Beijing city fortifications
The Beijing city fortifications were a system of walls with towers and gates constructed in the city of Beijing, China in the early 1400s and partially demolished in 1965 for the construction of the 2nd Ring Road and Line 2 of the Beijing Subway. The original walls were preserved in the southeastern part of the city, just south of the Beijing railway station. The entire perimeter of the Inner and Outer city walls stretched for approximately.
Beijing was the capital of China for the majority of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, as well as a secondary capital of the Liao and Jin dynasties. As such, the city required an extensive fortification system around the Forbidden City, the Imperial City, the Inner City, and the Outer City. Fortifications included gate towers, gates, archways, watchtowers, barbicans, barbican towers, barbican gates, barbican archways, sluice gates, sluice gate towers, enemy sighting towers, corner guard towers, and a moat system. It had the most extensive defense system in Imperial China.
After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Beijing's fortifications were gradually dismantled. The Forbidden City has remained largely intact and has become the Palace Museum. Some fortifications remain intact, including Tiananmen, the gate tower and watchtower at Zhengyangmen, the watchtower at Deshengmen, the southeastern corner guard tower, and a section of the Inner city wall near Chongwenmen. The latter two components now form the Ming City Wall Relics Park. None of the Outer City remains intact. Yongdingmen was completely reconstructed in 2004.
History
The city of Dadu, the forerunner of Beijing in the Ming and Qing dynasties, was built in 1264 by the Yuan dynasty. Dadu had 11 city gates. The eastern, southern, and western sides had three gates per side, and the northern wall had two gates. The three eastern gates, from north to south, were called Guangximen, Chongrenmen, and Qihuamen. The three western gates, from north to south, were called Suqingmen, Heyimen, and Pingzemen. The three southern gates, from west to east, were called Shunchengmen, Lizhengmen, and Wenmingmen. The two northern gates, from west to east, were called Jiandemen and Anzhenmen.In August 1368 General Xu Da of the Ming dynasty captured the city from the last Yuan emperor, Emperor Shun. Xu Da decided that Dadu's fortification system was too large to defend during a siege, so he ordered the city's northern walls rebuilt to the south of the original location. This construction pre-empted the planned northern expansion of the city. The new wall was constructed with an extra layer of bricks, further strengthening the city's defenses.
The original northern walls were abandoned after 1372, but were still used as a secondary defense during the Ming dynasty. During the rebellion of An Da, there were some Ming troops stationed at those gates. Only a small part of the northern and western sections of the Dadu city walls remain, as well as parts of the moat system in those areas. The southern half of the rammed earth wall of the barbican at Suqingmen is also still visible today.
In 1370, the Hongwu Emperor granted his fourth son, Zhu Di the title 'King of the Yan dependency', whose capital was at Beiping. In 1379, the new palace was completed, and Zhu Di moved in the subsequent year.
In 1403, Zhu Di changed the name of the city from Beiping to Beijing. In 1406, he began planning a move of his capital from Nanjing to Beijing. At that time, Beijing was just the capital of the dependency of the kingdom of Yan; therefore it did not have very extensive fortifications. Extensive expansion and reconstruction work would be needed to meet the defence requirements of the new capital for it to withstand the sporadic Mongol incursions from the north. This marked the beginning of the construction of the Ming sections of Beijing's fortifications.
Construction work on the Xinei began in 1406, upon the foundations of the Yan King's Palace. It was finished the following year. In 1409, Jianshouling was completed at Mount Tianshou in the Changping District. In 1416 construction of the Forbidden City complex began, in a style that imitated the original Nanjing Imperial Palace. The Forbidden City's halls, palaces, and pavilions, such as Taimiao, Ancestor Hall, Mount Wansui, Taiye Lake, residences of the Ten Kings, residences of the imperial princes, residences of the officials and the Drum and Bell Towers were built at this time. The southern city walls were moved south by to allow more space for the future Imperial City complex. In 1421 the capital of Ming dynasty China was officially moved from Nanjing to Beijing. The Temple of Heaven, the Temple of Earth and Xiannong Temple were built in what was then the southern suburbs. Some sources indicate that the central axis of the city was moved eastwards to subdue the previous dynasty's Qi.
A second expansion of the city occurred between 1436 and 1445, on the orders of Emperor Ying of the Ming dynasty. Major works included the addition of an extra layer of bricks on the interior side of the city walls, creating the southern end at Taiye Lake, construction of gate towers, barbicans and watchtowers at nine major city gates, construction of the four corner guard towers, setting up a Paifang on the outside of each major city gate and replacing wooden moat bridges with stone bridges. Sluices were built under the bridges and revetments of stone and brick were added to the embankment of the moat.
The newly expanded city wall and moat system was 45 li around the perimeter, providing formidable defence. The Imperial Tombs were built on the outskirts of the city. Changping city, a supply city, interior sections of the Great Wall and other distant fortifications were built for the protection of Beijing during a siege.
The city faced many invasions from the Mongols. In 1476 construction of an outer city was proposed. In 1553, a large rectangular outer city wall and moat system was completed to the south of the original city, forming a shape similar to the "凸" character. This defensive perimeter was maintained for nearly 400 years.
The wall and moat defense system was retained unchanged by the Qing dynasty. However, the imperial city was completely redesigned. Many houses that had been used as residences by Ming dynasty inner cabinet officials were converted into housing for commoners, as were many imperial officials' offices, servants' quarters, warehouses, and hay storage barns. The Han Chinese were forced to live in the Outer City or outside the city, as the Inner City residences became exclusively homes for the Eight Banners—Manchus related to the emperor. Additional housing was built in the Inner city for imperial relatives, along with Buddhist temples of the Gelug sect. The "Three Mounts Five Gardens" park in the western suburbs was also built at this time.
