Ganzhou Ancient City Wall and Song Dynasty Quarter 赣州古城墙与宋代街区

About Ganzhou Ancient City Wall and Song Dynasty Quarter

A walled settlement was laid out here in the early Western Han, and by the Eastern Jin the site had been fixed on the tongue of land between the Zhang and the Gong, then defended in earth. Brick and stone construction began in the Jiayou reign of the Northern Song, and successive repairs carried the fabric through to the present; the district government calls the result the only Song-dynasty brick city wall in China. The circuit once ran more than 6,900 metres and the surviving west, north and east sections total 3,664 metres. The wall is a national key cultural heritage protection unit.

Its construction departs from the northern norm: inner and outer faces and the walkway are all faced in brick, guard posts known as jingpu take the place of the projecting bastions used elsewhere, and the gates open through barbicans. Because it stands directly on the river banks it was built to hold back floodwater as well as attackers, and it still does the flood-control job. Behind the wall, the district's culture and tourism bureau manages the old core as the Jiangnan Song City historical and cultural area, and its own walking route links the Junmen gate tower, the Song Street, the river pontoon bridge, Yugu Tower, the Sixian Archway, Zao'er Lane and a museum devoted to the Fushou Gou drainage system. Ganzhou was approved as a National Historic and Cultural City in 1993.

What to look for

• Inscribed bricks in the wall face, dated from the second year of the Northern Song Xining reign through to 1915 and recording events, dates, personal names, firing places and kiln-household marks; more than 520 types have been catalogued among tens of thousands of bricks
• The jingpu guard posts along the parapet, which here replace the projecting mamian bastions normally found on Chinese city walls, and the barbicans built behind the gates
• Bajing Tower on the wall at the north-east corner of the old city, above the point where the Zhang and Gong join to form the Gan
• Yugu Tower, the high point of the old city, reached from the wall walk along with the North Gate and Chiang Ching-kuo's former residence
• Zao'er Lane and the Junmen gate tower inside the Song-city quarter, the gate tower originating in the Five Dynasties period

Location & getting there

Getting to Ganzhou Ancient City Wall and Song Dynasty Quarter

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

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