Jiming Mountain in Xiaotaishan outside the Great Wall, Jiming Station, the world’s first post office

Jiming Mountain is located in Huailai County, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, just beside the Beijing-Tibet Expressway. You can see it every time you pass by. This time, I made a special trip off the expressway to visit. Jiming Mountain is a majestic, magical and spiritual mountain. It was formed in a major earthquake more than a billion years ago. It is 1128.9 meters above sea level. The mountain is abrupt, with lush vegetation and solitary peaks reaching into the clouds. It is known as "One Pillar" and is also known as "Little Mount Tai beyond the Great Wall". Legend has it that when Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty came here during his Northern Expedition, the army rose up upon hearing the rooster and won a great victory, so it was renamed Jiming Mountain. Emperors such as Shengzong of the Liao Dynasty, Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty, and Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty all visited Jiming Mountain one after another. Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty also visited Jiming Mountain twice. Jimingyi, formerly known as Jimingshanyi, was built in the Ming Dynasty. The entire city has a circumference of about 2,000 meters and a height of 11 meters. Jiming Post got its name because it is backed by Jiming Mountain. It is one of the most important post stations in the Gyeonggi region in history. It has a long history of 700 years and is the only surviving post station in ancient China that was both a military post and a mail post. The dual-purpose post station has important historical, artistic and scientific values. It is known as a "living fossil" of postal archeology and confidential archeology, and has the reputation of "the world's first post office". In 1995, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of China Post, one of the commemorative stamps issued by the ancient postal station showed Jimingshan Station. The streets in Jimingyi City are crisscrossed, and there are many ancient buildings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, such as the Yicheng Office, Taishan Temple, Wenchang Temple, Chenghuang Temple, Dragon King Temple, Caishen Temple, White Guanyin Hall, Yongning Temple, etc. Among them, the Hejia Courtyard was the original building of that year. Command Office, in the 26th year of Guangxu's reign, Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu stayed here for one night on their way to the west.