Xingcheng City Walls (Ningyuan)

En un regard

Le château en bref

On the shore of the Gulf of Liaodong, midway along the Liaoxi corridor that links Manchuria to the North China Plain, Xingcheng preserves one of the most complete Ming walled towns in China. It was founded in 1428 under the name Ningyuan, as the seat of a military guard tasked with holding the road to the capital beyond the Shanhaiguan Pass. The town is an almost perfect square enclosed by a grey-brick wall about 3.2 kilometres round. Four gates open in the middle of each side, protected by semicircular barbicans, and an artillery bastion stands at each corner. The two main streets cross beneath the Bell and Drum Tower, built in 1454, while the Confucius Temple, the residence of the Jiliao commander and stone memorial arches punctuate the old town. It was here, in February 1626, that General Yuan Chonghuan, with European-style cannon hauled onto the ramparts, repelled the army of Nurhaci, founder of the Manchu state, who died a few months later. Renamed Xingcheng in 1914, the old town has been protected at national level since 1988.