There's a reason this park is 2.4km long yet only 30m wide; it traces part of the old Imperial City walls dismantled in the 1950s. The walls enclosed the Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, Beihai Lake, and the current government compound of Zhongnanhai, creating an enormous royal resort at the heart of the capital since the early Ming dynasty,
At the top of the park, in a square popular for guǎngchǎng wǔ (plaza dancing), is a small section of reconstructed wall. Down at the southern end is the excavated remains of Dong'an Gate, the eastern portal through the Imperial City wall.
