An overview of fortifications in the Far East.

1. Loved reading
Sun Tzu’s Art of War?
Then you can’t miss these ten
amazing sites

2. A must read for MBA
types, this timeless classic
gives advice on winning
wars – without shedding a
drop of blood.
But did you ever think of
how it really influenced
the conduct of warfare
over three millennia in
the Orient?
Then you’ve got to check
out these ten must-visit
heritage sites of China,
Korea and Japan.

3. The Great Wall of China
Um, because no list is complete
without it.

4. Myth-buster:
It is, as Donald Trump might say, yuuuge
(it’s Chinese name, Wanli Changcheng,
means the 10,000 Mile Long Wall), but
not huge enough to be seen from the
moon. Not without a telescope, at
least. Sorry!

5. It isn’t even one wall, but a mind-bending series
of walls, that extends well north of it (in deep
Mongol territory) as well as south (deep in
Central China) begun by the Qin dynasty (whose
sole emperor, Shi-Huang Di, rests along with his
terracotta army at Xi’an), and extended by the
Han, Sui, Liao and Jin dynasties. Even the Yuan
(Mongol) Dynasty made repairs to it (though
being the first to breach it and overrun China).

7. While it’s common to visit the sections of the
wall near Beijing, one place to experience it as it
really was (a mostly mud wall with occasional
brick tower-gates) is Jiayu Pass in the province of
Gansu (see next slide), 2000 km to the west. It
contains one of the best-preserved points of
passage between the Middle Kingdom and the
rest of the world.

9. City walls of Pingyao & Xi’an
Did you know China has 48 UNESCO
World Heritage sites, 47 of them not
being the Great Wall?

10. China’s Ming Dynasty liked its cities well-
planned, and you can see that in what remains
of the old cities of Pingyao and Xi’an. So you see
a square wall (Chengqiang), enclosing a square
city (often large enough to accommodate
growth of the city.
Ming rule was quite far-sighted).

11. South Gate of Xi’an

12. The principal gate was in the centre of the South
Wall (previous slide), with a gatehouse atop the
entrance arch.
You’d have to be careful trying to storm it
though, carefully camouflaged murder holes in
the gates let defenders pour down arrows on
you (or boiling oil, if you prefer).

13. Pingyao Chengqiang
Towers (Jiaolou) punctuated the walls
(see below), from where archers could
fire down a volley at any besiegers.

14. Zhengyangmen Gate, Beijing
Because you only live once.
And you don’t want to waste it
storming this gate.

15. What’s the Chinese
character for an
adrenaline rush?
It’s ‘Chuang’, once
imagined by the
Chinese as a horse-
rider smashing
through the city
gates.

16. You might not want to try this at the Gate of the
Zenith Sun (that’s what Zhengyangmen means).
A multi-storey, brick-and-mortar Wengcheng
(loosely translated as barbican; picture below),
positioned outside it, can rain down arrows (and in
later times, cannon fire) on all four sides, ensuring
rider, armour and horse are blown to dust.
Sadly, this is among the few remains of the city wall
of Beijing, most of it being demolished in the 1970s.

18. Gate of China, Nanjing
The bridge between an emperor and
an empire.

19. The former imperial capital liked doing things in
style. So here’s the city’s main gate,
Zhōnghuámén, the Gate of China, the link
between the emperor and the empire. If you
thought the Beijing Wengcheng was formidable,
the Gate of China has three of them (defending
not one but four gates, in four concentric walls),
built with stone and brick.

20. The walls of Nanjing are so vast that the city’s
old airport is actually within them!

21. Cheolli Jangseong
China & N. Korea
When we say ‘Great Wall’, it’s the
Chinese one we think of, but the
Koreans have their own too.
In fact, two of them.

22. The first, and longer one, is actually now in
China, built by the general Yeon Gaesomun of
the Goguryeo Kingdom, after defeating the Sui
dynasty of mainland China and securing Korean
independence. Its Korean Name even means
Thousand Mile Wall. Finished in 647 CE, it had 9
garrisons stationed alongside it.

24. A similar wall was built in 1033-34 by the later
Goryeo kingdom (which gives Korea it’s modern
name) in the reign of emperor Hyeonjong to
fend off the Khitans (Liao Dynasty). Now in
North Korea, there don’t seem to be any
pictures online.

25. Alongside building the
wall, the emperor
initiated a very
different kind of
fortification: the
carving of the first
Tripitaka Koreana –
6000 wooden blocks
bearing all the verses
of the Buddhist canon
– as a pious act to
inviting divine help to
fight the Liao.

26. Hwaseong & Namhansanseong
South Korea
Showpieces of the Joseon Dynasty

27. Like the Red Fort, Hwaseong is South Korea’s
showpiece fortress. Hwaseong possesses a
number of sentry towers, turrets, gun towers,
crossbow platforms (pictured), secret gates and
pavilions, apart from its 4 great gates. Many of
the structures don’t conform with each other,
not unlike the bastions of Naldurg in India.

28. Built as a memorial (1794-96) by King Jeongjo to his father Crown Prince
Sado who was executed by his father King Yeongjo for being a serial rapist
& murderer by being shut up in a rice chest.

29. Namhansanseong, built on an older structure in
1624, follows a more common Korean approach
to fortification: a lower town that is open in
times of peace, and a mountain fortress to
which the populace can take refuge in when
attacked.
The emergency capital of the Joseon dynasty
(otherwise based in Seoul, 25 km away), at 480
m asl, it has a commanding view of plains.

30. Its place in Korean history is cemented by the role it played in the resistance to the
Japanese (who colonized Korea 1910-45) led by Buddhist monk-soldiers.

31. Ki no Jo
Okayama Prefecture, Japan
The Devils’ Own Keep

32. The ‘Castle of the Devil’ is one of Japan’s oldest
fortifications. The defeat of Japan at the hands
of a Korean-Chinese alliance in 663 inaugurated
the era of building of fortifications.
Ki no Jo is built in the Korean mountain fortress
style (like Namhansanseong), with earthwork
walls partly covered in stone and 4 wooden
gates in the cardinal directions.

34. Himeji Castle
Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
The Great Survivor

35. Think Japan and you think the samurai, but they
occupy only a small part of Japan’s history. But
the impact they leave behind can be seen best
at Himeji Castle, a network of 83 defensive
structures (mostly wood and stone) including
Yagura (archery towers or later, gun turrets),
gates and corridors; the walls are mostly
earthworks. Most prominent is the elaborate
Tenshu, the keep or palace of the castle lord
(Daimyo).

36. Himeji is much celebrated in legend,
surviving earthquakes, imperial
demolition orders and even bombing
during World War II.

37. Nagoya Castle
Nagoya Prefecture, Japan
The era of firearms

38. While the Tom Cruise starrer The Last Samurai
shows artillery ending the era of the sword-
wielding samurai, reality is quite the opposite.
Firearms (introduced 1543) spurred castle
building, till at its peak Japan had nearly 5000.
Castles underwent significant design changes,
adding a high stone platform (Musha-gaeshi)
and concentric baileys (Maru) surrounding the
Tenshu.

39. The castle at Nagoya played a role in
concentrating power in the hands of the
Tokugawa Shogunate, during the Edo
period when Japan’s feudal warlords
were brought under a centralized state.

40. An echo of Sun Tzu can be found in a world far
removed from us, in the words of General
Tacticus of Ankh-Morpork, when he answers the
question:
What to Do When One Army Occupies a Well-
Fortified Fortress on Superior Ground and the
Other Does Not?
Endeavour to be the one inside.