It is said that the ancient city wall of Kaifeng is the second largest ancient city wall after Nanjing and is a national key cultural relic protection unit.
In 1996, I set foot on the ancient city wall of Kaifeng for the first time and took this photo while standing on top of the dilapidated northern city wall. Dusk shrouded the city wall, and there was a depression outside the city wall. The trees were leaning and the leaves were in disorder, and a feeling of desolation came over me.
At that time, the ancient city wall had just begun to be repaired, and many places were still in ruins. The courtyard wall on the east side of Heda was part of the ancient city wall. Along this part of the ancient city wall to the north is the Iron Tower Park. On the periphery of the Iron Tower Park is the Iron Tower Lake. When I have nothing to do, I walk along the Iron Tower Lake. There are random branches by the lake. I pull the branches and kick the soil by the lake. When the wall was piled up, large tracts of yellow sand would fall, and then the intact city wall bricks inside would be exposed. Only then did I realize that there was also a city wall inside, but it was just silted up by yellow sand.
The earliest ancient city wall is the Daliang city wall of the Wei capital, which is more than 2,300 years old. It partially overlaps with today's city wall. It was built by King Hui of Wei in 365 BC when he moved the capital from Anyi to Daliang.
The current Kaifeng City Wall was built in the Tang Dynasty. By 960 AD, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty was Kaifeng, which was known as Tokyo in history. It formed a grand city outline consisting of three cities: the outer city, the inner city, and the imperial city.
In the Jin Dynasty, Jin Xuanzong Wan Yanxun expanded the inner city of Kaifeng to the north and south respectively. The south was expanded to the area of ??today's South Gate, and the north was expanded to the northern section of today's Kaifeng city wall, which is today's Kaifeng city wall. The size of the Kaifeng City Wall. The outer city has a circumference of more than 50 miles. Through the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, Kaifeng has suffered from wars and floods, and has gradually been lost in the long river of history.
Today's Kaifeng City Wall was rebuilt in the 22nd year of Daoguang's reign. It is 8 meters high, 5 meters wide, and 14.4 kilometers in circumference. It has a blue brick structure and is comparable in size to the inner city of Tokyo in the Song Dynasty.
Due to repeated flooding and siltation by the Yellow River, the ancient city wall of Kaifeng was once submerged 2-3 meters underground. In 1994, Kaifeng City began to renovate the ancient city wall, and first repaired the West Gate - Daliang Gate, Anyuan Gate - North Gate, Xinmen - Xiaonan Gate, and East Gate - East Gate of Heda South Gate. Door.
After Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Nanjing, he changed Kaifeng to be the companion capital and the west gate to Daliang Gate. Today's West Gate was rebuilt in 1998. On the north side of the West Gate, a multi-layered ancient city horse road was discovered, proving the history of Kaifeng's unique city-on-city.
Kaifeng people have a saying about the ancient city of Kaifeng that "three mountains are not visible and five gates are wrong". Kaifeng is originally a siltation plain with no mountains. The so-called mountains are just slightly higher areas in the city - namely, Yishan and Ximen where Tujie and Iron Tower Park are located. In the north, the Song Gate is to the south, the South Gate is to the west, and the North Gate is to the east. Its origin is related to the fact that Kaifeng was named Wanniu City to prevent floods.
The east gate is called Lijing Gate, with a plaque inside saying "Yichun"; the south gate is called Nanxun Gate, with a plaque inside saying "Zhongyuan Shenggui"; the west gate is called Daliang Gate, with a plaque inside saying "Yongfeng" The north gate is called Anyuan Gate, and the inner plaque reads "Gongchen"; the northeast gate is called Renhe Gate, and the inner plaque reads "Liaoxiang". Because it leads to Caozhou, it is called Caomen.
In addition to these five gates, the ancient city wall later opened four more gates - or more appropriately called mouths - namely the southwest gate to the west of Baogong Lake and the Yingbin Road gate to the south. , the east gate in front of the South Gate of Heda, and the East Gate of Heda is also a gate on the Kaifeng city wall.
The ancient city wall of Kaifeng, like the cultural relics and historic sites of Kaifeng, has experienced countless wars and floods, and has witnessed too many changes in the world, but it is always silent and speechless, and is only displayed to people in an erected image. before.