Liulihe Yan Capital Site 琉璃河遗址Liúlíhé Yízhǐ

About Liulihe Yan Capital Site

The site of the capital of Yan, a vassal state of the Western Zhou dynasty, founded about 3,000 years ago and the earliest known city in the Beijing area. Excavations since the 1960s have found stretches of rammed-earth wall, dwellings and a cemetery of nobles whose inscribed bronzes record the granting of Yan to the family of the Duke of Shao; a site museum opened here in 1995, and new finds were named among China's top ten archaeological discoveries of 2024.

How to get to Liulihe Yan Capital Site

In Dongjialin village north of Liulihe town, Fangshan District, about 45 km south-west of central Beijing, roughly an hour by road. The site museum, now a branch of the Beijing Archaeological Sites Museum, is temporarily closed for post-disaster rebuilding, with no reopening date announced.

Nearby

• Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site 周口店北京人遗址 10 km
  Limestone caves on Dragon Bone Hill where the fossils of Peking Man were found
• Marco Polo Bridge 卢沟桥 30 km
  An 800-year-old stone bridge lined with hundreds of carved lions, by a walled Ming fort
• Tanzhe Temple 潭柘寺 30 km
  Terraced temple courtyards in the western hills, shaded by ancient ginkgos and cypresses
• Temple of Heaven 天坛 40 km
  Where emperors prayed for harvests, and where Beijing now dances, sings and plays cards
• Qianmen Street and Dashilar 前门大街·大栅栏 40 km
  A pedestrian avenue below Qianmen gate and a lane of shops trading since Qing times

Also within 20 km: Liulihe Bridge 琉璃河大桥 (under 10 km), Xiahuliang Bridge 下胡良桥 (10 km), Yongji Bridge, Zhuozhou 永济桥 (10 km), Yong'an Temple Pagoda 永安寺塔 (10 km), Jinmen Floodgates 金门闸 (10 km), Zhuozhou Twin Pagodas 涿州双塔 (20 km).

On the map

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Learn more

• Wikipedia
• Wikipedia (Chinese)