When the British first arrived in Beijing during the Qing dynasty, they recorded the four sectors of the city on newspaper as: Chinese City, Tartar City, Imperial City and Forbidden City.
Dismantling
Historical records indicate that when Li Zicheng retreated from the city in 1644, he ordered that the Ming Imperial palace complex and the major city gates be set afire. But in 1960, when the walls were finally dismantled, the workers realized that the Dongzhimen and Chongwenmen towers and gate sections were the Ming originals.The wall and moat systems were well maintained during the Ming and Qing dynasties, right up until 1900. It was not permitted to drill holes or cut arches in walls. Any damage—even just a single missing brick—was swiftly reported to the authorities and repaired.
Much damage was done to the fortifications during the Boxer Rebellion. The Righteous Harmony Society burned down the gate tower at Zhengyangmen, and its watchtower was destroyed by Indian troops. The watchtowers at Chaoyangmen and Chongwenmen were destroyed by artillery fire from Japanese and British forces, and the guard tower at the northwest corner of the Inner City was destroyed by Russian cannons. British troops tore down the western section of the Outer City walls at Yongdingmen and the city walls surrounding the Temple of Heaven. They moved the terminus of the Beijing–Fengtian Railway from Majiapu, outside the city, to the grounds of the Temple of Heaven, where the British and American forces were headquartered. This was the first time since the Ming dynasty that the city walls had been breached. In 1901, British troops tore down the eastern section of the Outer city walls at Yongdingmen to allow an extension of the railway eastwards to Zhengyangmen. This enabled the construction of the Zhengyangmen East railway station. Here, British embassy and consulate staff could board trains to travel to the port city of Tientsin in the event of the need to retreat. British troops also tore down the eastern section of the Outer city wall near Dongbianmen for the construction of the Beijing Dongbianmen-Tongzhou feeder railway.
The Imperial government of Qing China collapsed in 1911. Between 1912 and 1949, the Republic of China Beiyang government and Nationalist government all undertook minor deconstruction and adjustment work. When the Beijing circum-city railway was built in 1915, the sight towers at the northeast and southeast corners were dismantled and the side walls of the guard towers at these corners had arches built as passageways for trains. The barbican and sluice gates at Deshengmen, Andingmen, Chaoyangmen, and Dongzhimen were dismantled for the passage of trains. The barbican at Zhengyangmen was dismantled to ease traffic in the Qianmen area. Arches for trains were cut in the city walls near Hepingmen, Jianguomen, Fuxingmen and several other minor gates. The walls of the Imperial city were fully dismantled, except for the south to southwest section.
The gate towers, watchtowers, and corner towers of the major gates of both the Inner City and Outer City were dismantled over time due to lack of funds for maintenance. But when the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the majority of the moats and gate towers were extant, albeit in a dilapidated state.
In 1949, Beijing became the capital of the newly founded Communist government. Government-sponsored city planning studies showed that the remaining wall and moat structures were hindering traffic flow and were a barrier to expansion and development. The Outer city wall was completely dismantled in the 1950s, and the inner walls were torn down starting in 1953.
Meanwhile, a debate was raging as to whether to keep or to dismantle the remaining city walls. Architect Liang Sicheng was a leading advocate for keeping the walls. He recommended cutting more arches to accommodate new roads that would serve increased traffic needs, and suggested building a giant public park immediately outside the city walls and moats to beautify the environment. Pro-keep supporters included Redologist Yu Pingbo, then Department of Culture Vice Minister Zheng Zhenduo and many Soviet city planners then in the country. The pro-keep contingent was silenced by political pressure, and by the end of the Great Leap Forward, the Outer city wall was completely dismantled and the Inner wall was halved in length.
During the 1960s, relations between China and the Soviet Union soured. After the Sino-Soviet split, people felt that war with the Soviet Union was inevitable. Underground bomb shelters, underground "supply cities", and an underground railway—the Beijing Subway—were commissioned. Work on the Subway began on 1 July 1965. The construction technique used was cut-and-cover: wherever the path of the subway was to go, everything on the surface had to be demolished. Since demolishing houses and relocating people would have been such a great undertaking, the decision was made to build the subway line where the city walls and moats were located.
The demolition work, which began in 1965, was under the supervision of Beijing city government's roads and development department. People and factories that hoped to gain access to building materials from the city's fortifications volunteered to participate in the demolition. After construction began on the metro system, troops were brought in to help with the demolition work to increase the speed and efficiency of the process. The first section of walls to be removed were the southern portion of the Inner city wall, Xuanwumen, and Chongwenmen, leaving behind a ditch. The second stage began at Beijing railway station in the southeast corner of the Inner City and passed through the sites of Jianguomen, Andingmen, Xizhimen, and Fuxingmen. Towers and walls were removed and another of ditch was created. A section of wall near Xibianmen about long was used as a storage area for raw materials, and thus was spared from demolition. Another section from Chongwenmen to the guard tower at the southeast corner of the Inner City was spared, because the subway line veered towards the Beijing railway station. The tops of the walls were dismantled, making it no longer possible to walk along the top of them. Beginning in 1972, in order to pave the 2nd Ring Road above the Subway, and to serve high-rise apartments and hotels in the Qianmen area, Beijing's eastern, southern, and western moats were covered and converted to sewers.
In 1979, the government called off the demolition of the remaining city walls and designated them as cultural heritage sites. By this time, the only intact sections were the gate tower and watchtower at Zhengyangmen, the watchtower at Deshengmen, the guard tower at the southeast corner, the northern moats of the Inner city, the section of the Inner city wall south of the Beijing railway station, and a small section of Inner city wall near Xibianmen.