Hulao Pass

'Tiger Cage Pass') is a choke point northwest of Xingyang, Henan province, China in the foothills of Mount Song.

With Mount Song to the south, the Yellow River to the north, the pass holds up a formidable defense.

Among the most famous is the Battle of Hulao Pass, where a coalition of dissidents led by Yuan Shao clashed with Dong Zhuo's elite armies in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Also here, in the Battle of Hulao of 621, Li Shimin defeated Dou Jiande and forced Wang Shichong to surrender, laying the foundation to the Tang dynasty.

The classic novel Fengshen Yanyi (set over a thousand years before the Three Kingdoms period) depicts two major battles taking place in this pass (in chapters 33 & 76).