Nanjing Ming Dynasty City Wall: From Zhonghuamen to Jiqingmen

Walking time: February 2022

Mode: Walking

Route: Zhonghuamen Gate Tower – Jiqingmen Gate Tower

Address: Southern end of Zhonghua Road, Qinhuai District, Nanjing

Admission: 50 yuan

Just back in Nanjing from a trip, I made plans with my child to walk a section of the city wall. Walking the wall seems to have become a ritual before every new school term. This time, the first thing that came to mind was to visit the City Wall Museum. A few months ago, I saw on WeChat Moments that the museum had opened, but I couldn’t make it right away due to lack of time. Today, I thought I’d first visit the museum, then climb the gate tower and go on a rambling walk.

Nanjing City Wall Museum

Address: No. 1 Bianying, Laomendong area, Qinhuai District, Nanjing

After getting off the bus, the first thing I saw was the towering and mighty Zhonghuamen gate tower. Early spring plum blossoms framed the timeworn wall, making it even more magnificent.

On the east side of the Zhonghuamen gate tower, just across a street, there is a city park.

Inside this open park, the folded-plate roof of the Nanjing City Wall Museum blends seamlessly with the spacious square and greenery. The museum’s entire facade is clad in translucent glass, creating a mirror-like effect. The glass facade reduces the museum’s visual mass, and the reflections of the surrounding city wall landscape appear on its surface. This gave us a feeling of visual interplay between the museum and the ancient wall.

The main entrance of the Nanjing City Wall Museum is on the north side. As a thematic museum of ancient Chinese city wall history and culture and a showcase site for a UNESCO World Heritage nomination, it has become China’s largest museum dedicated to city walls.

A notice at the door informed us that the museum had entered a maintenance phase after being open to the public since December. So we couldn’t go inside for a visit. Although we were met with a “closed door,” it didn’t dampen our spirits at all.

Since we couldn’t tour the interior, we decided to stroll around its exterior. At the foot of the ancient wall, the museum harmoniously merges with and echoes the wall, past meeting present. On the square, several “Zhenyuan General” iron cannons from the Qing Dynasty are displayed.

The east gate of the Zhonghuamen gate tower.

To the east of the museum is the white-walled, black-tiled Laomendong area. The museum’s design cleverly integrates the long sloping ramps and broad platforms on the east side of the Zhonghua Gate barbican. So on the museum’s west side, three 40-50 meter long ascending ramps in opposite directions connect observation platforms at staggered heights, creating a natural profile that is lower near the wall and higher farther away, echoing the Zhonghua Gate barbican on one side.

We followed the crowd up these three ramp-style walkways to the rooftop observation deck. On the deck, a diagram indicates the course of the ancient city wall and the various gate towers. From the deck, we enjoyed beautiful views of the ancient wall, Qinhuai River, and Dabao’en Temple from a different angle.

Address: Southeast of the intersection of Zhonghua Road and Diaoyutai, Qinhuai District, Nanjing

Admission: 50 yuan

Since we couldn’t tour the museum, we decided to get close to the real thing—use our own feet to experience the wall, and our hearts to take in all it has to offer. Climbing the Zhonghuamen gate tower requires a 50-yuan ticket. We entered the tower from the north side following pandemic prevention rules.

Passing through the north archway, we saw gates within the barbican, one after another. From this perspective, you could sense the rigorous layout and unique structure of Zhonghuamen, like nested gate towers within gate towers.

The city bricks and ancient trees clinging to the wall everywhere spoke of the weight of history.

Entering the gate, I saw not just a gate but, exaggeratedly put, a small fortress. There are four layers of fortification walls; the spaces between each pair are called “barbicans” (wengcheng). So here we have three barbicans and four archways connecting them. The inner barbican of Zhonghuamen, a facility for hiding troops, played a crucial role in ancient cold-weapon warfare. In peacetime, one can appreciate the endless scenic beauty of gates within gateways, archways within gates, with people immersed in the scenery.

On the inside of each gate, there is a groove like this—a slot for the portcullis. Historically, this stone slot in the gate tower was used to hold a heavy portcullis. Four gates, four heavy portcullises—this was a very sturdy defensive arrangement in ancient warfare. When under fierce attack, defenders could lure enemy soldiers inside the gate, then close all the gates behind them, cutting the enemy into three sections and annihilating them separately, just like the idiom “catching a turtle in a jar.”

Between the second and third gates, there is a bookshop called “Jubao Shuyuan” (Treasure Book Nook). Unfortunately, it wasn’t open today; we could only peer curiously through the glass.

