"The Village on Donkey's Back" Dry-farming Stone Terrace Fields in Wangjinzhuang, Hailed as the Second Great Wall

Many people don't know that there is another type of terrace field in the world, a miracle accomplished with the spirit of Yu Gong moving mountains—this is She County's "stone terraces".

She County is located at the junction of Shanxi, Hebei, and Henan provinces, a typical deep-mountain county in the Taihang Mountains. The county has many barren hills, little arable land, and scarce water sources, often described as "80% mountains, half water, half farmland." Facing harsh natural conditions, local farmers used local materials, building stone embankments and filling soil between them to create fields.

She County's dry-farming stone embankment terraces have a history of over 700 years. Through generations of construction, the terraces layer upon layer from the foot of the mountains to the summits. Except for cliffs, over 70% of the slopes have been utilized.

Currently, the stone embankment terrace system covers an area of 204.35 square kilometers, encompassing 46 administrative villages. While providing a stable livelihood for local people, it also conserves water and soil and improves the environment.

The dry-farming terrace system of She County, Hebei Province, centered on the Wangjinzhuang terraces, was recognized as a "China Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage System" by the former Ministry of Agriculture in 2014. This system was once called "an amazing human miracle" by visiting experts from the United Nations World Food Programme.

Wangjinzhuang, located in Handan City, Hebei Province, lies deep in the Taihang Mountains and consists of five natural villages with over 1,400 households.

With thick stones, thin soil, and a dry climate, local people have over hundreds of years chiseled stones and built embankments to create vast Taihang terraces—over 80,000 plots in the Wangjinzhuang area alone. Ancient farming methods stubbornly persist to this day; dormant old crop varieties are awakened through protection and utilization, and the agricultural tourism industry derived from farming culture is injecting new vitality into the weathered Taihang terraces.

Villager Wang Hulin said: "Here, soil is more precious than gold. The soil for farming the terraces has been scraped from between the cracks of stones over generations. Even if there is a bit of soil in my shoes, I pour it back into the field." Wang Hulin is a native of Wangjinzhuang. He later passed the college entrance exam and studied at Tianjin University of Technology, then returned to his hometown to start a business. Whenever he sees the terraces left by his ancestors lying fallow, his heart aches.

Wang Hulin said: "I didn't expect our terraces to become a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System. Now many netizens are paying attention to this place." The picture shows Wang Hulin working with his mother in the fields.

According to research, Wangjinzhuang was first built in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. At the end of the Yuan dynasty, the Wang Jin family moved from Beiguan to establish the village, and later it gradually merged with Huangjin Village behind it, collectively called Wangjinzhuang in 1946. The village is surrounded by overlapping mountains and crisscrossing gullies. "High mountains, many rocks, climbing slopes as soon as you step out" is a true portrayal of Wangjinzhuang.

Stepping into Wangjinzhuang feels like entering a world of stone. Stone houses, stone bridges, stone rollers, stone mills, and stone-paved streets and lanes create a uniquely characteristic traditional village.

The reason for building the settlement with stone is related to the village's geographical environment. Wangjinzhuang lies at the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains, a limestone mountainous area, lacking soil and rain but abundant in stone. To survive in this barren environment, people used local materials, chiseled the mountains for stone, and built a stone home.

Wangjinzhuang village is like a vivid stone museum. The residents who have lived here for generations skillfully use stone resources, creating a "stone village."

Inside the village, there are hundreds of stone-paved small lanes, crisscrossing, forming the spatial foundation of the ancient village. The lanes rise and fall, intertwine, and over thousands of years since the village was founded, the bluestone alleys have been polished to a shine.

Here, it is ancient, rustic, vast, and peaceful. It seems to have stopped time, secluded in a corner, far from the hustle and bustle, like a place in a dream.