Zhengyangmen

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The Zhengyangmen, on the left the watchtower in front, on the right the actual gatehouse
Inner City (Tatar City) and Outer City (Chinese City) map

Zhengyangmen ( Chinese  正陽門  /  正阳门 , Pinyin Zhèngyángmén,  - "Zhengyang Gate"), also known under the name Qianmen ( 前門  /  前门 , Qiánmén,  - "Front Gate"), is an old city gate in Beijing .

It was located exactly in the center of the southern wall of the inner city in the south of the Tian'anmen - the gateway to the imperial city (Huangcheng) - and separated the "Tatar city" from the "Chinese city", i.e. H. the Outer City (Waicheng). The Zhengyangmen stands in the axis of the Imperial Palace.

It was built in 1421 during the Ming Dynasty as one of the nine gates or watchtowers of the Inner City (Neicheng). In 1439 the gate was supplemented by a watchtower / archery tower in front of the south, similar to a barbican . The watchtower was partially burned down in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion . The Zhengyangmen has been restored several times and has not been preserved in its original form. The watchtower is over 40 meters high today. Since 1988 the Zhengyangmen has been on the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China (3-63).

As the main gate of the Inner City, it was built larger and more magnificent than other city gates, it was the tallest and most finely decorated city gate. Only the emperor was allowed to go through his central gate to attend the sacrificial ceremonies in the Temple of Heaven , and only imperial sedan chairs and floats were allowed to pass through the gate. Today it houses the Zhengyangmen City Gate Museum.

  • Watchtower seen from the south

  • Watchtower from the west

  • Watchtower from the north

  • Gatehouse seen from the south

  • Gatehouse viewed from the north towards Tian'anmen Square

Web links

Commons : Zhengyangmen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://german.cri.cn/1107/2008/10/05/1s100874.htm
  2. ↑ http://german.cri.cn/21/2004/06/08/1@12353.htm

Coordinates: 39 ° 53 ′ 57.3 ″  N , 116 ° 23 ′ 30 ″  E