glad you got it, Chris!

thanks!

thanks Dan!

thanks Debra!

Note: one section of the Willow Palisade is still visible on Google Earth, near where the Weiyuanbao gate stood: shorturl.at/JoVI3 9/9

Read about how this happened in TIGERS BETWEEN EMPIRES! us.macmillan.com/books/978037... 8/9

Amur tigers were caught in the middle between habitat loss on one side and hunting on the other, which led to a population crash that brought them to the edge of extinction. It’s taken 170 years for tigers on both sides of this border to see a fragile recovery. 7/9

The Qing, perhaps hoping to firm up this new border so that the Russians would not take more land, encouraged immigration to the lands formerly protected by the Willow Palisade. The Russians poured their own settlers into the region as well. 6/9

however, a series of treaties between China and Russia 1858-1860 moved the border between these countries into the heart of the Qing homeland. 5/9

while obviously not impenetrable (it was a wall of trees, after all), the Willow Palisade did deter human settlement of the Amur River basin, which in turn helped protect Amur tigers and their habitat. Weiyuanbao gate is at top left. 4/9

the purpose of the Willow Palisade was to protect the Qing Dynasty homeland and its natural resources from outsiders (Han Chinese, ethnic Koreans & Mongolians). A series of ornate gates, spaced every 50 km, controlled entry and exit. This one was called Weiyuanbao. 3/9

When the willow saplings were planted their branches were woven together so as they grew they did so as a single wall. The Palisade consisted of two lines of these trees separated by a deep ditch. 2/9