" Cockcrow Post Town (Ji Ming Yi or Station of Rooster Crows) was recently listed for the second time by the World Monuments Fund in the 2006 World Monuments Watch List of world 100 most endangered sites.
The Ming-period town is located at Huailai County, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province. It is the largest postal town of its kind in China, and the prime example of its era.
It was a major post office and an important location for travelers and workers alike to change horses and pass on transport duties between Beijing and western areas of China and beyond.
Cockcrow was constructed in 1420 and although it suffered during the Cultural Revolution, locals managed to preserve a number of aristocratic houses as well as carvings and wall paintings within temples by covering them with mudplaster and newspaper.
The town is still inhabited with temples, schools and a wealth of courtyard houses, all surrounded by a massive rammed-earth-and-masonry town wall. Seven out of 17 remaining original temples are in danger of being lost. "
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