Nanjing, capital of China's eastern Jiangsu Province, boasts beautiful scenery - including the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) city walls, lakes, the Qinhuai River, Zijin Mountain and Qixia Mountain - a rich history and culture. This time, however, I was there to explore the grandeur and history of the walls.

No time was wasted on arriving in Nanjing, the former capital of China on several dynasties. My first sighting of the Ming city wall was on the western side. It was practically a building site, with a lot of construction work taking place just outside the south-western part of the wall; and none too impressive. I'm sure it will look nice when the work is complete.

Preservation and challenges

In the meantime, I hurried on to the next stop - the southern gate, Zhonghua Gate. Now was the time to get impressed! The biggest of the gates, it's a fortress in its own right, with four thick rows of stone gates.

Built between 1366 and 1386, the Zhonghua Gate is one of the few original 13 Ming gates that remain. Some of the vaults that used to serve as accommodation and storage for as many as 3,000 soldiers now house exhibitions and arts and crafts shops, and, of course, souvenirs.

Most city walls are listed structures, so by law they are part of the state-level heritage. In Nanjing, the wall was put on the national protection list in 1988, and a law passed to secure its protection in the 1990s.

"The state has tried to preserve city walls, even during the 'cultural revolution'," said Yao Yuan, an assistant professor at Nanjing University's School of Government.

"Even if the whole city is torn down, the actual wall is protected. Actually, even single bricks are protected, and it is against the law to take any out."

Yao Yuan is a scholar researching public policies around heritage issues, with a number of articles published on the topic, and teaches Urban Heritage Preservation and Urban Governance at Nanjing University.

He is also a keen volunteer, working to connect experts in the field to create social movements for preservation of heritage. In 2010, he received an award from the State Bureau of Cultural Heritage Protection for his efforts as a volunteer, a proud moment that encourages him to be an example for young people and scholars.

Yao explained how the main challenge is now with the historical areas around the walls, the streets, the hutong and the neighborhoods.

He was proud to let us know that Nanjing is the only of the old capitals in China that has managed to keep its wall, its neighborhoods and river together.

"Beijing has hutong and Xi'an has its wall. In Nanjing we have both," Yao smiled.

He proudly talked about successful campaigns to preserve the old area and about improving living standards around Zhonghua Gate.

Ascending a ramp, it soon became evident just how much the city wall is part of daily life for the people here. With the wall as an impressive backdrop, a group of men were playing cards.

Nanjing hosts a kite festival every spring, during which many kites are flown from both on and off the wall. As I reached the top of Zhonghua Gate, I encountered a lone kite flyer. Next to him, an elderly woman were eagerly doing her exercises and stretching in the crisp afternoon sun.

Daily life, as it happens.

When I visited Zhonghua Gate, there were colorful decorative figures and banners all around. However, Yao does not approve of this way of decorating the heritage site.

"In my view, they are not allowed to do this, according to preservation laws," he said, explaining that one of the challenges is that the wall in many places are managed by the tourism, not the heritage department.

The following day, after climbing the ridiculously, almost scary, steep steps up to the top of the Zhongshan Gate in the east, and exchanging some smiles with the family living right there, I looked down on the pleasant park and path along the canal to spot a man practicing his golf swing.

Walking southwards, on the inside of the wall, people were going about their everyday business, with crops growing and laundry hanging to dry.

There were no tourists to spot, only a few locals walking dogs in the peaceful Friday afternoon, and a teenage couple timidly holding hands and exchanging some innocent kisses.

While Yao is dedicated in his heritage prevention work, he says awareness is also strong among ordinary citizens in Nanjing, and that interest is growing, with Internet groups being formed and many images and suggestions submitted and discussed.

"Nanjing people are very proud, the wall means a lot to them, it is part of their identity," he said.

Talking to another Nanjingnese, this view is confirmed.

Professor Song Yunya lives in Hong Kong, where she works at the department of journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University, but still identifies herself as Nanjingnese.

"The city wall epitomizes the history of Nanjing, which is known as a city of stone," she explained.

Song has fond memories of growing up in such historical surroundings.

"In my childhood, I liked looking for the characters carved on the bricks. Those are the names of the craftsmen. The emperor asked them to put down their names so that if anything went wrong with any brick, the maker would be identified. Thus, the city wall is very solidly built," she explained.

What gives the Nanjing city wall its distinctive character, compared with others like in Xi'an, is that it was not built as a square, but is rather zigzags according to Nanjing's beautiful landscape of rivers, hills and lakes.

The walls have protected the city through much, but as Song pointed out, dark times are also associated with it. The Japanese army passed through Nanjing city gates on December 13, 1937, and embarked on a campaign slaughter, rape and looting in which an estimated 300,000 people were killed.

