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South Wenjiang Ancient Wall

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2016-04-29

Chengdu's Wenjiang district contains an historic portion of the ancient walls on Wenquan Road. The relics have witnessed the city's ups and downs over the past 1400 years.

Construction work on Wenjiang wall began in AD 603 of the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618). It was originally built with earth and came into shape during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

By the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the earthen wall was replaced by a stone wall. It had a perimeter of 2,203 meters and five gate towers built facing different directions. A moat was dug from 1505 to 1521 to strengthen the city's defenses.

In 1635, the five gate towers collapsed, paving the way for four observation towers to be built at each of the wall's corners. Its perimeter once spanned as much as 2,458.7 meters after various stages of reconstruction work. However, approximately 1,000 meters of the wall's length collapsed in 1635. In its place, 700 willows were grown along the renovated wall, giving rise to Wenjiang's nickname, "Willow City".

Unfortunately, the willows were chopped down during the warring period between 1851 and 1861. Sections of the wall have been gradually torn down due to urbanization, since the foundation of the People's Republic of China.

As of now, only 100 meters wall is preserved. To protect the relics, Wenjiang government renovated the leftover wall and set up a stone tablet bearing South Wenjiang Ancient Wall in front of it.