Most of the old city wall of Beijing was torn down in the 1950s. But a significant section on the south side was still there in 2002, in bad shape. Just outside the wall were low, cheaply-constructed buildings, apparently built to a signficant extent out of bricks from the wall. I think these had been built in the 1950s, maybe the 1960s. These buildings were being demolished in 2002. These photos were taken from the south (outer) side of the wall.
Note the modern high-rise buildings under construction in the background, on the far side of the wall. The construction crane is just visible beyond a tree, a bit to the left of center.
I was delighted to learn, ten weeks after I took the photos above, that this section of the wall was being renovated, to become the centerpiece of a new Ming Dynasty City Wall Relic Park (Erik Eckholm, "Restoring an Ancient City's Glory Brick by Brick," The New York Times, September 30, 2002, p. A4).
Photos of the wall, renovated and looking quite nice, taken by Steve Schmidhauser in May 2007.
Copyright © 2002, Edwin E. Moïse. Revised July 2, 2007.