The City Wall of the Ming Dynasty & Zhonghua Gate Castle1:景点概况（1分钟）（中国建城简要历史南京明城池的世界地位朱升九字箴言）As everyone knows, city wall with a moat is the most important defence works of a city (城防工事) and a major means (重要手段) to the stability and prosperity of a country (兴国安邦) in times of cold weapons. The construction of city wall has a history of 3000 years in China.In 1356 the Red Scarf Army (红巾军), attacked and occupied Jiqing (present Nanjing). Zhu Y uanzhang, the chief of the army, thought his forces were big and powerful enough (拥兵自重) to replace the Yuan’s emperor. A gifted scholar and adviser (才子和谋士) by the name of Zhu Sheng gave a word of advice to him and urged him to judge the hour and size up the situation (劝其审时度势), and made a proposal of “building a high wall, storing grain everywhere and being patient to seek power of an emperor” (高筑墙，广积粮，缓称王). Zhu Y uanzhang felt a heartfelt admiration (心悦诚服) and accepted with pleasure. Thus, the city wall of Nanjing started its construction in 1366.2明建都城（5分30秒）(建城资金.工匠和城砖的来源和特色南京城垣的建造时间、规模、特点明京城的形状、规模和特点排水系统)The entire project took 21 years ，having cost 6 million ounces of gold. One third of the expenses was donated by Shen Wan san, a man of wealth (富豪) known at the areas south of the Yangtse. There were 200，000 laborers and craftsmen involved in the construction. They were requisitioned (recruited) from 125 counties of Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan provinces. There were 350 million bricks made for the wall by these provinces. Each of the bricks is 40 centimeters long, 20 centimeters wide and 10 centimeters thick with a weight of 10 kilos. For the quality control, all the bricks were moulded with the names of supervisors, brick-makers and firemen as well as the date of baking.The city wall of Nanjing is about 33 kilometers in circumference and the existing length of the wall is about 23 kilometers The wall foundation is 14 meters wide, which is laid up by huge rectangular slabs of lime stone (石灰石条石).. Both interior and exterior of the wall are built by laying bricks with gravels (砾石), clay and broken bricks (碎砖) filled and rammed (夯实) in the middle. All the bricks are laid and bound (黏合) by mixed putty of lime, knotweed ashes (蓼草灰), glutinous rice paste and tung oil, hence the wall remains strong as ever after having stood the test of wind and rain and wars as well for more than 600 years.The City Wall of Nanjing was completed in four phases: The first phase of the project was to build imperial palace (皇宫) and rebuild the City Wall of the Southern Tang Dynasty from 1366 to 1367; the second phase of the project was to extend the old city wall of Yingtian Prefecture to the bank of the Yangtse River from 1369 to 1373 and then to start construction of a new city wall; the third phase of the project was to build three city gate castles from 1374 including Sanshan (present Shuixi Gate), Treasure (present Zhonghua Gate) and Tongji Gate, and ten other city gates as well; the fourth phase was to continue the outer wall (外郭) construction from1380 to the winter of 1386.The overall arrangement of Nanjing City Wall did not stick to conventions (墨守) of a chessboard pattern as the capital cities in northern China, where the city walls are tidily square (四方整齐)，the east and west sections of the wall are perfectly symmetric (东西对称) with central axis going through the center of the town from the north to south (南北中轴) and the imperial palace in the middle (皇宫居中). The Nanjing wall is irregularly built according to its physical features of terrain, well integrated with the demands of fighting battles. It made full use of the hills in the north as the wall foundations to occupy a commanding position (居高固险) and the Outer Qinhuai River, Jinchuan River in the south and west and Xuanwu Lake in the north as the natural moats (天生城壕) outside the city wall.For fear of floods, the wall is carefully designed and built with a drainage system (排水设施). The top of the wall slopes from out-parapet to in-parapet with a water trough (水槽) along each side of the walls. At every 60 meters there builds a stone drainage ditch (排水槽) linking up both the troughs. If the city is flooded, water in the town may also be discharged out of the city through the drainage