Big horse head

Big horse head

Damatou is located in shaobotiaoshi Street on the east side of the canal dyke. It is a well preserved ancient street in Central Jiangsu.

brief introduction

From the middle street to the upper river, you can see a tall archway with three characters of "big horse head" carved on it. Recently, the archway was rebuilt as it was in the Qing Dynasty, showing a more primitive style. Standing on the "big horse head" bridge, you will feel the flourishing scene of spars and busy loading and unloading.

Along the town center to the west, up the stairs, you can see the famous freight terminal on the Grand Canal line - damatou. People call it "the first crossing of the canal" and "the city square on the water". On the other side of damatou is the ancient Panjia ferry, which is far away from Hexi street.

With the prosperity of the canal and Shaobo, damatou has naturally become one of the important commercial ports along the canal line, and is known as "Zhenjiang xiaomatou, Shaobo damatou". The wharf is full of goods day and night, there are many sailboats, all kinds of ships are supported by each other, and the Shaobo songs in the mouth of the stevedores are one after another, which constitutes a labor symphony. It is said that when Emperor Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River and Longxing Shaobo saw the bustling scene here, he also asked to go ashore and pay a private visit to check the people's situation. Among shaobozhu docks, damatou has the largest number and the most historical and cultural value. There are more than thirty blue stone steps, which stretch straight to the bottom of the river. The stone steps are wide and long, so it is easy to load and unload. In the north of the pier, there is a local temple, which is burning incense all day long. The boat people are burning incense to pray for peace and good luck. The stone dyke and stone wharf of the Grand Canal under Shao Bo's horse head are very precious material and cultural heritage. After more than three hundred years of ups and downs, the original preserved, it is rare. It is not easy to find such antiques along the canal. It can reflect the development history of the canal, and also has high value of water conservancy historical records and cultural relics.

Historical records

According to historical records, in the second year of Wude (619), Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, water transportation from Yangzhou to Chang'an passed through Shaobo. In the Yuan Dynasty, the grand canal connected Beijing and Hangzhou, and Shaobo became the water center. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shaobo was also the distribution center of goods between the north and the south. The grand wharf beside the canal is more prosperous than any other in the past. On the one hand, the ships from the north were unwilling to cross the river with the northern goods from Henan and Shandong and the salt from Huainan; on the other hand, the ships from the South were unwilling to carry the goods such as Jiangxi porcelain, tung oil, hemp silk, tea and silk from Jiangnan. During the Longqing period (1567-1573) of the Ming Dynasty, there were 400000 pieces of porcelain in transit and 400000 pieces of salt in Huainan. In addition, envoys from abroad, scholars going to Beijing for exams, and ships sent to the south of Beijing will also stop at the post station here. There are more than 20 docks along the coast and more than 200 ships. When the official ships entered the town, they blew trombones from far and near. Some of them were two, some were four, and the sound of "Wuwu" went up and down the ancient canal, which was very powerful. You can also hear the sound of the boats pulled by the dam at the end of Nanmi City, echoing the sound of the boatman carrying the goods on the wharf. One after another, it is very spectacular. Due to the large number of merchants coming and going from south to north, seven guild halls have been built in Shaobo street, including Jiangxi and Zhongzhou. The bathroom industry, teahouse industry and hotel industry came into being. BeiHuo, Douhang, lianghang and Youma are flourishing. During the six southern expeditions of Kangxi and Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, they all passed through here.

The stone dyke of ancient damatou and the canal has a long history. It is recorded that it was built in 1714, the 53rd year of Kangxi reign of Qing Dynasty. The dyke is about 258m long, 4.7m wide and 5.1m high. Mianhe is a brick and stone structure, the base is based on large stone strips, the top is built with large city brick, and the top is pressed with a stone. There are two stone carvings left at the north and south ends of the river embankment. One is "Jindi YONGGU" (the dike was rebuilt in the 16th year of Guangxu), and the other is "Gantang Bao" (the dike was rebuilt in the 2nd year of Xuantong in April). These are all historical evidences.

On the fifth day of December in the third year of Daoguang (1823), Lin Zexu returned to Jiangsu from Beijing and stopped at Shaobo on an official ship. Huang zaihou, the governor of Yangzhou department, Zhu Bo, the magistrate of Ganquan County, and Shaobo, the inspector general, all went to damatou to meet and see him off.

In 1855, the Yellow River moved to the north. Following the opening of the Shanghai Nanjing railway and the Beijing Pudong Railway, the distribution of goods and materials moved to Zhenjiang. The shipping industry of Shaobo was declining, leaving only this lonely wharf. Today, the three characters "big horse head" are still deeply engraved on the ancient archway, which seems to tell people the rise and fall of the ancient wharf.

There are also some other docks in Shao Bo Town, such as Guan Yi front pier, Town God's Temple Ferry Pier and so on.

In 2006, shaobogu canal embankment and damatou were approved as "municipal cultural relics protection units" by the provincial government.

It is reported that Shaobo wharf has been included in the official list of the Grand Canal's World Heritage application.

Address: Shaobo Town, Jiangdu District, Yangzhou City

Longitude: 119.51405267592

Latitude: 32.527398208556

Ticket information: no ticket required.

Chinese PinYin : Da Ma Tou