This is the first gate on the south side of the tower, facing the Qinhuai River. The first gate has three levels: upper, middle, and lower. The ground level is the wall itself, with the barbican passage in the center and three garrison caves on each side. The second level is the gatehouse base, all masonry, with a row of 7 garrison caves facing inward. The garrison caves, aligned in a row facing south, are largest at the central one. These so-called “garrison caves” are actually brick-vaulted passageways closed at the inner end, used in wartime for soldiers to rest and store military supplies. Such facilities were extremely rare in other large cities of ancient China.

The garrison caves on the ground floor are not being used otherwise, but you can enter and see them in their original form. Most of the city bricks are dense, bluish-gray; a few are high-quality white glazed bricks, and occasionally there are red and yellow ones. A pink budding flower appeared all the more delicate against the gray background.

From the barbican, we took stairs to the second level. Apart from stairs, the fortress has, on its east and west sides, two sloping ramps each 11 meters wide and 86.1 meters long for ascending the wall. The ramps are steep and imposing, leading directly to the top of the main gate. They served as quick routes for transporting military supplies to the top of the wall in wartime, and generals could even ride their horses up to the ramparts. From this side, we could see the Zhonghua East Gate and the east ramp. Today, Zhonghuamen no longer serves as a checkpoint. On the wall, the Zhonghua East and West gates on either side of the tower now function as modern traffic thoroughfares.

Here are some of the garrison caves on the second level of the first gate. The masonry of the Zhonghuamen wall includes both large-sized bricks and ordinary wall bricks. The large bricks were laid with a mortar made from sticky rice soup, lime, and tung oil, making them extremely durable. Each brick bears an inscription on its side showing the name of the maker’s prefecture or county office and the date; all are of uniform specification, and the mortar of lime, tung oil, and sticky rice paste has kept them solid for centuries, standing steadfast and unharmed.

Last year on New Year’s Eve, when I came here, the second-floor garrison caves were open for visits. Nowadays, they no longer serve their wartime purpose. These caves, over 40 meters deep and 6-7 meters wide, are now used as exhibition halls hosting a variety of displays. There was a special New Year exhibition titled “Festivals of Ours: Auspicious Tales of the Wall,” a brick-making exhibition called “Devoted Craftsmanship: Nanjing City Wall Bricks,” and the permanent exhibition “Passing Down the City – The Fully Accessible Nanjing City Wall”...

These exhibitions brought us a wealth of knowledge about the city wall and Nanjing. One exhibition had a topographic map of the Nanjing Ming city wall scenic belt, which I photographed with my phone. In 2021, I made use of spare moments to walk various sections of the Ming city wall. On the restored wall, I savored the historic charm of the ancient capital Nanjing and took in the city’s ever-changing urban landscape.

Looking down from the tower at the City Wall Museum. Continuing upward, you can overlook Laomendong.

Following the ramp to the top, the third level of the gate tower. The third level originally featured a hip-and-gable roofed watchtower with double eaves and tube-shaped tiles, but it was destroyed in early December 1937 by Japanese artillery during the invasion of Nanjing; now only the platform base remains. On the spacious platform of the wall, a row of defensive weapons is displayed.

Standing at the highest point of the wall, looking at the barbican. The main gate tower of Zhonghuamen, its auxiliary towers, and the connecting barbican walls together form the main structure of the inner barbican. The fortification is laid out in a grid shaped like the Chinese character “mu” (eye), with one main gate, three barbicans, 27 garrison caves, two access ramps, and one slope. It is a classic example of ancient Chinese military defensive architecture. The barbican at our feet and the city’s skyline in the distance set each other off, letting you feel Nanjing’s past and present.

On the south side of the gate tower, below is the Outer Qinhuai River and Changgan Bridge, connecting to Yuhua Road. Nanjing has Purple Mountain to the east, Stone Mountain to the west, the Yangtze River to the north, and only to the south is an open expanse. Zhonghuamen stands in just such a position, a critical defensive pass with extremely important terrain. In peacetime a major thoroughfare, in wartime a vital military stronghold, holding the key role of “one man guarding the pass, ten thousand unable to break through.” The wall extends on both sides of the gate tower: eastward to Dongshuiguan (East Water Gate) and westward to Jiqingmen.

