside, surveys found building foundations, roads, wells and ash pits, and 31 tomb mounds lie nearby.

Yuanling was a dependency of the Kuai state in the Spring and Autumn period, then passed to Zheng after Duke Wu of Zheng conquered Kuai, and later to Han. In 230 BC Qin Shi Huang established Yuanling County there. In the early Western Han, Fan Kuai captured the city for Liu Bang, and the county was maintained. It was merged into Xinzheng in the early Sui, re-established in 621 and abolished again in 627.

The site has yielded bronze vessels, pottery and large quantities of hollow bricks stamped with a rice-grain pattern, finds that trace craft production from the Spring and Autumn period through the Qin and Han dynasties. The name Yuanling was already used for the county set up here in 230 BC.

The site lies in the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Comprehensive Experimental Zone, administratively in Xinzheng. It now forms Area C of the Zhengzhou Garden Expo Park, a park of about 1,920 mu opened together with the expo in September 2017. The east and north rammed-earth walls stand best; the west and south walls are poorly preserved. The eastern outer city, called Zhicheng, keeps only a little rammed earth at its southeast corner, about 1.5 m high and 3 m wide.

The rammed-earth walls show two construction phases: the lower layer has small round tamping pits dated to the early Spring and Autumn period, while the upper layers rise in roughly 0.8 cm lifts. Four horse-face bastions project from the north and east walls, and 31 tomb mounds lie nearby, possibly those of nobles.