The Southeast Corner Tower of Beijing

　　 The Southeast Corner Tower of Beijing is located in the northeastern part of Chongwen District, at the end of East Dajie outside Chongwenmen, and is managed by the People's Government of Chongwen District.

　　 The corner tower is the largest and oldest surviving city gate corner tower in China. To its northwest lies the magnificent and bustling Beijing Railway Station, to its southeast the newly built Dongbianmen Overpass, to its west it faces Chongwenmen from afar, and to its east it borders the Tonghui River. Towering and solemn, it stands as a symbol of ancient Beijing.

　　 The Southeast Corner Tower of Beijing was the arrow tower at the southeastern corner of the Inner City during the Ming and Qing dynasties, commonly referred to as the corner tower. Originally, Beijing had both an inner and outer city, with the inner city being constructed earlier, rebuilt on the foundation of the Yuan Dynasty’s Dadu by the Ming Dynasty. According to the Ming Dynasty’s "Yingzong Shilu": “(Zhengtong) fourth year, fourth month, Bingwu — the repair of the capital’s gate towers, moats, bridges, and sluices was completed... Corner towers were erected at the four corners of the city.” The construction of the corner tower began in October of the first year of the Zhengtong era (1436) and was completed in four years, boasting a history of over 500 years.

　　 The corner tower is built atop a square platform that extends beyond the outer edge of the city wall. The platform is 12 meters high, the tower itself is 17 meters high, making the total height 29 meters. It has an L-shaped floor plan, a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof, with two main ridges intersecting at the corner to form a cross. It features gray tube tiles with green glazed edges, and has 144 arrow slits on all four sides, along with a front tower and rear wing room. The wing room has two doors, each equipped with three straight-barred windows, and the tower houses 20 internal pillars. The entire building covers a floor area of 793 square meters. Including the adjacent stretch of the southern city wall, the total site area is about 3,654 square meters. On the southern city wall, about a hundred meters opposite the corner tower, there is also a flagpole base stone that was used by the Qing Dynasty’s Plain Blue Banner troops to raise their flags. In 1988, based on historical records, two barracks (known as duibofang) for stationed soldiers, which no longer existed on the city wall, were restored. Each barrack covers an area of 50 square meters.

　　 After the Republic of China period, the Southeast Corner Tower was no longer used for defense. In 1915, the Beiyang Government constructed the Beijing Ring Railway, which demolished parts of the city wall and enemy towers near the Southeast Corner Tower. To this day, the remains of an arched tunnel can still be seen on the western side of the tower’s city wall, the only remnant of the ring railway. A major restoration was carried out in 1935. During a large-scale renovation in 1981, bricks bearing the reign marks of “Jiajing” and “Longqing” were discovered, as well as glazed tiles marked with “Qianlong” and tiles from the Republican era. Additionally, two cannonball fragments were found within the eastern wall, and a large number of lead pellets were discovered on the second-floor eave rafters, all of which record the history of foreign powers’ attempts to carve up China during the “Gengzi Incident.”

　　 To protect this unique ancient structure, in 1979 it was listed by the Beijing Municipal People's Government as one of the second batch of municipal-level key cultural relics protection units. In 1981, the National Cultural Heritage Administration allocated funds for a complete dismantling and restoration of the tower, and a cultural relics preservation office was established together with the Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau. In 1982, it was designated by the State Council as one of the second batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

　　 The surrounding transportation is convenient, with bus routes 43, 44, and 48 (Dongbianmen Station).

The Southeast Corner Tower of Beijing is a national key cultural relics protection unit.