Chongwenmen
Sunday, January 2nd, 2011
In Beijing we are staying at Chongwenmen, which means “Chongwen gate”.
Chongwen gate was one of the gates in Beijing’s ancient city wall, and construction of the gate commenced in 1436 in the Ming Dynasty. Chongwen gate no longer stands, however leading east from Chongwenmen a 1.5 km section of the ancient city wall has been protected in the Ming City Wall Site Park.
About 1.5 km west of Chongwenmen another of the gates, Zhenyangmen (Zhenyang gate) still stands at the southern end of Tian’anmen Square. Zhenyangmen is commonly known as Qianmen (front door) and is the highest and most magnificent city gate in Beijing.
Chongwenmen now features major department stores and numerous restaurants as well as a subway station accessing two lines of Beijing’s extensive, efficient and expanding subway network.