"When the Japanese army entered Nanjing, even the sturdy wall could not stave off this disaster," she said.

The characters on the wall bricks are still visible, as I excitedly noticed on the eastern walk, just before it was starting to get dark and the accessible stretch of the wall here came to an end.

Already buzzing

Next morning, hitting the wall right behind the Jiming Temple just after 8am, the place was already buzzing with people dancing, practicing tai chi, running and walking backwards clapping their hands.

I highly recommend doing the walk eastwards along the wall on one side and Xuanwu Lake on the other, then when you reach the end, climb it for the walk back. Don't forget to descend when getting back to the gate, however!

You cannot get through all the way to Xuanwu Gate and to get down there. At a certain point you have to turn and walk back.

I did, and by this time all the students and families with young children had found their way to the gorgeous Xuanwu Lake Park. I soon lost count of the number of picnics and gatherings, different music streaming from each one and the cheerful sound of children laughing everywhere.

The wall does, however, serve somewhat as a barrier to the lake - its park and the people in the city on the inside. Despite living so close to this beautiful spot, they have to go all the way to one of the gates to access it.

The walls of Nanjing are Ming Dynasty originals, built between 1366 and 1393 by a workforce of more than a million people.

More than 35 kilometers of city walls were built after Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, made Nanjing the capital of China.

It was the longest city wall in the world and the city enclosed by it remained the world's largest until the 17th century.

Extensive restoration was undertaken during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), and as part of preserving the magnificent construction, a lot of work has also been done in modern times.

About 21km of the wall still remains, with an average height of 12 meters, and width at the top averaging 7m.

But according to Yao, rapid urbanization, strongly visible all over Nanjing - as elsewhere in China, makes the price of heritage preservation high, and the balance between urban planning and property development a complex process.

Yao is happy that the government says preservation is important.

But, according to the academic, the problem is that a lot of development decisions are made by local government, which wants to develop economy, claim that what it wants is to improve living standards.

"But this can be done while still preserving heritage," Yao argued.

A much welcomed result of the efforts done in Nanjing came with a new law passed by the city government in 2011, restricting new buildings near the wall to a maximum height of 35m, in some places even 12m.

So things seem to be changing for the better. Yao says he can see things are much better than when he started work about 10 years ago.

"People have been rewarded for their struggle," he said. "With more people participating in politics, a big step is being taken.

"The government cares and encourages participation. If criticism is strong enough they will draw back and revise planning permission that's not considered suitable."

But Yao can also tell how some people do not have the same attitude toward preserving the city wall.

Historically, many Chinese cities and villages had surrounding walls. They were not thought of as part of the cultural heritage, which meant many were demolished.

This happened to parts of the western walls in Nanjing. Debate is ongoing between those who want to restore it to as it was, and others who say that its demolition in the 1950s is part of history too.

Wonders of the wall

I didn't see many tourists, nor did I see many signs leading to these historical parts of the city - most still impressive constructions after some about 600 years.

Access to the wall is free in many places, while in others a small fee is charged to climb it. For frequent users, annual visitor membership cards are available.

I tried to find some organized tours or activities by the tourism authorities managing the sites that might help highlight the wonders of the walls.

But there was not much to be found, other than private operators offering tours. If Nanjing tourism authorities could improve on this, they could attract more tourists to share their city gem.

The city walls are a brilliant reason to visit Nanjing, though the city has many sights of note.

These include the harrowing, but amazingly made, Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre.

Also, absolutely do visit the Ming Xiaoling Tomb and the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum in the Zijin Mountain area. Just be sure but go early to beat the crowds.

If you go

Where to stay:

Getting to and from Nanjing from Shanghai is very easy – there are trains at least every half hour, but make sure you get on a fast one, taking just under 1 hour 40 minutes, at 139 yuan (US$22.6) one way for a second class ticket.

We stayed in the very basic, but clean and extremely conveniently located City Inn hotel on central Hanzhong Road, for just under 250 yuan per room per night. For more luxury, and only a couple of hundred yuan more per room per night, check out the Cumberland Boutique Hotel on Zhongshan Road.

What to have:

The immediate surroundings of the actual walls in Nanjing, as far as I discovered, were mainly residential and recreational. Hunan Road is a half-tacky street just in from the Xuanwu Gate of the wall, however, and the neon-lit area offers a lot of choices for places to eat and drink from most corners of the world.

I also could not resist checking out a place called Behind the Wall, for the sake of its name and for a refreshing afternoon pint after all the walking.

It is not really near the Nanjing city wall, but sits behind its own little wall, just off Shanghai Road and up some stairs.