The Stone City is also called Ghost-Face City. On the remains of the Jinling City built by Emperor Wei of Chu State in 333 BC at a place 500 meters west of the Qingliang Mountain, there was a red rock around 6 meters long and 3 meters wide, like a fierce-looking face with a nose and eyes, which was called “Ghost Face” therefrom. During the Three-Kindom period, Sunquan of East Wu State built a city on what was formerly the Jinling City in 212 AD in order to control the safety of Jiankang (former name of Nanjing), and the city was name as Stone City.

In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang consolidated and fixed the Stone City when expanding the city walls of Nanjing. The Stone City, surrounded by mountains and rivers, was strategically locaed anddifficult of access, and has been renowned as a strategic location since ancient times.