The city wall bricks of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) displayed at the Nanjing City Wall Museum in east China's Jiangsu Province have attracted numerous visitors to explore the history.
The Nanjing City Wall, first built in 1366, has withstood the test of time for over six centuries. Thousands of bricks on the city wall still clearly bear the inscribed names of their original makers. At the museum's exhibition hall, visitors can closely observe these precious inscriptions and learn the stories behind each brick.
"The Nanjing City Wall serves as a remarkably rich 'open-air archive' from the early Ming Dynasty. Historically valuable information is recorded on each small brick. Under the brick-making responsibility system, each brick bore names and titles. If a brick was found to be defective, the responsible individual could be held accountable. From supervising officials to brickmakers, people inscribed their names and titles onto each brick," said Shi Yi, a staff member of the museum.
When looking at these ancient bricks, visitors often make surprising discoveries. The countless names inscribed on the bricks offer invaluable historical records of surnames in ancient China.
"During the construction of the Nanjing City Wall, nearly a million craftsmen and over 100 million bricks were involved in building the four layers of fortifications. As a result, it's quite common to find inscriptions with names identical to modern ones. For example, we can see a brickmaker named Liu Dehua, and the character 'Liu' is written in a simplified form. This suggests that simplified characters were already being used in a limited scope during the Ming Dynasty. Each brick's inscription, the method of stamping, and the calligraphic style are all unique," Shi said.
The exhibition hall also features an interactive roller that displays orgins of the bricks. Visitors can turn the roller to see where the bricks were made.
The Nanjing City Wall, built over 28 years and with 25.1 kilometers still standing today, is one of the world's longest, largest, and best-preserved ancient city walls.
High-tech approaches have been applied in preservation efforts nowadays, with over 1,700 sensors installed along the wall structure to monitor potential subsidence and water damage.
The preservation, which goes beyond maintaining the existing structure, also includes efforts to recover scattered bricks.
During urban development in the 1950s, parts of the wall were dismantled, and many bricks were either buried or reused for construction.
Local authorities launched a campaign in November 2016 to gather clues about scattered bricks. Thanks to the enthusiastic support of local residents, more than 500,000 bricks have been recovered so far.
Nanjing City Wall Museum attracts visitors with historical treasures
Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday that China stands ready to work with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to continue consolidating the positive momentum in the development of China-DPRK relations.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks in talks with DPRK Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in Pyongyang.
Wang said that in early September last year, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), held a historic meeting in Beijing, reaching important consensus on the overall, strategic and directional issues concerning bilateral ties.
The meeting provides important strategic guidance for further developing China-DPRK relations, pushes bilateral ties into a new stage and opens a new chapter in friendly exchanges between the two countries, which is of great and far-reaching significance, Wang added.
Wang said China stands ready to work with the DPRK to take the important consensus reached by the top leaders of the two parties and countries as fundamental guidance, strengthen strategic communication, enhance exchanges and cooperation, create more benefits for the two peoples, and jointly promote regional peace and development.
The past year has witnessed a series of highlights in China-DPRK exchanges, which strongly demonstrated that the two countries' traditional friendship forged in blood remains everlasting and unbreakable, Wang said, noting that this year marks the 65th anniversary of the signing of the China-DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance.
Over the past 65 years, Wang said, no matter how the international and regional situations have changed, China and the DPRK, as good neighbors, good friends and good comrades, have always trusted and supported each other, making unremitting efforts to maintain regional and world peace and stability and promote their respective development.
Wang said China is willing to work with the DPRK side to hold commemorative events for the 65th anniversary of the signing of the treaty, strengthen high-level exchanges, enhance dialogue and practical cooperation at all levels and in various fields, deepen people-to-people exchanges and mutual understanding, and contribute to respective economic and social development.
For her part, Choe said that the DPRK-China friendship is based on the common socialist system and traditional friendship, describing bilateral relations as deep-rooted, solid and sustainable. It is the unwavering position of the WPK and the nation to advance DPRK-China friendship and cooperation following the trend of the times and the will of the two peoples.
Choe noted that the historic and successful meeting between the top leaders of the two parties and countries in September last year has significantly enhanced friendship and mutual trust between the two parties and two countries, pointed out a clear direction for and injecting strong impetus into the development of bilateral ties.
The DPRK, Choe said, fully supports the one-China principle, firmly opposes any interference in China's internal affairs, and resolutely supports China's position on safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity concerning Taiwan, Xizang, Xinjiang, and other issues of China's core interests.
Choe said that the DPRK side fully endorses the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity and the four global initiatives proposed by Xi, and highly values China's just position on and important role in international and regional affairs.
Choe said that the DPRK stands ready to work with China to implement the important consensus reached by the top leaders of the two parties and countries, hold commemorative events marking the 65th anniversary of the signing of the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, expand exchanges and practical cooperation across various fields, enhance coordination between diplomatic departments, strengthen multilateral communication and collaboration, and continue to make efforts to lift DPRK-China relations to higher levels and open up new prospects.
The two sides also had an in-depth exchange of views on current international and regional issues.
Chinese FM says China to work with DPRK to consolidate positive momentum of ties
