Qimen (Qi Gate) is located just north of the downtown area of Suzhou. It got its name, according to legend, in the 10th year of the He Lv emperor’s reign in the state of Wu (505 BC), which destroyed the state of Qi, a Qi princess, who was married off to the prince of Wu, missed her home so much that she wept day and night and fell ill. The king had the gate built facing toward Qi and gave it the name “Looking-at-the-State of Qi Gate”. He had the gate tower built so the princess could gaze at Qi.

In another legend, the state of Wu was powerful and prosperous, while state of Qi was weak. The aged Jing emperor of Qi feared the emperor of Wu and married his daughter off to the prince of Wu. When the prince died young, the Qi princess was homesick, so, the Wu emperor ordered that a nine-story tower be built on the Qi Gate, so the Qi princess could look homeward, hence the name.

Archaeologists have discovered that the Qi Gate had walls, or rather battlements, as a part of the city wall. There were other defensive walls among them. The gate had three sections, the inner one of which had a water gate in the western part. The gate had a two-story tower, popularly known as the drum tower. It was defended by an inner and outer moat. The battlements were 20-30 meters apart from each other. Because the gate had three sections, the road connecting them snaked about, causing difficulties for the movement of traffic. In the early 1960s, the gate tower was dismantled and in 1978, the water gate was removed.