Photo shows the view of the Xiangyu Ancient Castle located in the Qinhe River Valley in Jincheng city, north China's Shanxi province. [Photo/people.com.cn]

The Xiangyu Ancient Castle, reputed as the "First Ancient Castle Cluster in North China", is located in the Qinhe River Valley in Jincheng city, north China's Shanxi province.

The five-storied house, with a smooth and bright mirror-like surface in Xiangyu village, is by far the best-preserved storied residence in Northern China.

The castle cluster unveils various building complexes that harmoniously combine Chinese and Western architectural styles and soldiers' hideout cells joined by rarely seen corridor-like paths.

The castle cluster's structures were erected during the turbulent times of the late Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1644-1911) periods, the oldest dating back almost 400 years.

The castles all have precise defensive systems, usually divided into three defense lines: villages, city gate towers and forts. Four high towers were erected on the four corners of the city wall with small windows in the back wall controlling the four corners. The fort is usually six stories high and one meter thick, with grain-processing equipment like grinders, millstones, wells and barns inside, as well as defensive facilities like stones, embrasures, tunnels and gunpowder.

Inside the castles, the courtyards and buildings are linked via crisscrossing tunnels or arcades like a network of labyrinths, reflecting the Chinese rational concept of defense and communications.