Nanjing Rampart--The World's Longest Old Rampart

The longest age-old rampart lies the capital of Jiangsu Province—Nanjing. The construction of this grand rampart was initiated in Yuan Dynasty and completed in Ming Dynasty, spanning for 21 years. The rampart firstly comprise 4 parts: the Wall of the Palace and the imperial city, inner rampart and outter rampart. All through over 600 years' history, only the rampart of the imperial city loftily stands among the mountains and rivers which is still the world's longest old rampart stretching about 33 km. Besides its length, what distinguish Nanjing rampart most is its serpentine range, instead of usual rectangular frame, according to the terrain of the Nanjing City. Most of the rampart is built as an defensive wall under the supervision of Zhu Yuanzhang—the founder emperor of the Ming Dynasty. For this huge project, millions of people from 118 counties in 5 provinces were recruited and over 350 million gigantic bricks were produced. To insure the quality of the rampart, nearly each brick were marked on surface where it was manufactured and the name of the producers. In case the brick is testified shoddy, the producer would be promptly found out and even sentenced to death. Because of its long history and the architectural value, the Nanjing rampart is indeed worth travelling. In 1994 and 2001, the government of the Nanjing already established "Crescent Lake Park", "Shuixi Gate Square" and "Hanzhong Gate Square" with the rampart as background. You may call at the aforementioned 3 sites or circling along the rampart by bike is also a good choice. A chinese drawing of the Nanjing rampart The rampart in the fall Gigantic bricks with producer's name on surface One drainage of the rampart

 

2010-12-13

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