A park being built on the one- kilometer-long ruins of ancient Beijing city walls is scheduled to be open to the public in May 2002. The rebuilding of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) City Wall Relics Park, with a designed area of 13 hectares, is part of the Chinese capital's effort to protect its historical relics. Both the Ming Dynasty City Wall ruins running from Chongwenmen eastward to Dongbianmen and the Huangchenggen Relics Park, also known as the Imperial City Wall Relics Park in downtown Beijing, are the only two existing sections of Beijing city wall built in the Ming Dynasty.

The latter opened to the public last September. The park is estimated to cost some US$ 102 million to build, a large portion of which is being used to compensate some 1,800 households of residents who have to move to make way for the rebuilding, according to city officials. More than two million ancient city wall bricks are needed to rebuild the section of the city wall and so far 160,000 have been donated by local residents. Beijing was once surrounded by four rings of city walls: the Forbidden City wall, the Imperial City wall, the inner city wall and the outer city wall.

( November 26, 2001)