From here, walking east 3 kilometers along the wall brings you to Dongshuiguan. On the east side of the wall, looking down at Xinminfang Road, which runs parallel to the wall. And further, a district of white walls and grey tiles, the quintessential old south city area—Laomendong. At the foot of the wall, along the Qinhuai River, the historic southern city was one of Nanjing’s most developed commercial and residential areas. Mendong (meaning “east of the gate”) is a concentration of traditional Nanjing residences; settlement here dates back to the Three Kingdoms period. During the Ming dynasty, the area around Zhonghuamen and the Inner Qinhuai River became the city’s economic center, a bustling hub of commerce and handicrafts. After the late Qing, areas like Laomendong and Laomenxi gradually evolved into primarily residential neighborhoods. Today, they have been reconstructed in traditional Chinese style, with wooden structures and horse-head gables, showcasing traditional culture and recreating the original look of the old south city.

The stylishly designed Laomendong quarter.

My child chose to go on a “marathon walk” towards Jiqingmen. Along the wall, there are information boards about the wall and local anecdotes, helping you better understand the wall and Nanjing’s history and customs. I learned about the custom of “Walking Off All Illnesses” last year from an exhibition in one of the garrison caves at Zhonghuamen. So last year on the 16th day of the first lunar month, we walked together from Yifengmen → Yijiangmen → Huayangangmen → Dinghuaimen entry point. But this year my memory was hazy—I kept remembering it as “walking the wall on the 13th of the first lunar month,” so we came today, only to read the clear explanation and realize I had the date wrong. But it didn’t take away from the sense of ritual.

Heading west, here is Changganmen, a gate in the wall. Metro Line 1 passes through the wall at Changganmen. The road and rail lines create a beautiful flow thanks to the Changganmen pass. Changganmen consists of one main gate and four side gates; the main gate spans the Metro Line 1 tracks. Here you can clearly see how the originally above-ground Line 1 dips underground right at this point, becoming subterranean. The two side gates next to the main one serve as lanes for vehicles in opposite directions, and there are two additional archways on the outer sides for pedestrian use.

Continuing westward, the towering city wall beneath our feet sits upright and dignified, as steady as Mount Tai. The wall stretches on with an air of rugged antiquity, heft, and grand majesty. Viewing the modern city streetscape from atop the wall gives it a unique grandeur. The wall keeps company with the Qinhuai River; Nanjing’s city wall was built to take advantage of natural features, partnering with water and mountains alike, making it one of a kind. Creeping plants entwine the wall, clinging to its surface and dyeing the gray with green, turning the monotonous stone into something lively and interesting.

Along the wall is a cluster of old Nanjing residences. They have gabled roofs covered with gray or red tiles. The houses are densely packed, with narrow alleyways between them; the layout reveals this has always been a crowded, bustling area.

While there were quite a few visitors at the Zhonghuamen tower, few walk the wall. Past Changganmen to the west, we were the only two people; at that moment, the wall felt all the more imposing, giving a sense of being “as solid as a fortification of metal.” Walking this section of the wall with the Qinhuai River alongside, the high-rises of downtown Nanjing seemed to play a beautiful city symphony.

Amidst modern urban development, the long Xigang Changxiang alley accompanies the north side of the wall. The thicket of high-rises in Hexi appears right at the wall’s end. The unmistakable twin-tower complex standing out from the crowd is the landmark Jinying (Golden Eagle).

A few steps forward is beautiful; looking back at the wall we’ve just traversed, the scene is a different kind of wonderful. The wall makes a right-angle turn, following the river’s course, and heads north. Looking back, this section of the wall resembles a coiling dragon, evoking the line “a crouching tiger, a coiling dragon—today surpasses the past.”

On the south side of the wall, a multi-layered overpass stands out with impressive grandeur. The wide bridge deck drops down, connecting to a major north-south artery—Huju Road. Continuing north along the wall, as evening lights began to twinkle on the wall and throughout the city, it was like adding pastel colors to an ink wash painting. From another angle, the wall appeared even more imposing and magnificent. Far away, the glazed pagoda of Dabao’en Temple lit up too.

Amidst the beautiful scenery, we unknowingly walked two kilometers and arrived at the Jiqingmen gate tower. Below the tower, streams of traffic bustled with life. The silence atop the tower contrasted sharply with the bustle below.

Further north is the Xishuiguan (West Water Gate) tower. But there is a notice here. Mainly because it was getting late; otherwise, walking a bit further to enjoy the view from the wall would have been wonderful. So we decided to descend at Jiqingmen.

Strands of lights outlined the wall in brilliant colors. A city wall over 600 years old has accompanied and silently guarded this city. Jiqingmen was built in recent years, opening a new passage for Nanjing’s westward development across the Qinhuai River. This gate is not the traditional round arch style but a “lintel-style” gate.

For most of this walk, it was just the two of us, my child and me. My child was in high spirits, constantly exclaiming at the beautiful scenery. Nanjing’s city wall is not only a must-see for tourists, but also a wall that fills the locals with pride.