Deshengmen (; lit. "Gate of Virtuous Triumph") is a city gate that was once part of

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

's northern

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 to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

. It is one of Beijing's few preserved city gates and now stands as a landmark on the northern

2nd Ring Road The 2nd Ring Road () is the innermost ring road highway which encircles the city center of Beijing, People's Republic of China. (The first ring road had been a circular tram route.) The ring road can be divided into two parts: the original ring ...

. Latimer D. (2014) ''The Improbable Beijing Guidebook'', Sinomaps, Beijing, , p.69 The original gate complex, built in 1437, was composed of three structures – the gatehouse, archery tower, and

barbican A barbican (from fro, barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer fortifications, defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Europe ...

. The gatehouse proper was demolished in 1921, and the city wall was torn down in 1969. Today only the archery tower and the barbican survives. They overlook the northern city

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

, and house an ancient coin exhibition inside. Deshengmen is now a major transportation node in northern Beijing. The gate complex is surrounded by the Deshengmen bridge, a rotary

overpass An overpass (called an overbridge or flyover in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries) is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway. An ''overpass'' and ''underpass'' together form ...

that channels traffic from the 2nd Ring Road to the

Badaling Expressway The Badaling Expressway (Simplified Chinese: 八达岭高速公路, Traditional Chinese: 八達嶺高速公路, Hanyu Pinyin: Bādálíng Gāosù Gōnglù) is an expressway in China which links urban Beijing to the Badaling stretch of the Great ...

. The street that once passed through the gate is still named in relation to it. South of Deshengmen and inside the old city wall is Deshengmen Inner Street. To the north, it is called Deshengmen Outer Street. Deshengmen means "Gate of Virtuous Triumph." In traditional times, the imperial military would march out of Beijing through Deshengmen, and return through

Andingmen Andingmen (; lit. "Gate of Stability") was a gate in Beijing's Ming-era city wall. The gate was torn down along with the city wall in the 1960s. Andingmen is now a place name. Where the gate once stood is now Andingmen Bridge, a roundabout ove ...

, the Gate of Peace and Stability.

Public transportation

Line 2 of the

Beijing Subway The Beijing Subway is the rapid transit system of Beijing Municipality that consists of 25 lines including 20 rapid transit lines, two airport rail links, one maglev line and 2 light rail lines, and 463 stations. The rail network extends acro ...

stops near Deshengmen at Jishuitan Station. Deshengmen is the terminus for many

Beijing Bus Public bus service in Beijing is the among the most extensive, widely used and affordable form of public transportation in urban and suburban districts of the city. In 2015, the entire network consisted of 876 routes with a fleet of 24,347 bus ...

routes, as well as a tourist bus that goes to

Badaling Badaling () is the site of the most visited section of the Great Wall of China, approximately northwest of Beijing's city center, in Badaling Town, Yanqing District (within Beijing municipality). The portion of the wall running through the ...

Great Wall.

References

Gates of Beijing Xicheng District Ming dynasty architecture Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Beijing Neighbourhoods_of_Beijing Road transport in Beijing Tourist attractions in Beijing {{Beijing-geo-stub