Nanjing City Wall

The Ming wall around Nanjing was built from 1366 over more than twenty years, running about thirty-five kilometres in its complete circuit and following the terrain rather than a rectangle, making it the longest city wall ever constructed. Around twenty-five kilometres survive, much of it walkable. Each brick carries stamped inscriptions naming the county, the kiln supervisor and the maker, a quality-control system that made failure traceable, and the marks are still legible. Zhonghua Gate is the most impressive section: a fortress gate with four successive gateways and twenty-seven chambers built into the structure, capable of concealing three thousand soldiers for an ambush.

History

The Hongwu Emperor designed the wall after founding the Ming dynasty and making Nanjing his capital in 1368, following his adviser Zhu Sheng's advice to build higher walls; it took 200,000 workers twenty-one years and some seven million cubic metres of earth. Rather than a rectangle it follows the ground, taking in Lion Hill to the north-west, which almost doubled the enclosed area, and part of it on Xuanwu Lake reuses the bricks and foundations of the Six Dynasties Stone City; of its thirteen original gates only Zhonghua Gate, first called Jubao Gate, and Heping Gate still stand, and by the end of the Qing there were eighteen (Wikipedia, City Wall of Nanjing).

Highlights

• Zhonghua Gate - the fortress gate with four gateways and hidden troop chambers.
• The stamped bricks - maker inscriptions still legible in the wall.
• The wall walk - long walkable stretches above the modern city.
• The scale - the longest city wall ever built, following the terrain.

When to go

March to May and September to November; Nanjing summers are notoriously hot and humid, winters damp and cold. The wall is exposed with no shade. Evening lighting on some sections is worth seeing.

Good to know

Sections are ticketed separately unless a combined pass is bought. The walk is long and exposed. Not all of the surviving wall is open, and access points are scattered around the city.

Nearby

Xuanwu Lake lies against the northern wall; the Qinhuai quarter is south.