Hebei Ancient Records 30 | Nuanquan Ancient Town, a town with three national protected sites

|Nuanquan Ancient Town is a place where three national protected sites are integrated into one town. Nuanquan Ancient Town is located in the west of Wei County, Hebei Province. It is named "Nuanquan" because of the spring water with the same temperature all year round. The ancient town of Nuanquan was built in the Yuan Dynasty, grew stronger in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and developed into "three forts, six lanes, and eighteen villages". Xigubao is one of the "three forts", commonly known as "zhaibao", located in the southwest of Nuanquan Town. The ancient castle was built during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. It is the most unique and well-preserved of the 800 forts in ancient Weizhou. Huayan Temple was built in the 32nd year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1399). From south to north there are the front and rear halls, and the east and west side halls on both sides. The front hall is three rooms wide and deep, with a single-eaved hip roof and five-section brackets under the eaves. It is said that the ceiling inside is painted with exquisite dragon and phoenix designs, but unfortunately we were not able to enter. Laojun Temple is located on the sand hill in the north of the ancient town and is a Ming and Qing dynasty building. The Taoist temple faces south and the Taoist murals preserved in the Sanqing Hall, including "Laozi's 81 Transformations of Nonsense", are linked together and all have inscriptions in regular script, which are relatively rare.