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Wanping Fortress

Wanping Fortress

Photo: User:Vmenkov · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Beijing, China
Client / Owner
—
Year
Completed 1638
Access
Tickets required

Wanping Fortress, also called Wanping Castle, is a Ming Dynasty fortress in Fengtai District, Beijing. It was built between 1638 and 1640 to defend Beijing against Li Zicheng and the peasant uprising he led. It is roughly half-square in shape, measuring 640 meters from west to east and 320 meters from south to north. It has two gates, an east gate and a west gate.

The fortress is associated with the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. In July 1937 an exchange of fire over a Japanese soldier reported missing escalated into full-scale combat, an event called the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Japanese shells damaged the walls.

The Yongding River and the Lugou Bridge lie to the west. Inside the walls, the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression occupies a large part of the space.

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