A surviving fragment of Shanghai's Ming dynasty city wall, preserved at Dajing Road, is the only remaining section of the wall that enclosed the Chinese city (the Old Town) before it was demolished in 1912. The section includes two watchtower bays and is incorporated into the Dajing Ge Pavilion complex, which serves as a small museum of Old Town history.
The context is important: Shanghai's old Chinese city was entirely surrounded by a circular wall and moat until the Republican revolution, which is why the street pattern of the Old Town remains radically different from the grid of the International Settlement to the north. The preserved wall fragment allows visitors to understand the physical form of the pre-colonial city. Dajing Road; near Renmin Road circular.