The Beijing Ming City Wall Ruins Park () is a park in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

with the longest and best preserved section of the city's

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

city wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or Earthworks (military), earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as ...

. The park is located from the city center and extends east from

Chongwenmen Chongwenmen (; Manchu: ; Möllendorff: šu be wesihulere duka) was a gate that was part of Beijing's city wall in what is now Dongcheng District. The gate stood in the southeastern part of Beijing's inner city, immediately south of the old Beij ...

to Dongbianmen and then north to near to Beijing Railway Station East Street. The park features a section of the Ming city wall and the Southeast Corner Tower, which are over 550 years old and surrounded by green park space to the south and east. The park covers an area of , including of fortifications and of green space. The corner tower and the ramparts atop the wall can be accessed for an admission fee.

Location and access

The park is located at the southeast corner of Beijing's inner walled city, about southeast of

Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square () is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen ("''Gate of Heavenly Peace''") located to its north, which separates it from the Forbidden City. The square contains th ...

in what is now Dongcheng District, just inside the Second Ring Road. Preserved in the park is a section of the Ming city wall and the Southeast Corner Tower, that once connected

and Dongbianmen, two city gates that have been replaced with roadway intersections. The longer southern city wall is attached to the Southeast Corner Tower itself while a shorter section of the eastern city wall is separated from the corner tower by a railway out of the

Beijing railway station Beijing railway station, or simply Beijing station, is a passenger railway station in Dongcheng District, Beijing. The station is located just southeast of the city centre inside the Second Ring Road with Beijing Station Street to the north an ...

. Park space at the foot of the southern city wall extends along Chongwenmen East Avenue to the Second Ring Road. The

Beijing Ancient Observatory The Beijing Ancient Observatory () is a pretelescopic observatory located in Beijing, China. The observatory was built in 1442 during the Ming dynasty, and expanded during the Qing. It received major reorganization and many new, more accurate ...

, built atop another section of the eastern city wall at Jianguomen, is a short walk north of the corner tower. The

and its rail depots occupy the area immediately north of the park. The corner tower's exhibits and ramparts are open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Admission is Y10 for adults, half-price for students. Children below 1.2 m in height and senior citizens are admitted for free. The park space is not enclosed and is accessible to the public at all hours. The park is popular with tourists visiting the wall and residents from the surrounding neighborhood, who use the green space for recreation and

dog walking Dog walking is the act of a person walking with a dog, typically from the dog's residence and then returning. Leashes are commonly used for this. Both owners and pets receive many benefits, including exercise and companionship. Description Dog ...

. The park hosts the annual Huashi Saturn Peach Temple Festival. The Ming City Wall Relics Park is accessible by

Beijing Bus Public bus service in Beijing is among the most extensive, widely used and affordable form of public transportation in List of administrative divisions of Beijing, urban and suburban districts of the city. In 2015, the entire network consisted ...

to "Dongbianmen" bus stop (Routes 25, 29, 39, 43, 44, 59, 434, 525, 610, 674 and 特2), "Chongwenmen East" bus stop (Routes 12, 25, 39, 43, 44, 525, 610) and "Jianguomen South" bus stop (Routes 25, 39, 43, 44, 52, 122, 434, 637, 638, 750 and 特2); and by

Beijing Subway The Beijing Subway is the rapid transit system of Beijing Direct-controlled municipality, Municipality that consists of 29 lines including 24 rapid transit lines, two airport rail links, one maglev line and two light rail, light rail tram line ...

( Line 2) and Jianguomen station ( Lines 1 and 2).

