The Southeast Corner Tower of Beijing City.

The Southeast Corner Tower of Beijing City is located at No. 9, Chongwenmen East Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing. It was built in the fourth year of the Zhengtong era of the Ming Dynasty (1439). In addition to the nine city gates, the city wall, and the arrow tower, the Ming and Qing Dynasties built an arrow tower at each corner of the city to strengthen the defense capabilities, which was called the corner tower, or the turret. The turret here is the only remaining southeast turret in Beijing, and it is also the largest and earliest existing corner tower in China. The Southeast Corner Tower of Beijing City was built on a square base of the city wall, with a base height of 12 meters, a bottom edge length of 39.45 meters, a top edge length of 15 meters, a building height of 17 meters, and a building area of 701.3 square meters. The tower is built along the corner of the city platform, with a curved ruler shape on the plane, brick walls on all sides, and a double-eave hip roof. The two ridges intersect at the corner to form a cross, with gray cylinder tiles and green glazed tiles on the edges, and green glazed ridge decorations with beast heads. There are arrow windows on the outside of the tower, with one row on the upper edge and three rows on the lower edge, totaling 144 holes. The inside of the tower follows the main tower and each has a veranda, which is also connected to the corner room, with two doors. One faces west and the other faces north, with windows above the doors. There are twenty golden pillars inside the tower, supporting the beams, with shooting holes and three floors of floor slabs. The tower in the southeast of Beijing City is a model of the corner tower in the city defense system of ancient Chinese cities. On February 23, 1982, the Southeast Corner Tower of Beijing City was announced by the State Council of the People's Republic of China as the second batch of national key cultural relics protection units.