One of the main features of Qingshanguan is the watergate located east of the fortress town and used as the main entrance today.

Presumably the gate used to have a one ton bronze floodgate. It could be closed to store water and opened to wash away any invading troops.

It is believed that the bronze gate was washed away in a flood in the 13th year of the Qing Emperor Guangxu (1871 – 1908).

The fortress of the Qingshan Pass have recently been rebuilt and now welcomes tourists. Furthermore a small hotel and restaurant have been build.

Many of the houses from the old fortress have been carefully rebuild and gives a good impression on how life might have been many years ago during the Ming Dynasty.

The roads are narrow and many of the houses is now used for various things to help the tourists like police station and small shops.

Apparently some of the houses can also be used for accommodation for tourists visiting this remote location far away from the the pulsating life in Beijing.

Like the rest of the Qingshanguan the fortress is also full of trees and small bushes which gives the whole area a very relaxed feeling and provides a welcomed shadow from the hot Chinese summer.

The fortress wall consist of a north and south (seen above) gate and the wall is connected to the Great Wall. So far no repair have been made on the wall so only the houses have been rebuild.

After admiring the pictures of Qingshanguan in the book Hebei – The Great Wall Legacy I finally decided to go there myself to have a look and see if it’s really as beautiful as the pictures suggest.

Arriving at Qingshanguan (青山关, qīngshānguān) it’s clear how the place got its name meaning green mountain pass – it’s surely one of the most green places I’ve ever visited the Great Wall and the whole area is like one big garden.

Qingshanguan is located in the north-eastern part of Tangshan in the Hebei province. The roads in this area are extremely bad so it’s a bumpy ride to get there but it’s surly worth the trouble of getting there.

From the Jingshen expressway either follow S262 towards Qianxi (迁西) and then follow the signs towards Qingshanguan or follow S252 north towards Qian’an (迁安) and continue all the way to Qinglong (青龙) and then follow S251 west for about 35 kilometres and then go south over the mountain to Qingshanguan. The latter of the two suggestions is much longer than the first but the condition of the road is far better, probably making it just as fast and a much more enjoyable ride.

The Great Wall at Qingshanguan was first build during the reign for the first Ming Emperor, Hongwu, from 1368 to 1398. Later the wall was renovated and reinforced by the famous General Qi Jiguang (1528 – 1588) well-known for his reinforcement of the Great Wall in eastern China.

From the restored fortress of Qingshanguan the wall rises steeply to the north and south.

The Wall here is an interesting mix of both stone and brick wall, and while stone walls seems to dominate the south ridge, brick walls is the most dominating type of the north ridge.

Entering is the wall is a bit complicated because the lack of good signs. One option is to enter from the fortress where signs show the way to the wall, however this seems illogical when first arriving at Qingshanguan and the best way is probably to climb a small path on some rocks north of the watergate but no signs show that this is an actual possibility. Judging by the conservations among other visitors we were not the only ones having problems finding the way up to the wall.

Once at the wall it’s possible to walk for about 1 kilometre before the wall becomes really steep. Since we spend a lot of time searching for the entrance to the wall we decided to turn back here, leaving us enough time to explore the restored fortress as well, however I’ll surely return one day to make an attempt to reach the top at Qingshanguan.

As many other places away from Beijing the amount of tourists here is very limited so it’s possible to be more or less alone on the wall at Qingshanguan.

Entrance price: 30 RMB

Date of visit: June 9, 2008