system.3:中华门城堡(1分钟)（聚宝门得名和中华门得名地理位置重要一城三瓮的格局及城堡的形状、规模）Now, here we come to the Zhonghua Gate Castle. The castle was originally called Treasure Gate because of the Treasure Hill (the present Rain Flower Terrace) being on the opposite side in the south. As the construction of Zhonghua road in 1931, a bypass was made in the city wall at each side of the Treasure Gate for motor vehicles, so as to avoid traffic going through the gate castle. Both the bypasses are respectively called Zhonghua Gate (R) and Zhonghua Gate (L). And the Treasure Gate is changed into Zhonghua Gate. The name of the gate, written in three Chinese characters, was autographed by Chiang Kaishek himself.Among all the gates,Zhonghua Gate is the largest.The gate was formerly called the Treasure Bowl Gate,which is connected with an interesting story popular among the local people.In the early Ming Dynasty when Emperor ZhuYuanzhang stared to build a city wall around Nanjing,everything was well done,except that this gate failed to be built after many attempts.From hisprime minister,the emperor heard of a poor fisherman named ShenWanshan,who got a treasure bowl and became very rich..The imperial court dispatched people to cheat him out of the treasure bowl and buried it into the ground as the foundation of the gate.The gate was finally built up.From the time the gate was given the name Jubao in Chinese which meanstreasure bowl.The three-storeyed Zhonghua Gate Castale has three successive jar-like strongholds, 129 meters long from north to the south and 118 meters wide from west to east, covering an area of 16512 square meters4：城门瓮城（3分钟）（瓮城的构造千斤闸简介藏兵洞简介）The three-storeyed Zhonghua Gate Castale has three successive jar-like strongholds, 129 meters long from north to the south and 118 meters wide from west to east, covering an area of 16512 square meters. The three jar-strongholds are linked up by walls and each “jar” has an elevating gate (闸) with a weight of 500 kilos and an iron-covered double-leaf wooden door (双扉铁质木门). There used to have a tower over the “jar” installed with a winch (绞盘车) for lifting and dropping the gate. If invaders broke through the first defence and forced their way in, the defending soldiers would drop the gate and shut the door to bottle up the enemy in the “jar” (将敌困与瓮中). Then, they may unhurriedly launch attack against the enemy from top of walls like catching a turtle in a jar.On both sides of the first doorway (门洞)，there are six large arched caves open inwards as the hideouts of defending troops. The second level in front part of the castle is 65 meters wide, 47meters thick and 9 meters high. Built in which there are seven large caves open inwards, each of them is 45 meters deep and 7 meters high. In the middle cave，a sand table (沙盘模型) of Nanjing City is displayed, accurately showing off the trend of the Ming’s city wall and the original style and features of the thirteen city gates. Also put on show are some stone balls big and small, which were used as weapons at the time and old bricks marked with some Chinese characters and date of making.. At each side of the castle there is a ramp stairway leading to the terrace (former watch tower). Built in the flank wall of each ramp there are seven arched caves, thus the hideouts reach to 27. Those caves could accommodate 3000 soldiers laid in ambush.As all the caves are built in the foot of the castle, the indoor temperature is kept at 22℃all the year round like natural air conditioning. In the past, people living in the south of the town often came here to keep away from summer heat and enjoy their tea while playing chess.5：其他（1分钟）（中华门城堡的意义中华门城堡发生的战争周边景点）Nowadays,21.35-kilometer city wall survives and is among the preservation list of monuments and historical sites approved by the State Council.The Nanjing Municipal Government plans to have part of the city wall repaired and some of the city gates renovated. And from the city wall ,we can see the wars happened before such as the Nanjing offend war, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revolution and so on. Standing on the top of the floor to see from the south we can find the significant rain flower pavilion. And we can also see qinghuai river senic sides from the north.so with the chnggan bridge.。
