Shangqiu Ancient City

The wall you see around the old town of Shangqiu is a Ming work: construction started in the sixteenth year of the Hongwu reign in 1503 and was completed in the sixth year of Zhengde in 1511. Beneath it the provincial government portal describes a stack of older cities, from a Yuan prefectural town through a Northern Song capital to the Qin-Han city of Suiyang. The Guiding city wall has been a nationally protected monument since 1996, and Shangqiu itself has been a state-designated historic city since 1986. Today the streets hold a temple of the city god, Zhang Xun's shrine, the Yingtian Academy, the Eight Passes Studio and the formerly named Hou Fangyu residence, linked by a boat route between the south gate and the academy.