Kēdù

Kedu Pass guards an old route between Yunnan and Guizhou in the mountains north of Xuanwei. A stone road winds across the slopes towards a fortified gateway and the river crossing, making it a natural point of passage for officials, merchants and couriers. The surrounding mountain country made the pass a distinctive entrance to the Yunnan plateau.

A small walled settlement was built at the pass in 1382, early in the Ming conquest of Yunnan. The government established a relay station and an inspection post along the road, while soldiers and labourers maintained the route. In the Qing, the pass continued to supervise traffic, including the transport of copper. The old road and its surviving stones recall centuries of travel across the plateau frontier.