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26-771: The Yangshan Quarry is situated on the Yangshan Mountain (elevation 140 m), also known as Yanmen Shan ( 雁门山 ), northwest of Tangshan Town ( 汤山镇 ). The Yangshan is the main peak of the Kongshan Mountain Range ( 孔山山脉 ). The site is located 15–20 km to the east from the eastern part of Nanjing City Wall and the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum . Administratively, the area is in the Jiangning District of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. The Yangshan Quarry has been worked from

52-419: A legend, workers who failed to produce the daily quota of crushed rock of at least 33 sheng would be executed on the spot. In memory of the workers who died on the construction site—including those who died from overwork and disease—a nearby village became known as Fentou ( 坟头 ), or "Grave Mound". Ann Paludan translates the place name as "Death's Head Valley". In the centuries since the giant stele project

78-577: A series of three or four courtyards that made up the gate complex. During the Qing dynasty three more gates were added, including an entrance to Xuanwu Lake from the west built in 1910. Yijiang Gate on North Zhongshan Road was built in 1921, as was the major entrance to the city during Republican times when most visitors to the city arrived by boat at the docks just to the west. Different from ancient city walls in Beijing and Xi'an , its design and construction

104-564: A stage, children's rides, and various history-themed amusements. A single admission ticket allows one to visit the "village" and then to walk some 300–400 m (980–1,310 ft) to the quarry proper on one of several forest trails. The site is open year-round, but still is mostly deserted in winter. Transportation from Nanjing to the Yangshan Quarry (either directly to the Ming Culture Village's entrance plaza, or to

130-529: Is 8.78 metres (28.8 ft) tall (6.7 m (22 ft) body + crown, on top of a 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) tall tortoise pedestal ). The Song-dynasty (early 12th century) Wan Ren Chou ("Ten Thousand Men's Sorrow") Stele in Qufu , which is thought to be one of the tallest in China, is 16.95 m (55.6 ft) tall, 3.75 m (12.3 ft) wide, 1.14 m (3 ft 9 in) thick. According to

156-687: Is located south of Nanjing's walled city; service to Nanjing West railway station has been suspended. After the opening of new Nanjing South railway station in the southern part of greater Nanjing in mid-2010, many of the high-speed trains serving Nanjing have been re-routed to that new station. However, Nanjing station has frequent high-speed service to Shanghai and Shanghai Hongqiao , some services also stopping at Zhenjiang, Changzhou and Suzhou. Some overnight D trains continue on north towards Beijing South railway station , Tianjin West railway station , or Xi'an North railway station . Nanjing railway station

182-668: Is served by a station of the same name on Line 1 and Line 3 of Nanjing Metro . It is also the terminal for many of the city bus lines. The station opened in September 1968, shortly before the opening of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge . The connection with Line 1 of the Nanjing Metro began operations on 3 September 2005 as part of the line's Phase I from Maigaoqiao to Andemen . The interchange with Nanjing Metro Line 3 opened on 1 April 2015 with

208-411: Is why the city wall has stood for a long time. On top of the outer wall were 13,616 crenellations , or battlements, for defenders of the city to observe the enemy or dodge arrows. Opposite it was the parapet wall used as a balustrade to keep the defenders and horses safe. Standing on the wall, you will see tall ancient trees under your feet. Aside the top wall there are stone sluices to drain rain and near

234-480: The Yongle Emperor , ordered the cutting of a giant stele in this quarry, for use in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum of his deceased father. In accordance with the usual design of a Chinese memorial stele , three separate pieces were being cut: the rectangular stele base (pedestal), the stele body, and the stele head (crown, to be decorated with a dragon design). After most of the stone-cutting work had been done,

260-802: The "Yangshan Quarry" stop on the Jiangsu Provincial Highway 122 (S122)) is provided by several bus routes, including the Nanjing-Tangshan Line ( 南汤线 , Nán-Tāng Xiàn ) from the Nanjing Railway Station . Nanjing City Wall The City Wall of Nanjing ( Chinese : 南京城墙 ; pinyin : Nánjīng chéngqiáng ) was designed by the Hongwu Emperor (1328–1398) after he founded the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) and established Nanjing as

286-419: The 600-year-old city wall of Nanjing still stands. Experts from Nanjing Cultural Relic Bureau say most of the foundations use granite, rectangle stones or limestone. The walls were packed layer by layer with broken bricks, gravel and yellow earth. All the brickwork joints were poured with mixed lime, water in which glutinous rice had been cooked, and tung oil because the coagulated mixture was very strong. That

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312-736: The architects realized that moving stones that big from Yangshan to Ming Xiaoling, let alone installing them there in a proper way, would not be physically possible. As a result, the project was abandoned. In place of the stele, a much smaller tablet (still, the largest in the Nanjing area), known as the Shengong Shengde ("Divine Merits and Godly Virtues") Stele was installed in Ming Xiaoling 's "Square Pavilion" (Sifangcheng) in 1413. The three unfinished stele components remain in Yangshan Quarry to this day, only partially separated from

