Dismantlement
Historical records indicate that when Li Zicheng retreated from the city in 1644, he ordered that the Ming Imperial palace complex and the major city gates be set afire. But in 1960, when the walls were finally dismantled, the workers realised that the Dongzhimen and Chongwenmen towers and gate sections were the Ming originals.
The wall and moat systems were well maintained during the Ming and Qing dynasties, right up until 1900. No holes were allowed to be drilled, no arches made. Any damage—even if just a single missing brick—was swiftly reported to the authorities and repaired.
Much damage was done to the fortifications during the Boxer Rebellion (1898–1901). The Righteous Harmony Society burned down the gate tower at Zhengyangmen, and its watchtower was destroyed by Indian troops. The watchtowers at Chaoyangmen and Chongwenmen were destroyed by Japanese and British cannon, and the guard tower at the northwest corner of the Inner city was destroyed by Russian cannon. British troops tore down the western section of the Outer city walls at Yongdingmen and the city walls surrounding the Temple of Heaven. They moved the terminus of the Beijing-Fengtian railway (the present Beijing–Shenyang High-Speed Railway) from its original location at Majiabao, outside the city, to the grounds of the Temple of Heaven, where the British and American forces were headquartered. This was the first time since the Ming dynasty that the city walls had been breached. In 1901 British troops tore down the eastern section of the Outer city walls at Yongdingmen to allow an extension of the railway eastwards to Zhengyangmen. This enabled the construction of the Zhengyangmen East railway station (the present Qianmen Station). Here, British embassy and consulate staff could board trains to travel to the port city of Tientsin (now Tianjin) in the event of the need to retreat. British troops also tore down the eastern section of the Outer city wall near Dongbianmen for the construction of the Beijing Dongbianmen-Tongzhou feeder railway.
The Imperial government of Qing China collapsed in 1911. Between 1912 and 1949, the Beiyang military government, the Republic of China Nationalist government, and the Northern China reform government all undertook minor deconstructions and adjustments. When the Beijing circum-city railway was built in 1915, the sight towers at the northeast and southeast corners were dismantled, and the side walls of the guard towers at these corners had arches built as passageways for trains. The barbican and sluice gates at Dongshengmen, Andingmen, Chaoyangmen, and Dongzhimen were dismantled for the passage of trains. The barbican at Zhengyangmen was dismantled to ease traffic in the Qianmen area. Arches for trains were cut in the city walls near Hepingmen, Jianguomen, Fuxingmen, and several other minor gates. The walls of the Imperial city were fully dismantled, except for the south to southwest section.
The gate towers, watchtowers, and corner towers of the major gates of both the Inner city and Outer city were dismantled over time due to lack of funds for maintenance. But when the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the majority of the moats and gate towers were extant, albeit in a dilapidated state.
In 1949 Beijing became the capital of the newly-founded Communist government. Government-sponsored city planning studies showed that the remaining wall and moat structures were hindering traffic flow and were a barrier to expansion and development. The Outer city wall was completely dismantled in the 1950s, and the inner walls were torn down starting in 1953.
Meanwhile, a debate was raging as to whether to keep or to dismantle the remaining city walls. Architect Liang Sicheng was a leading advocate for keeping the walls. He recommended cutting more arches to accommodate new roads that would serve increased traffic needs, and suggested building a giant circum-city public park immediately outside the city walls and moats to beautify the environment. Pro-keep supporters included Redologist Yu Pingbo, then Bureau of Culture Vice Minister Zheng Zhenfeng, and many Soviet city planners then in the country. The pro-keep contingent was silenced by political pressure, and by the end of the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961), the Outer city wall was completely dismantled and the Inner wall was halved in length.
During the 1960s, relations between China and the Soviet Union became bitter, and after the Sino-Soviet split, people felt that war with the Soviet Union was inevitable. Underground bomb shelters, underground "supply cities", and an underground railway—the Beijing Metro—were commissioned. Work on the Metro began on 1 July 1965. The construction technique used was cut-and-cover: wherever the path of the metro was to go, everything on the surface had to be demolished. Since demolishing houses and relocating people would have been such a great undertaking, the decision was made to build the metro line where the city walls and moats were located.
The demolition work, which began in 1965, was under the supervision of Beijing city government's roads and development department. People and factories that hoped to gain access to building materials from the city's fortifications volunteered to participate in the demolition. After construction began on the metro system, troops were brought in to help with the demolition work to increase the speed and efficiency of the process. The first section of walls to be removed were the southern portion of the Inner city wall, Xuanwumen, and Chongwenmen, leaving behind a giant 23.6-kilometre-long ditch. The second stage began at Beijing Railway Station in the southeast corner of the Inner city and passed through the sites of Jianguomen, Andingmen, Xizhimen, and Fuxingmen. Towers and walls were removed and another 16.04 kilometres of ditch was created. A section of wall near Xibianmen about 100 metres long was used as a storage area for raw materials, and thus was spared from demolition. Another section from Chongwenmen to the guard tower at the southeast corner of the Inner city was spared, because the metro line veers there towards the Beijing Railway Station. The tops of the walls were dismantled, so it is no longer possible to walk along the top. Beginning in 1972, in order to pave the 2nd Ring Road above the Metro, and to serve high-rise apartments and hotels in the Qianmen area, Beijing's eastern, southern, and western moats were covered and converted to sewers.
In 1979, the government called off the demolition of the remaining city walls and named them cultural heritage sites. By this time, the only intact sections were the gate tower and watchtower at Zhengyangmen, the watchtower at Deshengmen, the guard tower at the southeast corner, the northern moats of the Inner city, the section of the Inner city wall south of the Beijing Railway Station, and a small section of Inner city wall near Xibianmen.
Read more about this topic: Beijing City Fortifications