In the weekend I went back to The Baiyangyu Great Wall located in the north-western part of the Tangshan area in Hebei province. It was the third time I visited this section but first time for my wife – she have heard me praise this section many times so she wanted to see if it’s really so great.
We choose the easy way up to avoid the steep mountain in order to have more time on the Great Wall. However for first time visitors of Baiyangyu it is recommended to hike from the small town of Baiyangyu to see the magnificent view from the top of the mountain and try to climb the steep wall at this point.
From the top of the wall there is a beautiful view of the valley to the south and in the mountains to the north the Great Wall can be seen winding its way over the mountaintops like a giant dragon.
Baiyangyu is also known as the Marble Great Wall because of the use of natural occurring white rocks to build part of the Great Wall in this area. After entering the wall it’s about 2 kilometres hike to the beginning of the Marble Great Wall.
Some places the wall is in really bad condition and part of the wall have collapse leaving only part of the wall intact. Especially the Marble Great Wall is in bad condition because of the lower quality of the wall owing to the building material.
Close to the Marble Great Wall several bricks bearing the mark 中 (zhong, meaning middle) can be found. Similar bricks can be seen at Liujiakou not so far away.
The markings refer to the production of the bricks and several other examples can be found on other sections of the Great Wall.
The first two times I visited Baiyangyu I didn’t continue at the steep mountain at the Marble section, but this time I wanted to go to the top. Seen from the road the mountain looks steep, but the main problem is the rocky surface that makes it difficult to climb and even more difficult to descent.
Because of the difficulty of the climb the mountain is not recommend for beginners or people with less experience. Once at the top the view is magnificent and the wall can be seen winding is way to east and west.
On the west side the Marble Great Wall continues for a few kilometres before it again resume its normal stone/brick configuration. The wall seems to be in fairly good condition here and can be accessed by road by continuing from Baiyangyu village. I hope to be able to go back to Baiyangyu one day to make an attempt to climb to the top of this part of the wall. It looks rather steep in the beginning, but once at the top is seems to be fairly level.
The top of the mountain houses a small watch tower not similar to the other watch towers seen at Baiyangyu. However only half remains of some of the watch towers so it’s difficult to see how big these originally were.
To get to Baiyangyu take the Jingshen (Beijing-Shenyang) express way and exit towards Qian’an (迁安) and then follow S252 towards Qinglong (青龙). At Jianchangyingzhen (建昌营镇) continue on the road for a short time and then follow the sign towards Baiyangyu (白羊峪). It’s possible to enter the the wall two places, either at a small site after the first mountain (clearly visible with a traditional Chinese gate at the roadside) or it’s possible to follow the road all the way to the Baiyangyu village and enter the wall from here.
Entrance price: 20 RMB
Date of visit: April 27, 2008
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