Shangqiu Ancient City (Part 2)

The layout of Shangqiu Ancient City is nearly square, slightly longer from north to south, with a perimeter of 4327 meters. The city wall is 10 meters wide at the base and 6.7 meters wide at the top. It is made of rammed earth on the inside and covered with green bricks on the outside. The wall is 7 meters high, with a 1.8-meter-high parapet wall built on top. The area within the city is 1.13 square kilometers. There are a total of 107 streets inside the ancient city, arranged in a chessboard pattern. The street layout from the Ming and Qing dynasties has been mostly well-preserved. There are also nearly ten quadrangle courtyard buildings from the Ming and Qing periods within the city. The integration of the city wall, moat, and lake forms a unique structure that makes the ancient city round on the outside and square on the inside, resembling a huge ancient coin. The architecture is very distinctive. Shangqiu is metaphorically referred to as the birthplace of commodity, commerce, and business culture in the Central Plains of China.