Zhengyangmen

Popularly called Qianmen, this gatehouse once guarded the principal southern entrance through the old inner city wall. The surviving two-storey gate tower, rebuilt in the early twentieth century after damage, rises above the southern end of the great square and marks the historic threshold between the inner and outer cities. Climbing its wooden galleries rewards visitors with views along the reconstructed commercial street to the south. Exhibits inside trace the vanished ring of walls and gates around the capital.