Dajing Ge Pavilion

Dajing Ge Pavilion in Shanghai marks the one stretch of a three-mile Ming-dynasty city wall that survived 1911, when revolution swept China and workers tore the rest of it down gate by gate. The guide goes back to 1553, when the wall went up in three frantic months against pirate raiders known as wokou, and to the shrine installed on this watchtower not long after. Listen for what the demolition crews found waiting above them when they reached this section, and run a hand along the brick beside you for a maker's mark still stamped into it.