Niangziguan spring, on Yangquan’s border with Hebei, flows at about seven cubic metres a second. The pass beside it is named, by tradition, for a Tang princess; in 1900 French and German troops attacked it.
娘子关泉位于阳泉与河北交界处，每秒流量约七立方米。泉边的关隘，传说因一位唐朝公主得名；一九〇〇年，法军和德军先后进攻过这里。
Quan in Yangquan means spring.
阳泉的“泉”，就是泉水的泉。
The pass was first called Weize Pass. The surviving one was built in 1542 and has a wall about 650 metres long, with a south gate inscribed “京畿藩屏” and an east gate inscribed “直隶娘子关”. Tradition says Princess Pingyang, third daughter of Li Yuan, stationed her “Lady’s Army” here; no historical record confirms it.
关隘最初叫苇泽关。现存的关城建于一五四二年，城墙长约六百五十米，南门刻“京畿藩屏”，东门刻“直隶娘子关”。传说平阳公主，也就是李渊的第三个女儿，曾让她的“娘子军”驻守此地，但没有史料可以证实。
The Gate with a Princess’s Name
以公主为名的关门
Shanxi Daily reported that the south gate tower holds a seated statue of Princess Pingyang and that the ancient stone paving in the gate passage is still cut with deep cart ruts.
《山西日报》报道，娘子关南门楼内供有平阳公主的坐像，门洞里的古石板路上至今留着深深的车辙。
Dong Yaohui, writing in People’s Weekly in August 2025, called Niangziguan the only pass in the Great Wall defence system named after a woman. He also records a local legend in which defenders facing Liu Heita, whose attackers outnumbered them ten to one, poured boiled millet gruel on them; the attackers took it for horse urine and withdrew.
董耀会二〇二五年八月在《人民周刊》撰文，称娘子关是长城防御体系中唯一以女性命名的关隘。他还记述了一则当地传说：面对兵力十倍于己的刘黑闼，守军把煮好的米汤浇向进攻者，对方误以为是马尿，撤兵而去。
According to Dong, French troops attacked the pass in October 1900, followed by German troops in November. Qing general Liu Guangcai led the defence. Dong describes it as a rare Chinese military success during the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion, although accounts differ over the scale and outcome of the fighting.
据董耀会记述，一九〇〇年十月法军进攻娘子关，十一月德军接踵而至，清军将领刘光才指挥守关。董耀会称这是八国联军侵华期间中国一次罕见的军事胜利，但各种说法对战斗的规模和结果看法不一。
The pass saw fighting again in 1940, when Peng Dehuai’s Hundred Regiments Offensive was fought there.
一九四〇年，彭德怀指挥的百团大战又在这里交过手。
Seven Cubic Metres a Second
每秒七立方米
The Yangquan Water Resources Bureau’s 2023 bulletin counts 407.44 million cubic metres of water resources, with its surface-water figure leaving out the Niangziguan spring. That spring measured 7.44 cubic metres a second and delivered 234.49 million cubic metres over the year. The city’s total water supply was 186.11 million cubic metres.
阳泉市水利局二〇二三年水资源公报称，全市水资源总量四亿零七百四十四万立方米，其中地表水数据不含娘子关泉。该泉实测流量每秒七点四四立方米，全年径流量二亿三千四百四十九万立方米。全市总供水量一亿八千六百一十一万立方米。
Coal, Computing and Getting There
煤、算力与出行
Yangquan’s GDP reached ¥87.06 billion in 2025, up 4.4 percent in real terms, according to the municipal statistics bureau, against ¥85.62 billion in 2024. The city had 1.2802 million residents at year-end. China Daily reported that it has built 14 smart coal mines.
阳泉市统计局数据显示，二〇二五年全市生产总值八百七十亿六千万元，按可比价格计算增长百分之四点四，二〇二四年为八百五十六亿二千万元；年末常住人口一百二十八万〇二百人。《中国日报》报道，全市已建成十四座智能化煤矿。
Deputy Mayor Li Yanbin said in August 2026 that Yangquan’s core digital economy industries generated ¥6 billion in revenue in 2025, while their value added accounted for 3.8 percent of GDP. The city has two large computing centres, Baidu’s and Yunfeng’s, with about 7,000P of intelligent computing power, Science and Technology Daily reported.
副市长李燕斌二〇二六年八月说，二〇二五年阳泉数字经济核心产业收入六十亿元，其增加值占生产总值的百分之三点八。《科技日报》报道，全市建有百度和云峰两座大型智算中心，智能算力约七千P。
A direct Taiyuan–Yangquan train service began on 6 August 2026, China News Service reported; the morning train from Yangquan East reaches Taiyuan South non-stop in one hour 27 minutes. Taiyuan, the provincial capital, is also home to Wusu International Airport.
中新社报道，太原至阳泉的直达列车于二〇二六年八月六日开行；早班车从阳泉东出发，中途不停，一小时二十七分钟抵达太原南。省会太原也是武宿国际机场所在地。
