In 1371, Jiangxia Marquis Zhou Dexing expanded the Wuchang city walls, laying the foundation of what he called the New South Gate. Built with heavy blue bricks over long stone blocks, this structure stood as a barrier of imperial defense. In 1535, an imperial official named Gu Lin renamed it Zhonghe Gate, a title of harmony that belied the violence to come.

On the damp evening of October 10, 1911, the gate’s quiet was shattered. Soldiers of the Hubei New Army Engineering Battalion revolted, their boots echoing against the stone archway. They seized the gate, throwing open its heavy doors to admit the South Lake Cavalry and Artillery Battalion. Up on the wooden gate tower, soldiers hauled heavy artillery into position. The air filled with the sharp smell of sulfur and smoke as they bombarded the Huguang Viceroy’s Office, a barrage that marked the beginning of the end of two thousand years of imperial rule.

The gate survived the fires of that night, earning the name Uprising Gate in 1912. Though Duan Qirui ordered the name reverted to Zhonghe Gate in 1913, the revolutionary title was restored after 1949. When city planners decided to demolish Wuchang’s ancient walls in late 1926, they spared this single gateway. The timber tower had already been destroyed during the Beiyang warlord period, leaving only the bare stone archway standing.

Today, the restored gate stands 7.1 meters high and 5 meters wide, topped by an 11.3-meter-tall tower. Thirty red columns support a double-eave hip-and-gable roof covered in green tiles. The present tower was rebuilt in 1981 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution. On the front facade, a marble plaque bears three gilded characters hand-written by Marshal Ye Jianying in 1981. In 2006, archaeological excavations during road construction near the gate uncovered the buried blue brick foundations of the original Ming-era barbican. Visitors can see these rough, cool stones, feeling the physical link to the builders of 1371 and the revolutionaries of 1911.