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Treasure gate is another name for the Zhonghua Gate, the strongest among the 13 gates in the ancient wall. It also has an important strategic position. There is a popular legend about the gate's name. When Zhu Yuanzhang rebuilt the Zhonghua Gate, the city wall collapsed many times. He was advised to borrow the handed down treasure bowl from Shen clan in Suzhou. Zhu did it by force and buried it. Later the gate was built and called the Treasure Gate. Now the lower part of the wall still is well preserved. Within the gate there are 27 caves, which can be used to store military supplies. This kind of facilities was seldom seen in other large cities in ancient times.

But, erosion set in. The wars, including those of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the 1911 Revolution and Japanese Aggressive War, greatly damaged it, and left it with scars. The ancient city wall shows an outstanding achievement of architecture, science, technology, art and the military.

Japanese Elders Move Bricks

In order to repair the ancient city wall, the people in Nanjing have recently launched some activities, such as raising money, voluntary labor and handing over the original bricks. Some foreigners provided funding and labors. The most popular painter Ikuo Hirayama, chairman of Japanese-Sino Friendship Association and president of Tokyo Art University, sponsored an activity to support Nanjing's wall repair in his own country.

At Taicheng, a section of the city wall, a group from Japan arranged and moved the wall bricks. They said they came in response to Ikuo's call to participate in voluntary labor there. That means that Nanjing city wall is not only owned by China, but the world. Recalling the past time, they felt ashamed. They said that in the old days they had destroyed the wall and now wanted to use their own hands to mend the wounds between the Chinese and Japanese people and let the friendship of the two peoples carry on from generation to generation. Next year, they said they would mobilize more people carrying their own tools to rebuild the city wall.

A 1,700-meter section of the wall from Tacheng to Taipingmen has been restored to the original by Nanjing people in 1994 and 1995.

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Written by our column writer Ye Qinfa.

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