History

Beijing's inner city wall was built during the

in 1419. The Ming city walls stood for nearly 550 years until the early 1960s when most of the gates and walls were torn down to build the

, which runs underneath where the walls stood. The subway's inner loop line turned into the Inner City at Chongwenmen to stop at the

, and did not need to run beneath a section of the wall at the southeast corner of the Inner City. Of the 40 km of the original wall, only this 1.5 km section was spared. Inside this section of the wall (north of the wall) are railway yards of Beijing Station. Outside the wall (south of the wall) stood residential homes and small businesses. Ming Wall Detail

In the late 1990s, the city government decided convert the remnants of the wall into a park and relocate the small businesses and homes between the foot of the southern city wall and Chongwenmen East Avenue. The relocated businesses and residents received compensation and tax exemptions. Construction began in November 2001. The homes, which lacked indoor heating, plumbing and running water, were razed but large trees that stood in the courtyards were preserved. To preserve the historical integrity of the fortifications, the authorities solicited donations of Ming era bricks from city residents to use in the restoration. About of one-fifth of 2,000,000 bricks used in the restoration are from the Ming-era. When the park was completed in September 2003, national leaders

Jiang Zemin Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as Chairman of the Central Mil ...

Li Lanqing Li Lanqing (; born 22 May 1932) is a retired Chinese politician who served as first-ranked Vice Premier of China between 1998 and 2003. He was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) between 1997 and 2 ...

Wan Li Wan Li (December 1916 – 15 July 2015) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician who served as First Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1983 to 1988 and the 5th Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peo ...

Ding Guangen Ding Guangen (; September 1929 – July 22, 2012) was a Chinese politician who served in senior leadership roles in the Chinese Communist Party during the 1990s. He was a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party between 1992 and ...

, and then municipal party secretary

Jia Qinglin Jia Qinglin (; born 13 March 1940) is a retired senior leader of the People's Republic of China and of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He was a member of the CCP's Politburo Standing Committee, the party's highest ruling organ, between ...

and mayor Liu Qi, visited the park.

Relics Park

Southeast Corner Tower

The Southeast Corner Tower was built from 1436 to 1439 and is a major state-protected historical site. The tower, which rises in height with 144 archery windows, is the largest corner tower still standing in China. The tower could house 200 soldiers and has ramps for soldiers and horses. During the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

, bannerman of the Plain Blue Banner were stationed at the corner tower. During the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...

of 1900, the tower was attacked and captured by the

Eight-Nation Alliance The Eight-Nation Alliance was a multinational military coalition that invaded northern China in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion, with the stated aim of relieving the foreign legations in Beijing, which were being besieged by the popular Boxer ...

. It was known by Westerners as the Fox Tower.

Graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

carved by the invaders are preserved inside the tower. The corner tower was restored in 1983 and became a tourist site. Inside the tower is an exhibit on the history of the city's Ming-era walls. The Red Gate Gallery, a privately managed, non-profit contemporary art gallery opened in 1991 inside the tower and operated for over two decades before moving to the

798 Art Zone 798 Art Zone (), or Dashanzi Art District, is a complex of 50-year-old decommissioned People's Liberation Army, military factory buildings boasting a unique architectural style that houses a thriving artistic community in Dashanzi, Chaoyang Di ...

. In 2003, the Southeast Corner Tower became part of the Ming City Wall Relics Park.

Wall and bastions

The inner city wall stood high and were topped with

battlements A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals t ...

that rose a further .(Chines
"北京系列-北京明城墙遗址"
/ref> The wall, lined with brick and filled with

rammed earth Rammed earth is a technique for construction, constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as soil, earth, chalk, Lime (material), lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently ...

, was thick at the foundation and at the top.

Bastions A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

protruding on the outside face of the wall are locally known as ''mamian'' or "horse face". The bastions, spaced about apart, allowed archers to fire at attackers from three sides.(Chinese
"明城墙遗址公园" VisitBeijing.com.cn
/ref> The restored fortification has 11 bastions on the southern wall and two bastions on the shorter eastern wall. Only the

of the corner tower and one bastion has been fully restored.

Greenery

During the restoration, some 400 trees, 6,000 bushes and 100,000 flowering plants were planted on the park grounds. In 2009, about 600 old trees on the park grounds were "adopted" by various social organizations that pledged to contribute to the cost of nourishing the trees, pruning, and insect-control.

Jingfeng Railway Signal House

Also on the park grounds is a restored signal house of the Beijing–Fengtian (Jingfeng) Railway built in 1901.

References

External links

* {{Beijing Parks Archaeological parks City walls in China Dongcheng District, Beijing Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Beijing Ming dynasty architecture Parks in Beijing Military history of Beijing