Yancheng’s inner city sprawls 1,500 meters, about 3 li (a Chinese unit of length, 1 li=500 meters) while the outer city stretches 3,500 m or 7 li. Their areas fit well in with the relevant account in Mencius. Besides, the urban design has its own unique mystery. In a bird’s-eye view, the entire relic site looks quite like the Eight Trigrams according to Taoism and Geomancy. It is said the outmost moat had eight brooks and four watergates at the earliest time. Hong Kong based geomancer Mai Rongyao, having investigated the site, concluded the eight brooks represent eight trigrams in I Ching. The construction time shows Yancheng was the earliest city in the world to follow the mysterious geomancy. So, it is also called “First City of Chinese Fengshui”.
