Figure 10.4: Plan of the city of Wang-Ch’eng in China. The city as built did not follow this exact design, but the plan itself is of interest because it suggests the symbolic importance of the three spatial characteristics of the Chinese cosmomagical city. The four walls are aligned to the cardinal directions, and the axis mundi is represented by the walled-off center city containing ceremonial buildings. The physical space of the city (microcosmos) replicates the larger world of the heavens (macrocosmos). For example, each of the four walls represents one of the four seasons.
(Source: Wheatley, 1971.)