Some Observations on the Morphology of Chinese Walled Cities

The walls of early Chinese cities were ramparts made of compressed earth, but since about the fifteenth century, bricks and cut stones have been used to face the earth walls. Most imperial capitals and many important cities in the north had the walls of rectangular shape. In areas of rugged relief, however, a square form was usually replaced by one of irregular shape, determined in many cases by topographic conditions. The size of the walled area and the elaboration of wall construction were normally directly proportional to the rank of the city in the administrative hierarchy. The size of the enclosed area of the typical walled city decreases southward, indicative of the magnitude of regional urbanization in Ming times or earlier. At later dates, an outer wall was often erected to enclose settlement that had spread outside the city, and in many cases “multiple cities”were developed at the same locality. The Chinese walled city presented a uniform appearance unrelieved by the taller structures typical of the European city; but in comparison with many cities of the West, its internal structure was relatively flexible.