Chinese city walls

Chinese city walls (traditional Chinese: 城牆; simplified Chinese: 城墙; pinyin: chéngqiáng; literally: "city wall") refer to defensive systems used to protect towns and cities in China in pre-modern times. In addition to walls, city defenses often included towers and gates.

The Chinese word Chéngqiáng (城墙) can be used in two senses in the modern Chinese language. It broadly refers to all defensive walls, including the Great Wall of China, as well as similar defensive structures in areas outside of China such as Hadrian's Wall. More specifically Chengqiang refers to defensive walls built around a city or town.

In classical Chinese, the character Chéng (城) denoted the defensive wall of the "inner city" which housed government buildings. The character Guō (郭) denoted the defensive wall of the "outer city", housing mainly residences. The phrase Chángchéng (長城), literally "the long wall", refers to the Great Wall.

The invention of the city wall is attributed to a semi-mythological sage, the Xia dynasty leader Gun (鯀), the father of Yu the Great. The traditional narrative tells that Gun built the inner wall to defend the prince, and the outer wall to settle the people. An alternative narrative attributes the first city wall to the Yellow Emperor.

A number of neolithic walls surrounding substantial settlements have been excavated in recent years. These include a supposed wall at a Liangzhu culture site, a stone wall at Sanxingdui, and several tamped earth walls at the Longshan culture site. These walls generally protected settlements the size of a large village.

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