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

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 ...

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

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

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 ...

. 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 (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananmen (" ...

in what is now Dongcheng District, just inside the

Second 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 rin ...

. 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 nort ...

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

. 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 i ...

, 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 ...

. 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 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 ...

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 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 ...

( Line 2) and

Jianguomen station Jianguomen Station () is an interchange station on Line 1, Beijing Subway, Line 1 and Line 2, Beijing Subway, Line 2 of the Beijing Subway at Jianguomen (Beijing), Jianguomen in Dongcheng District, Beijing, Dongcheng District and Chaoyang Distric ...

( 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 (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pres ...

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

Wan Li Wan Li (1 December 1916 – 15 July 2015) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician. During a long administrative career in the People's Republic of China, he served successively as Vice Premier, Chairman of the Standing Committee of ...

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 2 ...

, 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 imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, 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, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

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 with the stated aim of relieving the foreign legations in Beijing, then besieged by the popular Boxer militia, who were determined to remove fo ...

. It was known by Westerners as the Fox Tower.

Graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

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 Red Gate Gallery, founded by Brian Wallace, is Beijing's first private contemporary art gallery. Located in the historic Southeast Corner Tower at Dongbianmen, one of the few Ming dynasty towers to survive the destruction of the city wall, the gall ...

, 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 military factory buildings boasting a unique architectural style that houses a thriving artistic community in Dashanzi, Chaoyang District, Beijing. The area is ...

. 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 (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

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 constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method. ...

, was thick at the foundation and at the top.

Bastions A bastion or bulwark 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 fi ...

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.