The original city wall of Pinghai Ancient City stretched over 1700 meters and stood 6 meters high, built with fired bricks and featuring 871 battlements. Most of it has been demolished, leaving only four city gates. The ancient city had four gates: The East Gate was more vulnerable to attacks, hence it was equipped with a ‘Wengcheng’ (a type of protective outer wall), which was beneficial for defense.
In the bird’s-eye view, the Wengcheng is like the ear of a bell for the ‘Bell City’. The West Gate is the taller and more majestic structure among the ancient city gates, with a thickness of 1.4 meters, a height of 2.4 meters, and a width of 2.5 meters. The gate tower measures 16.8 meters in length and 10.6 meters in width, covering a total area of 178 square meters and standing at 7.1 meters high. Gazing upwards, the West Gate tower is elegantly designed, adorned with carved beams and painted rafters, brimming with ethnic architectural characteristics. The South Gate is known as the ‘Gate of the Son of Heaven’, with a slightly raised stone lying horizontally in the main gate, called the ‘Cornerstone’. Two smaller gates are opened on both sides, and it is forbidden for funeral processions from the city’s households to pass through the South Gate. The North Gate has a couplet inscribed on its sides: ‘The North Pole’s protective stars endure with the sun and moon, the Dark Heavens’ mighty emperor matches the ages’. Each of the four gates has a gate tower, but with the fading of their military value, the towers have now been repurposed as temples. The deities currently enshrined are as follows: the East Tower ‘Yan Gong Ye’, the South Tower ‘Xie Tian Da Di’, the West Tower ‘Hua Guang Da Di’, and the North Tower ‘Xuan Tian Da Di’. The city gates are open all year round, with full-day access.Pinghai Ancient City Gate Tower
The original city wall of Pinghai Ancient City stretched over 1700 meters and stood 6 meters high, b[...]
