Nanjing City Wall

Nanjing City Wall

The Nanjing City Wall is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Nanjing City Wall is located in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.

Originally known as "Yingtian Prefecture," Nanjing was the capital of the early Ming Dynasty and is renowned worldwide for its towering, solid, and magnificent Ming-era city wall structures, recognized as the largest city wall in the world.

The Nanjing City Wall originally had both inner and outer sections. The outer wall, built from earth, has been mostly destroyed, with only remnants such as those at Qilin Gate and Xianhe Gate still traceable. The inner wall is constructed of brick and stone. It extends east to the southern ridges of Zhongshan Mountain, west to Stone City, south to the Qinhuai River, and north to Lion Mountain and Jiuhua Hill, overlooking Houhu Lake. The construction of the wall began in the 26th year of the Yuan Dynasty's Zhizheng era (1366) and was completed in the 19th year of the Ming Dynasty's Hongwu era (1386), taking a total of 21 years.

The wall is laid out in an irregular shape that is long from north to south and slightly narrower from east to west, designed entirely based on the terrain and military defense needs. The inner perimeter of the wall is 33.676 kilometers long, with a height ranging from 14 to 21 meters. It features 13,616 battlements and 200 watchtowers (fortresses). Its perimeter is not only the longest among ancient cities in China but also the longest in the world. The wall is built on a foundation of massive stone slabs, with bricks of a standardized size—typically around 45×20×10 cm and weighing between 10–12 kilograms—held together with a mortar made from glutinous rice and lime, making it extremely solid and durable. Despite being over 600 years old, it still stands firmly today.

Today, about 19 kilometers of the wall remain relatively well-preserved, with the highest point reaching 25 meters and the thickest section up to 20 meters. Originally, there were 13 city gates: Chaoyang Gate, Zhengyang Gate, Tongji Gate, Jubao Gate, Sanshan Gate, Shicheng Gate, Qingjiang Gate, Dinghuai Gate, Yifeng Gate, Zhongfu Gate, Jinchuan Gate, Shenze Gate, and Taiping Gate. Today, only eight city gates and two water gates remain. Among them, Shenze Gate has one barbican, while Shicheng Gate has two. Among all the gates, Jubao Gate, also known as Zhonghua Gate, is the most magnificent.

Zhonghua Gate was first built in the 14th year of the reign of Yang Pu of the Wu Kingdom during the Five Dynasties period (917 AD), serving as the main southern gate of the Southern Tang capital. In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty’s Shaoxing era, it was repaired and reinforced, with the addition of a barbican and arched gates. At the beginning of the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty, the gate was rebuilt along with the expansion of the Ming capital. The gate has a rectangular layout, measuring 128 meters from north to south and 90 meters from east to west, covering a total area of 11,720 square meters. Zhonghua Gate features three barbicans, with horse ramps on both the eastern and western sides of the first barbican, used by defending soldiers to ride horses up to the wall. Originally, the gate had three levels of structures—the uppermost level was a two-story pavilion with a hip-and-gable roof covered in tubular tiles, built with a brick-and-wood structure, which was very majestic. Other structures once existed but only the platform foundations remain today. The gate has four interlinked arched gateways constructed from a combination of brick and stone, each standing 19 meters high. In addition to double wooden doors covered with iron sheets, each gateway is equipped with a vertically operated portcullis. Along the southernmost section of the wall, there are 27 stone cavities, historically referred to as "soldier-hiding caves," used for resting troops and storing military supplies. The largest cave could hold up to a thousand soldiers, essentially functioning as a city within the city.

The grand Zhonghua Gate has withstood over 600 years of history and remains largely intact today. It is the largest and most complete barbican-style fortress in China, holding an extremely important place in the history of Chinese city wall architecture. It provides invaluable physical material for the study of ancient Chinese military defense and castle construction. (National Cultural Heritage Administration)

Address: No. 8, Jiefang Gate, Huanhu Road, Qinhuai District, Nanjing

Type: Historical Site

Recommended Visiting Time: 5–6 hours

Phone: 025-83608359

Official Website: http://www.njcitywall.com/

Social Media Accounts:

Opening Hours:

8:30–17:00 (except the section from Dongshuiguan to Jiqingmen), 8:30–20:00 (section from Dongshuiguan to Jiqingmen)

Ticket Information:

Gate Price: Starting from 10.0 RMB

Eastern Line (Fugui Mountain): 10 RMB, Northern Line (Jiefang Gate): 30 RMB, Southern Line (Zhonghua Gate): 50 RMB

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Top 50 Ancient Architectural Structures in China

· Third Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units