The Liao Dynasty castle ruins at Chengsijiazi, south of Baicheng, are among the few physical reminders in this part of Jilin that the region was controlled by successive nomadic empires long before the Chinese state established its current borders here. The Liao dynasty (916–1125 CE) was a Khitan empire that ruled a vast territory stretching from the steppes into northern China proper, and these ruins represent one of the administrative or military installations they maintained on the western frontier of Manchuria.
What survives above ground is modest — earthen walls, foundation traces, and the outline of a fortified compound that has been largely absorbed into the agricultural landscape. The site is not developed for tourism, and getting there requires some navigational effort. But for anyone interested in the pre-Chinese history of the northeast, the existence of this castle changes the scale of what you see in the surrounding landscape: this was once the frontier of a different empire entirely, and the farmers' fields now cover a history that has nothing to do with Han China.