BEIJING'S FORTIFICATION SYSTEM
Expansion of the City Walls
In 1403, the Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty began his reign of China (15). He moved the capital from Nanjing, a city in the south, back to where the then Dadu was located. Nanjing was declared to be the Chinese capital since 1368 when the Ming Dynasty was first founded (6). He renamed the capital Beijing, or “Northern Capital,” and elevated the status of the city to one where all the central administration and planning occurred. As Dadu had been raved by various battles before Yongle came into power, much of the city's infrastructure had to be rebuilt. The emperor favoured the idea of having an Imperial City within Beijing, similar to Dadu, but wanted to expand on the old plan. Construction of the Inner and Outer Cities, which contained the now famous Forbidden City, took 14 years, 100 000 artisans, and a million workmen to complete (7). Part of this project included an expansion on the city’s fortifications to defend against occasional intrusions from the north. Three sets of walls were erected – one for protection of the Outer City, one for the Inner City, and another for the Imperial City (14).
The Inner walls were 8 metres high, 9 metres wide at the base, and 7 metres at the top. They were surrounded by 6 metres deep by 52 metres wide moats, constructed with rammed earth core, and plastered with three layers of baked bricks on each side. Sit towers were situated at each of the four corners, which function as watch stations (7). Nine gates pierce the walls to allow for traffic between the Inner and Outer Cities. The Outer City was south of the Inner City, which were connected by one Inner City wall. The other sides of the Outer City was surrounded by three additional walls. Five gates were included in the design of the outer walls.
Districts in the capital were heavily divided based on one’s social class, which was enforced by the sets of walls, curfews, and gates that closed at certain times. Aristocrat elites lived closest to the palace in the Inner City, while merchants and artisans occupied homes further away in the Outer City. Commoners resided in neighbourhoods outside all three walls. Despite the grandiose Inner and Outer Cities, it was the quiet hutongs that normal citizens lived in that gave Beijing its current form. These narrow alleyways and walled courtyard residences (siheyuan) were remnants of Kublai's Dadu and have continually fostered the traditional sense of community that many Beijing locals still value today (1).
