Shicheng Gate - One of the only four remaining gates of the Ming Dynasty Nanjing city wall

🌿 I used to be quite interested in the important relic of Nanjing - the Nanjing City Wall, and I specifically learned about the history of the Nanjing City Wall, and even wrote a travelogue about it. The Nanjing City Wall that exists today is from the Ming Dynasty. The Ming city walls include four layers of walls: the Imperial Palace, the Imperial City, the Capital City, and the Outer City of the Ming Dynasty capital Nanjing. Among them, the Capital City wall is well-preserved, being the longest, largest, and most authentically preserved ancient city wall in the world. 🌿 The construction of the Nanjing Ming city wall began in the 26th year of the Zhiyuan era of the Yuan Dynasty (1366) and was completed in the 26th year of the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty (1393), taking 28 years. It involved 1 department, 3 guards, 5 provinces, 37 prefectures, 162 counties, a total of 280,000 laborers, and about 350 million bricks to complete the grand layout of the four layers of city walls. The Nanjing Ming city wall is unparalleled in height and strength, a model of the combination of Chinese ritual system and nature, and an outstanding representative of ancient capital construction. ✅ There is an old saying in Nanjing, 'Thirteen gates inside, eighteen gates outside,' referring to the thirty-one gates of the Capital City and the Outer City. The last gate of the Outer City - Gaoqiao Gate was demolished in 1953 (over the years, I have also visited the sites or original locations of these Outer City gates). The Capital City wall still retains most of its structure - there is a saying that it 'encircles the city for seventy li' (the Nanjing Capital City wall is 35.3 kilometers long, with 25.1 kilometers still intact). Of the original Ming Dynasty gates, only four remain: Jubao Gate (now Zhonghua Gate), Shence Gate (now Heping Gate), Shicheng Gate (now Hanxi Gate), and Qingliang Gate. Among them, the best preserved and largest, and considered the best in the world, is Jubao Gate (now Zhonghua Gate). 🌿 Of course, some might say, doesn't Nanjing have many gates now? But these gates (such as Zhongshan Gate, Caochang Gate, Yijiang Gate, Xuanwu Gate, Huayangang Gate, etc.) were mostly built successively later and are not Ming Dynasty gates. 🌿 It happened to be raining that day when I came to the Hanxi Gate (Shicheng Gate) near the Hanzhong Gate Plaza. Many people mistakenly think this is Hanzhong Gate. In fact, Hanzhong Gate was originally located to the north of Hanxi Gate, directly opposite Hanzhong Road, and was opened in 1931. 🌿 Such a niche attraction is not well known to many tourists. Hanxi Gate was originally the Great West Gate of the Jinling Prefecture city during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period under the Yang Wu regime. When Zhu Yuanzhang built the Ming city wall, he added a barbican on the basis of the Great West Gate, which was called Shicheng Gate, and later known as Hanxi Gate (commonly known as Hanxi Gate, with a water gate - Shuixi Gate - to the south of it). The gate faces east and west, with a depth of 121.4 meters, a width of 122.6 meters, covering nearly 15,000 square meters, consisting of two barbicans and three connecting gates. In recent years, the factories and residential buildings here have been relocated, and Hanzhong Gate Plaza has been built. ✅ Inside the city gate, I saw several old ladies playing cards, seemingly unaffected by the heavy rain, perhaps this is their happy moment of leisure.