Yongdingmen Gate Tower in Beijing

Yongdingmen (永定门) is normally translated as ” Yongding Gate” or “Yongdingmen Gate Tower”. Here “Yongding” means “Lasting Peace” and “men” literally means “Gate” or “Gate Tower”.

It was the former front gate as well as one of the seven gates of Beijing’s outer city wall in Ming and Qing dynasties. Beijing vanished old city wall was mainly composed of four layers – Forbidden City wall, Imperial City Wall, Inner City Wall and Outer City Wall.

Yongdingmen Gate Tower was originally built 1553 in Ming Dynasty ( 1368 – 1644 ). Yongding Gate is the south starting point of the Central Axis of Beijing which ends at the Drum Tower and Bell Tower in the north.

So, the Central Axis of Beijing extends 7.8km from Yongdingmen Gate, passing through Zhengyang Gate, Tian’anmen Square; further from Forbidden City, Jingshan Hill through the Drum Tower and Bell Tower.

**The Central Axis of Beijing** (Google Map)

The Central Axis of Beijing is a classic model of ancient Chinese urban planning, a prominent position in the world history of urban planning and development. Besides, the emperors in ancient China believed that they were the center of the world, so all of their palaces should be built on the center of the axis across “the center” from south to north of Beijing.

The local government of Dongcheng District has been working hard to get the Beijing central axis recognized as a UNESCO world Cultural Heritage.

Yongdingmen Gate was turned down in 1956. It was rebuilt in the year 2004. Now it has been into Yongmen Park, an open and free park starting from Yongdingmen in the south and Nanwei Road in the north. The green park is 1000 meters long from north to south flanked by such historical buildings as Temple of Heaven and Temple of Agriculture (Xiannong Atar) .

Virtual Tour of Yongdingmen Gate Tower

If you are going to walk along the Central Axis of Beijing, the southern tip of Yongdingmen Gate is definitely worth your visiting for a while to view this magnificent Yongdingmen Tower.

There are two large squares – South Square ( South of Yongdingmen Tower) and North Square ( north of Yongdingmen Tower ). The South Square spans the bridge over the south second ring road.