More than 50 walled settlements from this period have been
uncovered along the Yellow and Yangtze river valleys.
Th is was a lso the time when great houses appeared, struc-
tures so large compared with other dwellings that they are be-
lieved to have fi lled palatial or ceremonial functions. Some of
the most impressive evidence of urbanism in the third millen-
nium b.c.e. in China is associated with the Neolithic culture
known as Longshan. Longshan has been identifi ed in eight
Chinese provinces, but its most impressive cities are in Shan-
dong. In Yanggu County, Shandong Province, a walled enclo-
sure of approximately 236 miles has been found. China’s most
famous Longshan city is at Chengziya, in Zhangqiu County,
Shandong. Dated to about 2600 b.c.e., the city had a wall that
enclosed an irregular rectangle roughly 1,460 by 1,772 feet.
Several Longshan city remains suggest that many walls existed
in single cities. At Lianyungang, in Jiangsu Province, a Long-
shan city with inner and outer walled areas has been identi-
fi ed. By about 2500 b.c.e. a city in Pingliangtai, Henan, had a
system of pottery drainpipes. (Th eir use is contemporary with
a drainage system in the ancient Indus Valley civilization city
of Mohenjo Daro in Pakistan.) A long avenue divided Ping-
liangtai into two sections, a feature that would be present in
some Chinese cities for the next several millennia.
Also by this time, it is believed that ceremonies were a
part of urban life. Th ere was a distinct group of people in
the society who performed rituals and a group of craft speo-
ple who made ritual objects. Much of the evidence of ritual
comes from the Neolithic site Niuheliang, in Liaoning Prov-
ince, dated to about 3000 b.c.e., which is an example of the
Hongshan culture. Th e focal points of ritual at Niuheliang
included a large, high mound, more than 23 feet of which re-
mains; a structure named the Female Spirit Temple for the
pieces of female statues uncovered there; stone platforms; and
burial mounds beneath which were objects made of jade and
other expensive materials. In southern China at Yushan in
Yuhang County, Zhejiang Province, near the city of Shang-
hai, ritual altars and jade objects that attest to ceremonies as
part of urban life in the fourth and third centuries b.c.e have
been excavated.
By the middle of the third millennium b.c.e., China was
composed of numerous city-states, most of them walled and
some with several walls. Oft en a walled enclosure called an
enceinte was the hub of activity of a larger region, but rarely
was the territory within the jurisdiction of a city-state more
than 62 miles in any direction. Th e city-states are believed to
have had a ruling elite and economies based on agriculture,
supplemented by stock breeding and fi shing. Th ere was a di-
vision of labor, meaning that builders of city walls and ritual
architecture ate food grown or gathered by others.
Th e most importance evidence of urbanism in China of
the second millennium b.c.e. is along the Yellow River valley
in North China. Th is was the time, before the middle of the
second millennium, when writing appeared in China, though
some believe pictographs were used in the third millennium
b.c.e. China entered its Bronze Age early in the second mil-
lennium, even before the offi cial beginning of China’s fi rst
great historic period, the Shang Dynasty (1500–1045 b.c.e.).
According to literary sources, Shang was preceded by the Xia
Dynasty. Most historians believe that this dynasty began be-
fore the age of Neolithic cultures ended in China.CITIES OF BRONZE AGE CHINA
A city that may well date to the Xia Period was excavated at
Erlitou, near Luoyang in Henan. Large palatial complexes,
bronze vessels, bronze plaques inlaid with turquoise, and
remnants of jade, lacquer, bone, and pottery excavated at Er-
litou attest to the complexity of urban life there, even though
no wall remains have been uncovered.
North of Erlitou in Yanshi County is a city dated to about
1600 b.c.e. Sometimes it is referred to as Shixiangguo, named
aft er a drainage ditch that ran through it. Consisting of an
outer wall with an inner wall sharing its southern boundary
and the southern part of its western boundary, the city mea-
sured 1,356 by 1,870 yards. Its outer wall was more than twice
as thick as the inner one and was surrounded by a moat 65½
feet wide. Seven gates provided access to the outer city, and
wide boulevards ran through it. Several palaces, large ritual
sectors for animal off erings, pottery workshops, and a drain-
age system were among the urban features.
It has been surmised that Erlitou was the fi rst of seven
capitals from which the Shang kings ruled. Th ere is little doubt
that the Shang city at Zhengzhou was one of those capitals.
Certainly the city was the most important urban center in the
fi rst half of the Shang Dynasty. Its main outer wall measured
just short of 4 miles, and parts were as wide as 98 feet at the
base. A little over 16 feet of wall have been uncovered south
and west of the main wall, suggesting either that this was a
signifi cantly larger city or that it had many sections. Th e wall
was made of pounded layers, lined by wooden planks, a tech-
nique introduced to China in Neolithic times. Th e largest pal-
ace foundation uncovered so far is 21,528 square feet.
Cities that were not capitals fl ourished in many parts of
China during the Shang. Two of the best excavated have been
found at Panlongcheng (near Wuhan, Hubei) and Gucheng
(in Yuanqu County, Shanxi). At Panlongcheng a gate and two
main buildings, believed to be a palace complex, stood in the
northeast of the squarish city wall, which measured about 951
by 853 feet on each side. Contemporary with the capital at
Zhengzhou, the city is important evidence that a similar level
of urbanism was present in the Yellow and Yangtze river val-
leys by about 1400 b.c.e. Th e four wall segments of the city at
Gucheng measured between 1,102 and 1,312 feet. Th e base of
the wall was less than half the thickness of the wall at Zheng-
zhou, but portions along the south and west were doubled.
Th e area believed to be the palace was roughly in the center
of Gucheng.
Shang China’s most important city was Yinxu, northwest
of the city of Anyang, in Henan. It spanned about 14 square
miles on either side of the Huan River. Excavation has oc-
curred there almost every year since the late 1920s. Among the216 cities: Asia and the Pacific