Ming City Wall Park
I have some more photos can be found here.
The section of wall presented here, running a mile east-to-west from Dongbian Men to Chongwen Men, was originally built in the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) and reconstructed in the mid-1500s by the Ming. Modern restoration work on the section began in 2002 and is still in progress, using bricks from the original Ming reconstruction collected from nearby residents (some of whom employed them to build toilets after the wall was demolished in the 1950s). A pleasant park runs east along the length of the wall to the dramatic Dongnan Jiaolou (Southeast Corner Tower; daily 9am-5pm), with its dozens of arrow slots; a contemporary art gallery and interesting exhibition on the history of Chongwen can be found inside.
The Ming City Wall Park is the only part of the City Wall nowday, it is about 1540 meters long.
Originally, the whole wall of Beijing was about 40 KM long, with a history of 581 years.
Now, with a combination of trees and an underground service area, makes it a perfect relaxing park to pulbic.
In 1900, the Corner Tower was detroyed by the Eight Allied Forces, and in the Cutural Revolutiong (1966-1976) saw more deconstraction, many bricks was taken by locals for building small rooms in their courtyard houses. Things were much improved in 1981, when government invested lots of money to restore it.
The South-east Corner Tower was built in 1436, it is the only one and also the best preserved Corner Tower in Beijing.
The Corner Tower is 17 meters high, plus the wall, totally about 30 meters high. In the Ming and Qing Dynasty, it was very important for defense of the city.
[...] here for more my last visit to this place. The place is very close to the subway station at the [...]