Murphy attracted the attention of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek and was hired in 1928 to design a modern capital for China in the ancient city of Nanjing. One of his more notable proposals was to save the wall around the city as a concourse. Murphy designed other Chinese buildings such as the Memorial Hall for Revolutionary Martyrs on Purple Mountain over Nanjing. Chiang Kai-shek was not Murphy's only connection to China. Murphy also designed a small Chinese village of eight homes in Coral Gables, Florida, as well as the Chinese Nationality Room in the Cathedral of Learning