Down memorial lane

Longchang, located between Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, and neighboring Chongqing, has been an important cargo distribution and passenger transport center since ancient times.

The post road in Longchang led to Zigong in Sichuan to the north, Yunnan province to the south, Chengdu to the west and Hubei and Hunan provinces to the east.

"The archways were intended to promote virtue and filial piety to people who left or entered Longchang along the road," Zhang says.

The first archway on the southern part of the post road is the Archway of Virtue for Giorro Guohuan. Built in 1871 by gentry, seniors and common people in Longchang, then a county, it honors Giorro Guohuan who is known for reducing the taxes of locals after droughts and providing funds for local schools from his own wages.

The archway is unique because it has a double-faced male monkey standing on the top, holding an official seal. It is commonly known as the Monkey Memorial Archway.

The design displays the hope of locals that Giorro Guohuan would be quickly promoted to the rank of feudal lord, as the words for "monkey" and "standing" in Chinese have a similar pronunciation as "feudal lord" and "immediately".

The Memorial Archway for Suqing's Benevolent Rule was built in 1856 on the northern part of the post road to honor Nala Suqing, who was from an ethnic Manchu family and served as a county magistrate in Longchang from 1855 to 1860.

In the first year when Nala Suqing served as the county magistrate, Longchang endured a drought and the seedlings of cereal crops were ruined. The cost of rice rose sharply to the dismay of the people.

Nala Suqing spurred the people of the county to dig wells from which they could irrigate their crops in the face of the drought. He cracked down upon dishonest merchants to cap rice prices and took it upon himself, at the risk of his own life, to open the official barn without the prior agreement of the higher authorities and distribute cereals to common people.