Model of Yongdingmen made of red sandal wood and ebony wood. [Photo by Yu Ying/Qianlong]

To celebrate the 17th anniversary of China Red Sandalwood Museum, the museum invited the director of Beijing History Research Society Li Jianping to give a lecture on the city walls and gate towers of old Beijing on September 19.

China Red Sandalwood Museum is the first museum in China that collects, researches and displays red sandalwood artworks, and the large private museum featuring classic traditional Chinese furniture in China. The museum carefully selected 100 craftsmen to reproduce miniatures of Beijing city gate towers in the ratio of one to ten by hand work in 2010. Old Beijing city gate towers were Zhengyangmen, Chongwenmen, Xuanwumen, Chaoyangmen, Fuchengmen, Andingmen, Deshengmen, Dongzhimen, Xizhimen, Yongdingmen, Guangqumen, Guang’anmen, Youanmen, Dongbianmen and Xibianmen. So far, the museum has completed all the 16 red sandalwood models of Beijing city gate towers and will show them to the public once an ideal venue is available.

As the saying goes, the inner city had nine gates, the outer city seven and the imperial city four. First built during Emperor Jiajing’s reign in the Ming Dynasty (1521-1567), Yongdingmen was located in the middle of the south outer city wall and served as the main entrance of the outer city. Being the city gate of the highest rank, it was the gate where emperors went through when they left the capital. The name “Yongding” means “the country is forever peaceful”. Yongdingmen was dismantled in 1957 and the present gate tower was built in 2004.

Source: english.qianlong.com