Nanjing 

cctv.com 05-09-2005 16:43

"Hello welcome to Travelogue, I am Liu Changying. In this episode we continue our Street Special here at Nanjing: the literal meaning of the Southern Capital, as opposed to Beijing, the Northern Capital. Let's wander on the streets of Nanjing. Welcome to Nanjing."

Boasting a prestigious imperial past, serving as inspiration for many poets, the city of Nanjing is the place where you can get really close to history, I mean really really close. It sits on the lower reaches of the Yangtze river, a strategic position of such importance that six ancient dynasties had made Nanjing its capital. Today Nanjing is the sprawling capital of Jiangsu province, with a population of over six million people.

We are going to show you Nanjing through three special streets, the Yudaojie Street, the Changjiang Street, and the Gaochun old Street, which is over 1.5 hour's drive from downtown Nanjing.

That is Yudaojie, the Royal Pathway. During Ming Dynasty, before the emperor moved the capital north to Beijing, Nanjing was the capital and the emperor built the city walls and imperial palace here. All the important military, high court and other department lined along that street. Now we've just entered Wumen, which means the Meridian Gate.

The six-meter wide stone pavement was only reserved for the emperors and the high-ranking officials. That means only the emperors could use that gate.

Entering Wumen, you leave behind the traffic of modern times and enter the Imperial City of the Ming Dynasty. Inside the Gate of Wumen is another small open-air museum where people keep a small garden-like space to display some of the stone architectural elements.

This is Yudaojie, the Royal pathway street. And this is the royal palace and the imperial city, but unfortunately they are long gone, but much of the outer city wall still remains standing. Here we are, a little corner beside the famous Mochou Lake.

The wall was built along a natural river, which served as the moat for the city. That side is outside the wall and over there is inside the city. Today the city of Nanjing has grown out of the city walls, but isn't it nice to have such ancient walls inside your city? What a treasure.

After over 600 years these stonewalls still stand here silently as valid witnesses to the passing of time. The outer city wall is acclaimed as the longest city wall in China. It stretches over 33 kilometers and most of its parts still remain standing amid the city of Nanjing, though the face of the city has long changed.