Yongtong Gate

Yongtong Gate

Yongtong Gate

A city gate and section of the city wall located — kilometers from the 24 Turns in Lotus City. The surviving structures include the gate tunnel of the western gate, "Yongtong Gate," and parts of the city wall. The wall stands 5.66 meters high (excluding crenellations), with a top width of 2.33 meters, and remnants can be seen in several sections. Originally built in the 25th year of the Hongwu reign during the Ming Dynasty (1392), it served as a defensive enclosure for Anning Guard City. Having stood for 594 years, the massive stone gate tunnel remains as solid as ever, and the square-shaped city wall once had four gate towers: the eastern gate named "Cheng’en," the southern gate "Zhenyuan," the northern gate "Changning," and the western gate "Yongtong." The first three gates were respectively destroyed during the War of Resistance to widen the road and during the Cultural Revolution, leaving only Yongtong Gate intact, unchanged and as complete as when it was first built. It is now a provincial-level key cultural relics protection unit.