This monograph compares the city walls of two famous historical cities in China and the West. It tries to reveal the process of the formation of the differences in the defensive walls between the two cities representing the classical Chinese and Western civilizations. The two authors are distinguished scholars from China and Italy with outstanding achievements in architectural history research and heritage protection. The book details research on the historical evolution of the defensive walls of the two cities as well as on their city walls, landscapes and urban texture, wall restoration, wall planning, and urban planning for city walls. It is an innovation for comparing cities, architecture, cultures, and heritages between China and the West. It serves as a window and a platform for Chinese and foreign readers to understand and communicate about Chinese and Western architectural history, urban planning, and heritage protection.

About the Authors
Professor Chen Wei is a dean of institute of Architecture History and Theory at SEUARCH and a dean of Key Scientific Research Base of Technology of Traditional Wooden Architecture (SEU), State Administration for Cultural Heritage. She is the Vice President of the Architectural History Branch of the Architectural Society of China, and a member of the Expert Group of the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

Professor Luigi Gazzola teaches architectural design. He is an architectural typology scholar in the Department of Architecture at the University of Sapienza in Rome. He is also a scholar in the protection and restoration of urban historical architecture. He is an urban designer who also studies the cultural construction for traditional Chinese architecture.