Nanjing City Wall of the Ming Dynasty

Pubdate:2016-11-22 10:46SourceNanjing citywall Writer:管理员 View:

Nanjing City Wall of the Ming Dynasty was an important masterpiece in the mature period in the fortification history of China and also the most representative historical and cultural symbol of Nanjing City. Nanjing City Wall built in the middle period of the 14^th century was an important defense project for guarding the capital of the country upon Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang establishing a capital in Nanjing. The urban area planned was surrounded by winding hills and landscapes. Although it had favorable geographical position called a forbidding strategic point, it had higher requirements for the city wall builders at that time, which reflected in building thought, building materials, building technology, building techniques and so on. Its building structure and characteristics are closely related to the terrain and landform of Nanjing and Nanjing City Wall of the Ming Dynasty is a perfect combination between the innovation of traditional fortification technology and the characteristics of Nanjing City.

Nanjing Capital of the Ming Dynasty consists of four rounds of city walls of palace city, imperial city, the capital, outer city wall. The City Wall does not follow the old system of capital city in the ancient times being square or rectangular, but it is unique in design concept, exquisite in construction technology and splendid and magnificent in scale and it is a masterpiece integrated with military defense system engineering for cities in ancient times of China and the city wall building technology. In order to build up this City Wall, the Ming Dynasty took 28 years at least and employed various fortification personnel up to million persons, concerning vast area of many provinces in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River and it is of strong regional features of times.

Nanjing City Wall went through time and tide, suffered flames of war and even suffered part of removal under the cognitive limitations. Thankfully, its length preserved to date is about more than two thirds of the one of the original city wall and currently it is still the longest city wall made from masonry in China and among cities of the world. Nanjing City Wall was rated as Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 1988.

In recent years, the value of human cultural heritage owned by Nanjing City Wall has been widely acknowledged by the whole society, and upon large-scale emergency maintenance, the Scenic Belt of Nanjing City Wall has given initial results. Nanjing City Wall has been listed in the national alternative items of application for the list of “world cultural heritage”-one of combination project of “City Walls of Ming and Qing Dynasties of China”, reflecting the position and value of Nanjing City Wall in the cultural life of current society. Nanjing City Wall has already become a urban culture symbol of modern Nanjing and the historical building with largest mass on the ground of Nanjing, attracting the interest and attention of more and more Chinese and foreign tourists.
The most convenient path to enter Nanjing is to enter the City Wall.

(Editor：admin)