The city wall of Ming dynasty in Nanjing

Xi’an, Nanjing, Beijing and Luoyang are the four ancient capitals of China. In history, all of them had large-scale city walls as military facilities for defensive purposes.

The city walls of Ming dynasty in Nanjing are composed, from inside out, of the palace wall, the imperial wall, the capital wall and the outer wall. The palace wall, the imperial wall and the outer wall have all but been destroyed, and what we refer to when we speak of the "city wall in Nanjing" nowadays is in fact the capital wall. It is the largest surviving city wall from ancient China.

Following the Natural Terrain of the Mountain Range and the River

Over 650 years ago, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Ming gave orders to build city walls. The construction took 28 years from 1366 to 1393, engaging nearly one million workers enlisted from five provinces of China and using more than 100 million city bricks. On completion, the capital wall measured about 35.3 kilometers in length and the outer wall on the outside measured a surprising 60 kilometers. After hundreds of years, 25.1 kilometers of the capital wall remain till this day, meandering inside the city of Nanjing like a dragon resting itself on the earth.

City walls usually follow the pattern of a square or a rectangle. The city walls of Ming dynasty in Nanjing, however, were built in alignment with the natural terrain of the mountain range and the river to form a set of rings from inside out:the Qinhuai River serves as the moat to the south; The dragon-shaped Zhongshan Mountain stands guard to the east; The screen of Xuanwu Lake spreads out to the north and hills lie in the west. This is just the perfect military fortress.

the Zhonghua Gate

There are 13 gates in the city walls of Ming dynasty. The Jubao Gate, today called the Zhonghua Gate, is the most well-preserved city gate in China. The Qingliang Gate is built on the rolling cliffs of Qingliangshan mountain. The Tongji Gate is the largest gate, which is boat-shaped and extremely unique in China. The Chaoyang Gate is today’s Zhongshan Gate. It is located in the easternmost part of the city and is the first spot which the sun touches every morning. Hence its name. The Taiping Gate is at the important point where the Zhongshan Mountain joins the Xuanwu Lake, and this section of the city wall is called the "neck of the dragon". The Shence Gate occupies a vital position for military defense purposes and was always heavily guarded in history.

The Witness and Continuation of History

Nowadays, much of the city wall and many city gates in Nanjing have already been destroyed or demolished, leaving only their names behind. The remaining gates include the Gate of China, the Shence Gate, the Qingliang Gate, etc. In recent years, the city wall has been under constant repair. In 1988, the entire stretch of the city wall of Ming dynasty in Nanjing was designated a major historical and cultural site protected at the national level. Loaded with a past of 600 years, today the city wall of Ming dynasty in Nanjing carries on with its own history and stories.