Park Life: Everything You Need to Know About Ming Dynasty City Wall Relics Park
Life's a park! We take a look at Beijing's most beloved parks, dig into what makes each of them special, and why they're worth your time to explore.
The practical stuff
Name: Ming Dynasty City Wall Relics Park 明城墙遗址公园
Address: Chongwenmen Dongdajie, Dongcheng District
Opening hours: Open 24/7; Tower: Daily, 9am-5pm.
Price: Free; Admission to the Southeast Corner Tower ramparts costs an extra RMB 10.
Amenities: Restrooms, easy access to Chongwenmen subway station.
Known for: This park is essentially a public nature strip that runs alongside a well-preserved section of the Ming-era inner city wall, and includes the famous Fox Tower. It's especially popular during springtime because of the abundance of flowering trees.
A brief history
Founded in 2002 as a public park, the Ming Dynasty City Walls Relics Park runs east to west from the Chongwenmen Subway station to the Inner Second Ring Road and the Grand Canal. While the park itself is relatively new, the historic structures it contains date back many centuries.
What you can do there
Of course, the star attraction here is the wall itself. According to the handy bilingual information panel (keep an eye out, there are several) this section of the wall dates back to 1419, the 17th year of the Yongle period. The inner city wall was once 40km long, but now only a 1.5km section remains, with most of the rest having being torn down in the 1960s to make way for Beijing Subway Line 2 and the Second Ring Road. The preserved section also displays not one, not two, but 12 defensive buttresses, colloquially known as 'horse faces' (马面 mǎ miàn) on account of their shape. We are informed by a nearby plaque that these specimens are grand and unusually large. At ground level, you can walk alongside the wall, or you if want a bit of perspective, pay RMB 10 to enter the Fox Tower and walk along the top for a stretch.
About halfway down the park stands the original signal station on the Peking-Fengtian Railway line, which was designed and constructed along with the Qianmen station in 1901. Although you can't go inside, a small preserved section of the Beijing-Fengtian railway line which was discovered in 2002 during site groundworks is very close by.
Once known as the Shanhaiguan Linkage Railway, this railway line was originally 842km long, ending in Fengtian (now Shenyang) in Liaoning Province. It's now integrated as part of the Beijing-Harbin rail line, which spans a total of 1,249km.
Further east is a very pretty grove of cherry trees with a small wooden boardwalk and plenty of seating. In springtime, the park is a major attraction for photographers as the various trees – including magnolia, apricot, plum, as well as the aforementioned cherry trees – blossom all at once. For the botanically challenged, there are even QR codes affixed to some of the trees for identification purposes.
At the eastern end of the park, lies the aptly named Southeastern Guard Tower, or as most Westerners know it the 'Fox Tower.' It was built in 1436, in the first year of the Zhengtong period and the largest of its kind in China today. It's also the only corner tower of the inner city that still stands today.
During the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the South Eastern Guard Tower attacked and captured by the Eight-Nation Alliance, then, in 1937 it gained even more notoriety when the severely mutilated body of 19-year old British woman Pamela Werner was found at its base. This gruesome discovery triggering an ultimately inconclusive murder investigation full of intrigue and conspiracy that was later told in the bestselling Paul French book Midnight in Peking. (You can relive that incident via the excellent and free French-led audio guide tour detailed here.)
From 1991 until 2017 the watchtower also housed the iconic Red Gate Gallery, displaying contemporary Chinese work, which has since relocated to 798 Art District. These days, it is operated by the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage as a museum and exhibition space, also providing access to the ramparts.
What sets this park apart?
Completely open and free, this park is great for popping in and out off, with no pesky gates, guards, or opening and closing hours to contend with. It's a very pretty spot, and great for getting a rare glimpse into Beijing's imperial past. Whether it displays "the profound culture of the Chongwen District and induce fantastic reveries," as the official notice declares, is up to you to decide.
READ: Everything You Need to Know About Shichahai Park
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Images: Anna Pellegrin Hartley, Sanshichiro Yamamoto via Wikimedia, Wikimedia,
