Shanghai Ancient City Wall — Attraction in Shanghai

Shanghai was originally a city without walls. Lots of the residents who made living by fishing did not approve of building a city wall which might cause inconvenience to them. Besides, the government at that time was unable to afford building walls like that. Until the 32nd year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1553), Shanghai County was attacked five times by Japanese pirates from the East China Sea and got a huge lost. Soldiers and residents were killed, property was robbed, county offices and houses were burned, and the town almost became ruins. The officials and people realized that they could not resist the Japanese pirates without walls. With great efforts and donations of local people, it took only three months (from October to December in the lunar calendar) to build a city wall with a circumference of 4.5km and a height of 8m. There were 6 gates, two of which had a watchtower on the top. Four water gates were set as well. Along the outside of the city wall was a moat with a width of 20m, a depth of 5.6m. In 1557, three more watchtowers and 20 arrow towers were added to the wall. The ancient city wall of Shanghai was considered to be an obstacle for developing a huge modern city. Finally the officials decided to demolish the city walls, fill in the moat, and build roads. Apart from two small preserved sections, the demolition of the city wall started in July of 1912, ended in winter of 1914. The circular road including Zhonghua Road and Renmin Road was built in the place of Shanghai Ancient City Wall and moat. It is a sign that identifies the boundary of Shanghai's old city. Now there is almost nothing except for just some bricks, 20 meters long and 2 meters high, surrounded by living towers, hotels and next to a main street. But I still went to see and feel the history...

Been there today. Absolutly not recommendable. Its just some bricks, 20 meters long and 2 meters high, surrounded by living towers and next to a main street. Cant stand the other experiences... Maybe they mixed up with yuyuan ancient town...

Saw it. Didn't bother taking any pictures because it wasn't worth photographing. Not a must see, but if you are going by the area towards Yu Garden and walking, it's worth a...