The Gan-Yue Ancient Road and Meiguan Pass: A Thousand-Year Corridor from Qin-Dynasty Yuling Ridge to Ming-Qing Salt-Grain Trade
The Gan-Yue Ancient Road and Meiguan Pass Geographic Connections Standing at the Zhemei Pavilion on the Dayuling ridge and looking south, you can see the Gujiaowei confluence (modern Ganzhou’s Zhanggong District) where two rivers part ways. The Zhang River flows north toward Poyang Lake and the Yangtze; the Gong River flows south into the Pearl River system. One ridge, two rivers, two directions. Meiguan Pass sits at the lowest saddle of this ridge, only 430 meters above sea level—the easiest breach across the entire Nanling Mountains. From the Qin and Han dynasties through Ming and Qing, any army or merchant caravan traveling between Lingnan and the north had to pass through this saddle. ...