Auxiliary walls at Baiyangyu

During my last visit to Baiyangyu I noticed what seems to be the remnant of a beacon tower located very close to the main wall.

To me is it seemed like a strange place to pit the beacon tower, since a small mountain is located very close to the wall, from where it would be easy to see the light from the fire far way.

It made me wonder if this was part of an older wall, since part of another wall can be seen north of the main wall. Furthermore the base for the tower doesn’t look like what can be found on the watch towers, which might indicate that the beacon tower is older that the wall itself.

The Baiyangyu Great Wall was first build during the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577) and was only three meters in width at that time. Later it was reinforced by Qi Jiguang during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the width was increased to 5-6 meters. The main wall located close to the pass was build with bricks, while parts located far away from the pass was build by piling up rocks, as can be seen in the section called Marble Great Wall.

These extra walls are also build by piling up rocks, as well as other walls further down the mountain. However the walls in the valley are clearly made to protect the sparse farmland and to stop the flow of water down the ravine.

According to one of the very few sources regarding the Great Wall in Hebei province these walls close to the main wall was build at the same time as the Great Wall but it doesn’t say exactly when, so it’s unclear if it is Ming Dynasty or not. The auxiliary walls are made of stones from top to bottom and was used to strengthen the defence of the main wall.

Apart from the wall there also seems to be a trench running along the wall from east to west which more or less follow the main wall and the auxiliary walls. Traces of similar layout can be found at nearby Liujiakou.

In the main wall close to the beacon tower there is a small gate trough the wall probably to facilitate access to the beacon tower just outside the wall, although it might seem a bit strange to weaken the defence by installing a gate here.