page_title: Beijing city fortifications
section_title: Forbidden city
hierarchical_section_title: Beijing city fortifications / Forbidden city
context_page_description: The Beijing city fortifications were constructed from the early 1400s to the year 1553. The inner city's wall was 24 kilometres long and 15 metres high, with a thickness of 20 metres at ground level and 12 metres at the top, and had nine gates. The wall stood for nearly 530 years, but in 1965, it was removed to allow for construction of the 2nd Ring Road and Line 2 of the Beijing Subway. Only one part of the original wall still exists, just south of the Beijing railway station in the southeast portion of the city. The Outer city walls had a perimeter of approximately 28 kilometres. The entire enclosure of the Inner and Outer cities formed a "凸" shape with a perimeter of nearly 60 kilometres.
  Beijing was the capital for the majority of the last three Chinese imperial dynasties. It was also a secondary capital to two northern dynasties, and is therefore often referred to as an ancient capital of five dynasties. It had an extensive fortification system, consisting of the Forbidden City, the Imperial City, the Inner city, and the Outer city.
context_section_description: Beijing's Palace city or "Forbidden city" (so called because the majority of the populace was forbidden to enter) was completed in 1415. Its surrounding walls had a perimeter of 3.4 kilometres, a height of 10 metres, a thickness of 8.62 metres at the base, and a top thickness of 6.66 metres. The wall had two rows of roof tiles glazed in the imperial yellow colour set on a triangular base 0.84 metres tall. The interior and exterior sides of the walls were reinforced with 2-metre-thick bricks surrounding stones and rammed earth. The Forbidden city had four corner guard towers built in a combination multi-eaved Xieshanding style. There were four gates.
  Wumen (午門 lit. 'Meridian Gate') was the southern-facing main gate. It was in alignment with the city's central axis and with three other gates: Yongdingmen of the Outer city, Zhengyangmen of the Inner city, and Tiananmen of the Imperial city. It was built on a "凹" shaped platform 13.5 metres high. The gate tower was nine rooms by five rooms in the multi-eaved veranda floored design. It had two side pavilion towers on each side, square in shape, each five rooms by five rooms. The two wings stretching from the centre are commonly referred to as "hawk wings towers". Each of these wings is 13 rooms by two rooms with a square pavilion tower at the end of the wing. The wings each have a minor gate near the intersection with the main "body" of the platform. At the left and right of the platform are sundials and many other time measurement instruments. The gates are rectangular in shape, unlike the archways seen in the Outer city, Inner city, and Imperial city gates. There are three archways in the middle of the gate.
  Xuánwumen (玄武门) (not to be confused with Xuanwumen (宣武门) of the Inner city gates), also called Shenwumen, was the northern entrance to the Forbidden city. Its gate tower was five rooms by three rooms in a multi-eaved veranda floored design. It has three rectangular gates. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a gate called Beishangmen just outside this gate, but it was dismantled in 1950.
  Donghuamen was the eastern entrance to the Forbidden city, with a design similar to that of Xuánwumen and Xihuamen. Xihuamen was the western entrance to the Forbidden city, with a similar design to Xuánwumen and Donghuamen.
  The Qing Huidian records that there were six gates to the Forbidden city. This takes into account the two minor side gates of Wumen's two "arms".
caption: Donghuamen gate
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