Hoanh Son Gate

Worn stone steps climb to a stone gate. Moss covers the stones, and green trees grow out of the gaps in the wall. Above the gate, three Chinese characters are cut deep into the stone: Hoành Sơn Quan.

This structure is nearly 200 years old, and it still stands on top of Ngang Pass.

The story begins in 1833, the 14th year of the reign of Emperor Minh Mạng. The emperor ordered a gate built on Hoành Sơn mountain. The Hà Tĩnh Museum, citing a record called Đại Nam thực lục, gives the details. The court sent 300 soldiers from Quảng Bình and Hà Tĩnh to build it. The work was supervised by Đoàn Văn Phú, then acting vice minister in the Ministry of Works. It was finished in one month. Afterward, a squad leader and 20 soldiers from Quảng Bình were sent to guard the gate, and they changed shifts once a month.

The emperor explained the purpose plainly. The gate was set up to question criminals and to serve as a guard post. It was not a national border in the modern sense. It was a checkpoint on the long road between north and south. Anyone traveling from the capital, Hue, to the north, or from the north to the south, had to pass through here.

Historical records describe the structure like this. Walls of mountain stone surrounded it, with one gate opening at the front. On both sides, dividing walls were built to follow the shape of the mountain. Inside, a barracks of three bays once stood. The stone gate and the walls beside it are what remain after nearly two centuries.

The gate is about four meters high. The wall is about 30 meters long. That is not large. But in this spot, between mountain and sea, a gate this small was enough to control the whole route.

The terrain explains why Hoành Sơn Quan exists. The Hoành Sơn range is a branch of mountains running from the Trường Sơn range to the sea. At Ngang Pass the mountains come closest to the sea and leave a narrow gap. There was no other way through. At the end of that gap, the Nguyễn dynasty placed a gate. The Nguyễn dynasty was Vietnam's last royal dynasty, which reigned from 1802 to 1945.

The Hà Tĩnh Museum also records a few facts. A survey in 2002 by the specialist authorities found that the site lies 7.7 meters north of the watershed line at the top of the pass. That puts it inside Hà Tĩnh. In 2005, the People's Committee of Hà Tĩnh Province ranked Hoành Sơn Quan as a provincial historical and cultural site. Earlier, in 2002, the Quảng Bình side had also given it provincial ranking.

Another popular name for the gate is Cổng Trời, or Heaven's Gate. Local people and visitors both use it. From here the land opens below: the Kỳ Nam area with green fields, hills, the distant sea, and Highway 1A, tiny at the foot of the mountain. Calling it a gate in the sky is no exaggeration.

The view also takes in the long road that Vietnamese people have walked for many centuries. Bà Huyện Thanh Quan stood on this stretch of the pass and wrote the poem "Crossing Ngang Pass." Its opening line says: "Stepping up to Ngang Pass, the sun is low and slanting." The poem does not speak of Hoành Sơn Quan. It speaks of loneliness on the long road. But the setting of the poem is this very land.

Two things are worth keeping apart. Hoành Sơn Quan is a gate of the Nguyễn dynasty, and its history and architecture can be checked in the historical records. The poem is a layer of feeling that culture has laid over this place. They are different things. But at Ngang Pass they come together and make a place worth remembering.

And the stone gate still stands. The moss still covers it. The sea wind still blows up from below. Each stone, laid along the shape of the mountain, recalls a morning in 1833, when 300 soldiers finished their work in one month and walked down the pass.