338-420: The capital in 1368. To consolidate his sovereignty and defend the city against coastal pirates, he adopted the suggestions of advisor Zhu Sheng to build a higher city wall , to expand strategic food reserve and to postpone the coronation. The construction of the wall required the labor of 200,000 workers over twenty-one years to complete. Around 7 million cubic metres of earth were shifted. The City Wall of Nanjing

364-435: The capital of Jiangsu province. It is located in the northern part of Nanjing's urban core (just a short walk from the city wall), near Xuanwu Lake . Until 2010, this was the main railway station of Nanjing, with the great majority of all trains serving Nanjing using this station. Only a small number of trains, going to the destinations to the southwest of Nanjing, pass through the (old) Nanjing South railway station, which

390-495: The names of the gates survive as local place names. Part of the wall on the south shore of Xuanwu Lake was built on the foundations of the old Stone City walls from the Six Dynasties period, and reused many of the bricks from that old wall. Originally, thirteen gates were built through Nanjing’s walls, but this number had grown to eighteen by the end of the Qing dynasty. Of the thirteen original gates, only Zhonghua Gate in

416-584: The old one to be used as a new palace or "forbidden" city. This city was laid out in much the same pattern as Beijing; indeed Nanjing’s was the pattern for Beijing’s Forbidden City. In expanding the walls, it appears the Hongwu Emperor intended initially to simply add a bulge to the existing walls and encompass the New City to the east. The main north gate would have been the Drum Tower. However, it

442-547: The solid rock of the mountain. The present dimensions and the usual weight estimates of the steles are as follows: According to experts, if the stele had been finished and put together, by installing the stele body vertically on the base, and topping with the stele head, then it would have stood 73 metres (240 ft) tall. For comparison, the Shengong Shengde Stele actually installed in Ming Xiaoling

468-407: The south, originally known as Jubao Gate, and Heping Gate in the north, originally called Shenci Gate, are still standing. Heping Gate is closed to the public as it is still used as an army barracks. Parts of other gates survive or have been partially reconstructed. The remains of a west gate, Hanzhongmen, originally called Shichengmen, stand in the middle of a plaza. These walls are part of the last of

494-601: The time of the Six Dynasties , the local limestone being used for construction of buildings, walls, and statues in and around Nanjing. After Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor) founded the Ming dynasty in 1368, the city of Nanjing became the capital city of his empire. The Yangshan quarry became the main source of stone for the major construction projects that changed the face of Nanjing. In 1405, Hongwu's son,

520-432: The wall's foundation there are further outlets. The ancient city wall was listed as a key cultural relic under state protection in 1988. It was the longest city wall in the world and the city enclosed by it remained the world's largest until the 17th century. Nanjing Railway Station Nanjing railway station ( Chinese : 南京站 ; pinyin : Nánjīng Zhàn ) is a major railway station of Nanjing ,

546-411: Was abandoned, a number of Ming, Qing, and modern authors visited the site and left accounts of it. The poet Yuan Mei (1716 – 1797) expressed his feelings in "The Song of Hongwu's Great Stone Tablet" ( 洪武大石碑歌 ), which concludes with "one hundred thousand camels could not move it!" (" 十万骆驼拉不起 "). The poem is published in his collection Xiao Cangshan Fang Wenji ( 小仓山房文集 ). In 1956, the Yangshan Quarry

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572-402: Was among the largest city walls ever constructed in China. The enclosed Nanjing City is about 55 square kilometers. The first Ming emperor was proclaimed in 1368 and a great deal of preparation was done prior to this to have an imperial city and all the imperial trappings ready. The name of the city was changed again to Yingtianfu (responding to heaven). A "new city" was built to the east of

598-408: Was decided to bring Lion Hill to the northwest into the city defenses for strategic reasons, and this almost doubled the area the walls would encompass. In addition to the surviving walls of stone and brick, an outwall was built along the river and to the south as an additional defensive measure. Old maps show that there were close to twenty gates in this rammed earth wall. This outwall is long gone, but

624-548: Was entered on the Jiangsu provincial register of protected cultural monuments. It is maintained as a tourist site, although, according to journalists who visited it at the turn of the 21st century, the site was little known even in Nanjing itself, and had few visitors. A small theme park called the Ming Culture Village ( 明文化村 , Míng Wénhuà Cūn ) was constructed at the entrance to the site; as of 2011, it has

650-511: Was that it adopted a winding, free style, based on the city's complicated topography. Construction of the Beijing and the Xi'an city walls was in the ancient style of square or rectangular design. When it was built by the second son of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the 12-kilometre long Xi'an city wall became the seat of local government. It could not match the scale of the capital Nanjing at that time. Today

676-434: Was unique and changed the old ways of equilibrium and symmetry. The construction concentrated on military defence because the city was at the foot of a mountain—a natural barrier to control the commanding elevation with the river as its natural city moat. Because of this, the 60-square-kilometre Nanjing city became strategically located and difficult to reach. The wall belonged to a military defensive system too. The difference

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