Ancient City Wall

The Ancient City Wall stands in the southern part of Shengzhou’s old town. Its construction dates back to the Three Kingdoms period under the Kingdom of Wu. Zizhi Tongjian records: “None of the counties across eastern Zhejiang retain their city walls today, except Shan County, whose wall remains intact and robust.”

The Wanli-era Records of Shengzhou County of the Ming Dynasty states: “The Han-dynasty city of Shan County lay northeast of the present county seat. He Qi, magistrate of Shan during the Wu reign, relocated the county seat to its current location. He Qi once opened the city gate to repel bandits, confirming that the city wall was erected under his charge, and the existing wall occupies the original site built by He Qi.”

In the 34th year of the Jiajing reign (1555), Japanese pirates ran rampant, leaving local residents without any means of defence. Magistrate Wu Sanwei traced the original city wall ruins and mobilized massive labour forces to rebuild the fortifications. The wall faced a stream to the front and stretched over hills to the rear. It stood over two zhang high, more than one zhang thick, and extended a little over 1,300 zhang in circumference, lined with stone outer and inner barbican walls.

Four city gates were originally built along the wall, each topped with a tower:

Each gate was equipped with an outer barbican and battle platforms. In the 12th year of the Wanli reign (1584), Magistrate Wan Minji renovated and reopened Hualong Gate.

A 1,001.2-metre section of the southern city wall survives to this day. In 2003, the stretch of ancient wall near Shengzhou Cultural Square underwent restoration. Following Qing-dynasty specifications, the crenellations, gate platform and archway of the South Gate were reconstructed.

The Ancient City Wall was designated a Cultural Relic Protection Unit of Sheng County in 1988, and elevated to a Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relic Protection Unit in 2005.