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Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province and ten dynasties in the history, is located on the southern bank of the Yantze River, the longest river in China, and 300 kilometers away from the river mouth to the East China Sea. Surrounding the city is a 33.7km-long ancient city wall. With a height and top width ranging from 14 meters to 21 meters, it was the longest preserved in the world. As a huge ancient project and the pride of Nanjing's people, the wall began to be built in 1366 and completed in 1386.

The wall is the most telling witness of the history and the crystallization of science, technology, military, architecture and art.

The City and Chinese Emperor

The city as one of the special products of Chinese culture occupied an important position in the development of Chinese culture. The city wall was a military defensive project to defend the city. Most were built of bricks, stone and earth.

Nanjing city wall was designed by Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang after he founded the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and established it as the capital 600 years ago. To consolidate his sovereignty and keep out invaders, he adopted the suggestions of advisor Zhu Sheng to building a higher city wall, collecting grains and postponing the coronation. Then, he started to build the city wall. It took 21 years for the project, which involved 200,000 laborers to move 7 million cubic meters of earth.

Different from ancient city walls in Beijing and Xi'an, its design and construction were unique and changed the old ways of equilibrium and symmetry. The construction concentrated on military defense because the city was at the foot of a mountain-- a natural barrier to controll the commanding elevation with the river as its natural city moat. Because of this, the 60-square-kilometer Nanjing city became strategically located and difficult to reach.

Pan Guxi, an expert of architecture and professor in Nanjing Southeast University, introduced the idea to Beijing and Xi'an.

Nanjing's city wall belonged to a military defensive system too. The difference was that it adopted a winding, free style, based on the city's complicated topography. Construction of Beijing and Xi'an city walls was in the ancient style of square or rectangle. When it was built by the second son of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the dozen-kilometer long Xi'an city wall became the seat of local government. It could not match the scale of the capital Nanjing at that time.

Today the 600-year-old city wall of Nanjing still stands. Experts from Nanjing Cultural Relic Bureau say most of the foundations use granite, rectangle stones or limestone. The walls were packed layer by layer with broken bricks, gravel and yellow earth. All the brickwork joints were poured with mixed lime, water in which glutinous rice had been cooked and tong oil because the coagulated mixture was very strong. That is why the city wall has stood for a long time. On top of the outer wall were 13,616 crenels, or battlements, for defenders of the city to observe the enemy or dodge arrows. Opposite it was the parapet wall used as a balustrade to keep the defenders and horses safe. Standing on the wall, you will see tall ancient trees under your feet. Aside the top wall there are stone sluices to drain rain and near the wall's foundation there are further outlets. This, perhaps, is another reason for its powerful foundation and defense projects. The ancient city wall was listed as a key cultural relic under state protection in 1988.

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Written by our column writer Ye Qinfa.

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