Beijing city fortifications

The city walls of Beijing were up to the mid-20th century one of the most preserved city fortifications in the world. They have since been ( to 1978 ) largely eliminated and replaced by the second ring road.

History

The original wall ring around the old town was built under the Mongol (Yuan also their following Ming remained as the capital at Beijing The northern part of the city walls but was postponed by about 2.5 km to the south, the southern part only 1 mi -. . Peking was so smaller. since Beijing was also the capital of the last dynasty of the Chinese Empire, namely, the Manchurian Qing ), the fortifications gained monumental character. The wall was at the base of 20m wide, 12m on top of the wall, its height was 12 meters. There were 9 gates to the old city center, of which three have survived: the Desheng Gate, the (2004 reconstructed ) Yongding Gate and Zhengyang Gate. In addition, there were 7 goals for the 1553 is my finished Neustadt.

As early as 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion parts of the fortification of Beijing were destroyed or damaged by the rebels or foreign troops. Between 1911 and 1949 there were only small, traffic-related breakthroughs. The building, however, was in generally poor condition. In the first years of the communist regime, it still came to relatively open debates about preservation or demolition. In particular, the internationally known Chinese architectural historian and urban planner Liang Sicheng (1901-1972) fought for the preservation of the unique building. After the end of the Hundred Flowers movement led however to a hardening of dictatorship and breaks on a grand scale during the creation of the Beijing Subway and the Second Ring Road. The moat was supplied by vaulting sewer purposes. 1979, the demolition of the city walls was stopped. But remains and is only a small piece of the wall, about 400 yards from once about 40 km. These remains were rediscovered in 1996, when the adjacent residential neighborhood was demolished, which made it possible, herauszupräparieren this part of the old city walls were. The residents will have even old bricks donated to reconstruction. The reconstructed parts of the Beijing city wall are in a opened in 2003, " Wall Monument Park " in the southeast of the old town, south of the main train station. There you can also see the only remaining corner tower of the wall.