Ever since antiquity, Shanxi had occupied a strategically important
military position due precisely to its unique geographical
environment. It was immortalized in "Wenci" (Literature Essays) of the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD) as a place "standing on the ridge of the country and serving as the throat to the northern region of the Yellow River." Shanxi was not only at the forefront of interracial
conflicts and mingling between the Han people and the steppe nomads but also a strategic fortress to command the Central Plain before conquering the country. So it had always been a place fiercely vied for by
military forces. As a result, every ruler of the past dynasties in China, without exception, built one pass after another within Shanxi. According to data, there are 200-plus passes of varying shapes and sizes in Shanxi. Of the so-called "top ten passes," Shanxi has no less than four: the Pingxing Pass, the Yanmen Pass, the Niangzi Pass and the Pian Pass. Scenes of thousands of years of long-enduring frontier conflicts and the never-ending watch-fires had made household names of the passes in north Shanxi, thus contributing numerous chapters of moving stories to the venerable history of Shanxi. These passes, as legacies of war, have now turned into a cultural heritage unique to Shanxi and become precious material objects of war culture in the history of the Chinese nation.