The Great Wall China

The Great Wall

Stretching from Shanhaiguan, by the Yellow Sea, to Jiayuguan Pass in the Gobi Desert, the Great Wall is an astonishing feat of engineering. The practice of building walls along China’s northern frontier began in the fifth century BC and continued until the sixteenth century. Over time, this discontinuous array of fortifications and ramparts came to be known as Wan Li Changcheng (literally, “Long Wall of Ten Thousand Li”, li being a Chinese measure of distance roughly equal to 500m), or “the Great Wall” to English-speakers. Even the most-visited section at Badaling, constantly overrun by Chinese and foreign tourists, is still easily one of China’s most spectacular sights. The section at Mutianyu is somewhat less crowded; distant Simatai and Jinshanling are much less so, and far more beautiful. To see the wall in all its crumbly glory, head out to Huanghua.

Hebei Province boasts for having the longest, the best preserved and the highest architectural quality of the Great Wall in China. The walls of the Warring States, Qin, Han, Northern Wei, Northern Qi, Jin and Ming Dynasties are well preserved here. The wall of the Ming Dynasty, with more than 200 passes, zigzags over 1,243 miles through Hebei Province. Dozens of essential sections are famous to the world, such as the Laolongtou, Jiaoshan, Shanhaiguan Pass, Xifengkou Gateway, Zijingguan Pass and many others.

Shanhaiguan Pass holds the strategic route from north China to north-east China. Jiaoshan Mountain is the first mountain the Great Wall climbs in Hebei Province. The Laolongtou is the section where the wall meets the sea, thus it is compared to the head of this giant dragon. Xifengkou Gateway, now submerged by the construction of Panjiakou Reservoir, likewise possessed a strategically important position in history as did Zijingguan Pass where many famous battles took place. 

Beijing - the capital since the Ming Dynasty - is surrounded by Hebei. The engineers of the section of the Great Wall in this area were very selective in constructional materials and paid a great deal of attention to the wall's quality. You cannot taste the majesty and might of the wall until you come to Hebei Province. 
Great Wall in Zhangjiakou City is the highlight of the Great Wall in Hebei Province. Located in the northwestern part of the province, Zhangjiakou City is a famous historical city, a military town and a treaty port in the northern frontier. During a long period of time, it is the frontier location where the nomad civilization meets farming culture. According to the data, over 50 famous wars and historical events have taken place in Zhangjiakou City. At present, there are about 200 sites of ancient battlefields, fortresses, castles and army's offices.

Dajing Gate: It was built to hold the northern gate of the capital. It is the important line of communication between the frontier area and the inner land. It is one of the most famous passes along the Great Wall. In the past, at the interval of every 200 to 300 meters, there was a vigorous beacon tower. Today, the simple and massive gate is still the important road leading to the northern part of China. In order to protect it, Zhangjiakou City Government has made full restoration and comprehensive development to it. At present it is the provincial cultural relic protection unit and a hot summer scenic resort. In the peaceful atmosphere, the gate opens widely to welcome more business relations with various countries and districts.

Dushikou Fortress: translated as Single Stone Fortress, it is the most northern pass of Great Wall in Xuanfu Prefecture in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Located to the north of Chicheng County, it is named after a big rock standing before the pass. It is the turning point where the outer Ming Great Wall changes the direction from northwest to southeast and also one of the most dangerous passes in that time.

Brief history

The Chinese have walled their cities since earliest times and during the Warring States period (around the fifth century BC) simply extended the practice to separate rival territories. The Great Wall’s origins lie in these fractured lines of fortifications and in the vision of the first Emperor Qin Shi Huang who, having unified the empire in the third century BC, joined and extended the sections to form one continuous defence against barbarians.

Under subsequent dynasties, whenever insularity rather than engagement drove foreign policy, the wall continued to be maintained and, in response to shifting regional threats, grew and changed course. It lost importance under the Tang, when borders were extended north, well beyond it. The Tang was in any case an outward-looking dynasty that kept the barbarians in check far more cheaply by fostering trade and internal divisions. With the emergence of the insular Ming, however, the wall’s upkeep again became a priority, and from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century military, technicians worked on its reconstruction. The Ming wall is the one that you see today.

The 7m-high, 7m-thick wall, with its 25,000 battlements, served to bolster Ming sovereignty for a couple of centuries. It restricted the movement of the nomadic peoples of the distant, non-Han minority regions, preventing plundering raids. Signals made by gunpowder blasts, flags and smoke swiftly sent news of enemy movements to the capital. In the late sixteenth century, a couple of huge Mongol invasions were repelled, at Jinshanling and Badaling. But a wall is only as strong as its guards, and by the seventeenth century the Ming royal house was corrupt and its armies weak; the wall was little hindrance to the invading Manchus. After they had established their own dynasty, the Qing, they let the wall fall into disrepair. Slowly it crumbled away, useful only as a source of building material – demolitions of old hutongs in Beijing have turned up bricks from the wall, marked with the imperial seal.

Now this great monument to state paranoia is great business – the restored sections are besieged daily by rampaging hordes of tourists – and is touted by the government as a source of national pride. Its image adorns all manner of products, from wine to cigarettes, and is even used – surely rather inappropriately – on visa stickers.